Effects of concentrated beetroot juice consumption on glycemic control, blood pressure, and lipid profile in type 2 diabetes patients: randomized clinical trial study

BACKGROUND: While the prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is growing worldwide, dietary intake plays a remarkable role in the management of disease complications. Evidence suggests that beetroot has health-promoting potentials, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antidiabetic properties. Therefore, the present clinical trial aimed to investigate the effects of concentrated beetroot juice (BJ) supplementation on anthropometric measures, glycemic control, blood pressure (BP), and lipid profile in T2D patients. METHODS: In the simply randomized, parallel-group, controlled, and open-label trial, forty-six patients with T2D were randomly allocated to either the intervention group (BJ group), who consumed 24 ml concentrated BJ daily for 12 weeks, or the control group without any intervention. Anthropometric measurements, physical activity, dietary intakes, glycemic measures, lipid profile, and blood pressure were assessed at the baseline and the end of the study. RESULTS: Plasma nitric oxide (NO) in the intervention group had a higher nonsignificant increase after 12 weeks compared with the control group (8.57 ± 23.93 vs. 2.31 ± 15.98, P = 0.128). Compared with the baseline, significant reductions in plasma insulin (14.55 ± 7.85 vs. 10.62 ± 6.96, P = 0.014) and homeostasis model assessment of β-cell function (HOMA-B) (3.96 ± 0.83 vs. 3.63 ± 0.75, P = 0.038), as well as a marginally significant reduction in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (70.81 ± 11.24 vs. 65.44 ± 6.46, P = 0.058) were observed in the control group after 12 weeks. Diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was significantly reduced in the BJ group compared with the baseline (74.73 ± 16.78 vs. 72.36 ± 16.09, P = 0.046). After adjusting for baseline values, no significant effect on the levels of fasting plasma glucose (FPG), insulin, hemoglobin A1c (HgA1c), HOMA-β, homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), HDL, triglycerides (TG), and blood pressure (BP) was observed. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that daily consumption of 24 ml concentrated BJ did not affect the levels of glycemic measures, blood pressure, and lipid profile. More studies are necessary to confirm these findings. TRIAL REGISTRATION: This present clinical trial has been registered in the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials with registration number IRCT20150815023617N5.