Background

Lifestyle intervention studies to treat type 2 diabetes (T2D) are on the rise. However, in-depth research is lacking into the dietary changes that participants make.

Methods

The present study aimed to observe the dietary intake of participants following the group program ‘Reverse Diabetes2 Now’ (RD2N) over 12 months. The web-based 24-h dietary recall-tool Compl-eat was used to collect dietary intake data.

Results

In total, 147 T2D patients were included in a cross-sectional study (n = 37 at baseline, n = 58 at 6 months, n = 52 at 12 months). A lower intake of total energy, carbohydrates and iodine was found for the groups at 6 and 12 months compared to the baseline group. The absolute consumption of total fat and saturated fat did not differ between the groups; only the percentage as total calorie consumption decreased. Consumption of vegetables and full-fat yoghurt was higher in groups at 6 and 12 months compared to the group at baseline. Consumption of bread, cakes and sweet biscuits, pasta/rice/tortillas, artificially sweetened soft drinks, and crisps were lower in the groups at 6 and 12 months compared to the group at baseline. Similar results were observed in a separate prospective study in 22 participants over 12 months following the same lifestyle-intervention.

Conclusions

Overall, participants shifted their dietary intake somewhat towards a healthier dietary pattern with overall lower energy and carbohydrates and more vegetables. Moreover, participants largely maintained this healthier pattern over 12 months. There were some concerns regarding iodine intake. These promising results need to be confirmed in a fully-scaled study, as well in a comparison with controls.