Diet composition of CMNT is a multicomponent Chinese medicinal food, which mainly enriched with whole grains and edible medicine and food homologous (MFH) plants such as Rhizoma Dioscoreae, Momordica Grosvenori, Folium Mori, Radix Puerariae, Fructus lycii, Poria cocos that meets the requirements of a food for special medical purpose. The CMNT group was instructed to consumed the provided CMNT diet consisting of 6 cycles of 5 consecutive days followed by 10 days of ad libitum food consumption. Participants received a 917 kcal/day preprepared human CMNT diet (44.75% carbohydrate, 9.1% protein and 46.15% fat) for 5 consecutive days per cycle. CMNT diet is composed of four ready-to-consume prepared foods including composite nutritional rice, solids beverages, meal replacement biscuit and fruit and vegetable gruel mainly from wholegrains and traditional Chinese medicinal food plants. The intervention lasted for 3 months (6 cycles) and follow-up measurements will be performed in all subjects after 3-months from end of the intervention. The glucose-lowering medication use of participants strictly implemented by their physician according to the diabetes medications management protocol. Treatment-as-usual control group continued to be given standard medication and dietary advice by their physician followed guidelines for the prevention and control of T2D in China.
Type 2 diabetes (T2D) represents a serious public health problem. Patients with T2D and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD) demonstrate a poor metabolic profile and increase mortality compared with patients with only NAFLD or T2D. Nutritional intervention is the most basic treatment for T2D. Previous study showed that a Chinese medical nutrition therapy (CMNT) diet, which intermittent use of low-calorie medicinal food, has a glucose-lowering effect in T2D. This study aims to investigate whether there is significant relationship between glucose-lowering effect of CMNT and reduction in intrahepatic fat in individuals with T2D and NAFLD.