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Do patients with type 2 diabetes still need to eat snacks?

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 69, pages 755–756 (2015)Cite this article

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The size and frequency of meals are important elements of nutrition, with considerable effects on the human health. A hypocaloric diet is a key component in both prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes and it is usually apportioned into three main meals and two or three snacks in between.

Eating snacks is often advocated as a means of controlling body weight and glycaemic control, but studies endorsing this practice are lacking. In fact, it has been demonstrated that snacking leads to weight gain1 and increased risk of type 2 diabetes.2, 3 Snacking encourages higher energy intake by increasing food stimuli,4 hunger and the desire to eat,5 which is absolutely counterproductive to the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the project grant IGA MZCR NT/14250-3 from Ministry of Health, Prague, Czech Republic and Institutional Support MZCR 00023001 (IKEM, Prague, Czech Republic).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Diabetes Centre, Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic

    H Kahleova, L Belinova & T Pelikanova

  2. Department of Steroid Hormones and Proteohormones, Institute of Endocrinology, Prague, Czech Republic

    M Hill

Authors
  1. H Kahleova
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  2. L Belinova
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  3. M Hill
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  4. T Pelikanova
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Correspondence to H Kahleova.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Supplementary Information accompanies this paper on European Journal of Clinical Nutrition website

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Kahleova, H., Belinova, L., Hill, M. et al. Do patients with type 2 diabetes still need to eat snacks?. Eur J Clin Nutr 69, 755–756 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.46

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