Abstract:

Aim: The Mediterranean diet, which is considered one of the healthiest diet models, and emotional appetite control are thought to facilitate diabetes management. In this study, it was aimed to examine the relationship between adherence to the Mediterranean diet, emotional appetite, and metabolic control parameters in Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. Subjects and Method: The study was conducted with 101 volunteer T2DM patients aged 19-64 years who were diagnosed at least one year ago. In addition to a questionnaire including demographic characteristics, health status, anthropometric measurements and disease-related biochemical parameters, Mediterranean Diet Compliance Scale, Emotional Appetite Questionnaire (EMAQ), and International Physical Activity Questionnaire were administered to the patients. p value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant for statistical tests. Results: The haemoglobin a1c (HbA1c) which is an indicator of metabolic control, fasting blood glucose and body mass index (BMI) levels of the patients with high adherence to the Mediterranean diet were found to be significantly lower than incompatible groups (p<0.05). Waist circumference of patients with high adherence to the Mediterranean diet was found to be lower than those with acceptable compliance (p<0.05). Emotional eating positive status mean and total positive score mean of male patients was higher than female patients (p<0.05). Positive correlations were found between EMAQ positive total score and HbA1c and fasting blood glucose, and again weak and moderate correlations were found between positive total scores and BMI (p<0.05). Conclusion: Emotional appetite, which develops in response to emotions and causes overeating, complicates body weight loss in T2DM patients and increases the risk of obesity. Therefore, emotional appetite status should be considered in individuals with T2DM, taking into account the psychological aspect of nutrition. In addition, positive effects on T2DM biomarkers and anthropometric measurements are observed with adherence to the Mediterranean diet. Therefore, adherence to the Mediterranean diet should be increased in the medical nutrition treatment of individuals with T2DM.

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