Green tea-dependent benefit of intermittent fasting in metabolic disease

Abstract

Abstract Although intermittent fasting is considered an efficacious strategy in type 2 diabetes, it is widely recognised that many patients do not benefit. The success determinants of intermittent fasting for improving diabetes remain obscure at best. Thus prompted, we analysed a cohort of type 2 diabetes patients (n = 36) submitting themselves to intermittent fasting for religious reasons (Ramadan). In approximately half of this cohort, metabolic parameters improved (livers enzymes, haemoglobin 1Ac and blood pressure; n = 19), but not in the other half (n = 17), allowing analysis of success determinants. Only green tea consumption is identified as an important factor in promoting the success of intermittent fasting with respect to improving metabolism (p = 0.0068), whereas no other factor reached significance including overall fluid consumption (p = 0.832). Intriguingly, green tea consumption in conjunction with intermittent fasting was also associated with remodelling of the faecal microbiome. The association of metabolic benefits of intermittent fasting with green tea consumption and microbiome was repeated in a different cohort (n = 33). We thus propose that success of intermittent fasting in type 2 diabetes is critically dependent on a green tea-mediated change in the gut microbiome.