Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
How diet affects blood sugar and fat in lean and obese cats
By Godfrey, Hannah et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2026·Department of Biomedical Sciences, Canada·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Circulating lipid profiles and post-prandial glucose and insulin in response to dietary macronutrient composition in lean and obese cats.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A study involving 18 male neutered cats, both lean and obese, looked at how different diets affected their blood sugar and insulin levels after eating. The cats were fed three types of dry food with varying amounts of protein, fat, and carbohydrates for 28 days. It was found that the diet lower in protein led to lower insulin levels after meals, while the low-fat diet resulted in lower cholesterol levels. Overall, the results suggest that the type of food cats eat can influence their insulin response, which is important for their metabolic health.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Insulin response to a meal is crucial for metabolic health in cats, influencing the risk of metabolic disorders. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: Investigate dietary macronutrient compositions on fasted and post-prandial insulin and glucose responses, and lipid profiles, in lean and obese cats. ANIMALS: Nine lean and 9 obese, male neutered colony cats. METHODS: Cats were fed 3 extruded dry diets: low protein (LP: 28% protein, 40% fat, and 32% nitrogen-free extract [NFE]), low fat (LF: 40% protein, 30% fat, and 30% NFE), and low carbohydrate (LC: 36% protein, 41% fat, and 23% NFE) for 28 days using a 3 × 3 Latin square design. Fasted and post-prandial blood samples were collected to measure serum insulin and whole blood glucose concentrations, and fasted samples were analyzed for serum cholesterol, triacylglycerol (TAG), nonesterified fatty acid (NEFA), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c) concentrations at the end of each period. RESULTS: No differences were found in serum insulin, glucose, cholesterol, NEFA, TAG, HDL-c, LDL-c, or VLDL concentrations between lean and obese cats (P > .05) suggesting dyslipidemia was not present in the obese cats. The LP diet resulted in lower post-prandial insulin concentrations compared with the LC and LF diets (P = .01) which was attributed to lower protein intake with the LP diet. As expected, the LF diet led to lower fasted serum cholesterol and LDL-c concentrations compared with the LP and LC diets (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: These findings document the metabolic flexibility of cats and suggest that dietary macronutrient composition, particularly protein content, plays an important role in modulating insulin responses in adult, otherwise healthy, cats.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41742583/