Extra virgin olive oil improves post-prandial glycemic and lipid profile in patients with impaired fasting glucose

Summary Background & aims Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) improves post-prandial glycaemia in healthy subjects but it has never been investigated if this can be detected in pre-diabetic patients. We investigated if EVOO affects post-prandial glucose and lipid profile in patients with impaired fasting glucose (IFG). Methods Thirty IFG patients were randomly allocated to a meal containing or not 10 g of EVOO in a cross-over design. Before, 60 min and 120 min after lunch a blood sample was taken to measure glucose, insulin, Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP1), dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 (DPP4) activity, triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and Apo B-48. Results The meal containing EVOO was associated with a reduction of glucose (p = 0.009) and DPP4 activity (p  Conclusions This is the first study to show that in IFG patients EVOO improves post-prandial glucose and lipid profile with a mechanism probably related to incretin up-regulation.