The effect of probiotic soy milk and soy milk on anthropometric measures and blood pressure in patients with type II diabetes mellitus: A randomized double-blind clinical trial

BACKGROUND: The objective of this clinical trial was to assess the effects of probiotic soy milk and soy milk on anthropometric measures and blood pressure (BP) in type 2 diabetic (T2D) patients. METHODS: A total of 40 patients with T2D, 35-68 years old, were assigned to two groups in this randomized, double-blind, controlled clinical trial. The patients in the intervention group consumed 200 ml/day of probiotic soy milk containing Lactobacillus planetarium A7 and those in control group consumed 200 ml/day of soy milk for 8 weeks. Anthropometric and BP measurements were performed according to standard protocols. For detecting within-group differences paired-sample t-tests was used and analysis of covariance was used for determining any differences between two groups. (The trial has been registered in the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials, identifier: IRCT: IRCT201405265062N8). RESULTS: In this study, we failed to find any significant changes between probiotic soy milk and soy milk in term of body mass index (26.65 +/- 0.68 vs. 26.33 +/- 0.74, P = 0.300) and waist to hip ratio (1.49 +/- 0.08 vs. 1.54 +/- 0.1, P = 0.170). Although soy milk did not have any effect on BP, probiotic soymilk significantly decreased systolic (14.7 +/- 0.48 vs. 13.05 +/- 0.16, P = 0.001) and diastolic BP (10 +/- 0.7 vs. 9.1 +/- 1, P = 0.031). CONCLUSION: In our study, probiotic soy milk in comparing with soy milk did not have any beneficial effects on anthropometric measures in these patients. We need more clinical trial for confirming the effect of probiotic foods on anthropometric measure in diabetic patients. However, probiotic soy milk decreased systolic and diastolic BP significantly.