American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol 57, 446-451, Copyright © 1993 by The American Society for Clinical Nutrition, Inc

ORIGINAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Effect of isoenergetic intake of three or nine meals on plasma lipoproteins and glucose metabolism

LM Arnold, MJ Ball, AW Duncan and J Mann
Department of Human Nutrition, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.

To investigate the effects of meal frequency on plasma lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, 19 healthy normocholesterolemic free-living men and women consumed their usual diet as three or nine meals per day in random order for 2 wk each. There was no significant difference in macronutrient intake. Compared with the three-meal/d diet, nine meals per day reduced fasting plasma total, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol by 6.5% (P < 0.005), 8.1% (P < 0.005), and 4.1% (P < 0.05), respectively. Body weight, fasting triglycerides, apolipoproteins A-I and B, and the LDL-HDL cholesterol ratios were not different for the two diets, as were 24-h urinary C peptide-creatinine ratios and insulin-glucose response to a glucose load. The insulin-glucose curve measured over 3 h in the evening after the evening meal was flatter for the nine meals, but the areas under the curves were not significantly different. Increasing meal frequency while maintaining a constant nutrient intake produces a small but significant decrease in LDL cholesterol in normolipidemic free-living subjects.

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