Background: Patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) have an elevated postprandial lipemia (PPL) that has been associated with increased cardiovascular risk.
Objective: We aimed to analyze whether the long-term consumption of 2 healthy dietary patterns is associated with an improvement in PPL and remnant cholesterol (RC) concentrations in patients with T2D.
Design: We selected patients from the Cordioprev study who underwent oral fat load tests (FLTs) at baseline and the 3-y follow-up (241 patients with and 316 patients without T2D). Subjects were randomly assigned to receive either a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil (MedDiet; 35% of calories from fat [22% monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs)] and 50% from carbohydrates) or a low-fat (LF) diet [<30% fat (12-14% MUFAs) and 55% of calories from carbohydrates]. Lipids were measured in serial bloods drawn at 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 h after the FLT.
Results: After 3 y of dietary intervention, patients with T2D showed an improvement in their PPL measured as postprandial triglycerides (TGs) (P < 0.0001), TG area under the curve (AUC) (P = 0.001), and TG-rich lipoproteins (TRLs-TG; P = 0.001) compared with baseline. Subgroup analysis, based on the type of dietary intervention, showed that those T2D patients randomly assigned to the MedDiet presented a reduction in the TG AUC of 17.3% compared with baseline (P = 0.003). However, there were no differences for T2D patients randomly assigned to the LF diet (P > 0.05) or in patients without T2D (P > 0.05) regardless of the dietary intervention. In addition, the MedDiet induced a significant improvement in the RC AUC in patients with T2D (P = 0.04). However, there was no significant improvement in those following the LF diet.
Conclusions: Our findings show that the long-term consumption of a MedDiet rich in olive oil improves PPL and RC concentrations mainly in patients with T2D. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00924937.