Palm oil, glutamine and blood sugar after metabolic surgery in people with diabetes
What it found
In 11 people with type 2 diabetes who had gut surgery, taking palm oil lowered blood sugar two hours later.
The same group also took glutamine on a separate day, which lowered their blood sugar too.
What they found
Studies in people
Blood sugar after palm oil
Average blood sugar fell from 112.4 mg/dL while fasting to 99.8 mg/dL two hours after taking 9 g of palm oil. The authors describe this drop as significant.
Gut hormones after palm oil
One gut hormone called PYY dropped significantly two hours after the palm oil. Another hormone, GLP-1, showed a small but significant fall one hour after the dose.
Blood sugar after glutamine
When nine patients drank glutamine on a different day, average blood sugar fell from 148.6 mg/dL while fasting to 133.5 mg/dL two hours later. The authors call this drop significant.
Gut hormones after glutamine
GLP-1 and PYY both rose in the first hour after glutamine, but the increases were small enough that they could have happened by chance.
What the authors conclude
- They suggest that palm oil and glutamine can influence gut hormones and blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes who have had metabolic surgery.
- They propose palm oil might be used as an option for blood sugar control in diabetic patients.
How it was done
Gut hormones help control blood sugar after meals. Palm oil and glutamine may raise these hormone levels and could help manage type 2 diabetes, especially after weight-loss surgery that reroutes the gut.
Eleven adults with type 2 diabetes who had already undergone gut-rerouting surgery fasted overnight. On one day they swallowed capsules containing 9 g of palm oil, and on another day nine of them drank 30 g of glutamine mixed in water. Blood was drawn while fasting, then one hour and two hours after each dose.
What it can’t tell you
- Only 11 people took part, and just nine completed the glutamine test, so the results may not apply more widely.
- Everyone had already had gut surgery, so scientists do not yet know if palm oil would lower blood sugar the same way in people without that operation.
- A study this small cannot show whether these changes last or improve health over time.
Who paid
- Conflicts
- Conflicts of interest: none
The paper
- Title
- Effect of the ingestion of the palm oil and glutamine in serum levels of GLP-1, PYY and glycemia in diabetes mellitus type 2 patients submitted to metabolic surgery
- Type
- Study
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Full text
- Cite
- Takeuti TD, Terra GA, da Silva AA, Terra JA, da Silva LM, Crema E (2014). Effect of the ingestion of the palm oil and glutamine in serum levels of GLP-1, PYY and glycemia in diabetes mellitus type 2 patients submitted to metabolic surgery. Arquivos brasileiros de cirurgia digestiva. doi:10.1590/s0102-6720201400s100013Free full textPubMed 25409967DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error