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CompletedNCT04616066Updated Oct 4, 2022

Date Fruit Effects in Type 2 Diabetes

An interventional study of Dates and Raisins in Type2 Diabetes, sponsored by Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - Medical University of Bahrain. Completed at 1 site in Bahrain. Open to participants aged 45 Years to 75 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-10-04.

Sponsored by Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - Medical University of Bahrain · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
79
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
45 Years to 75 Years
Sex
All
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Study summary

Dried dates (Phoenix dactylifera) have the second highest phytoestrogen content of any fruit, only secondary to dried apricots with 329ug of phytoestrogens per 100g. The date palm is one of oldest planted trees on the earth at around 2,000 years old. Dates are nutritionally rich and a good source of fiber and carbohydrates and their potential medicinal and nutritional effects have been suggested in a number of studies. Date sugars have also been shown to be phenol rich, potent antioxidant, and strong inhibitor of α -glycosidase that may also have benefit in diabetes. In addition, dates are rich in micronutrients that may also have benefit for diabetes and insulin resistance . Dates have a glycemic index of 50 and studies have shown that the consumption of differing varieties of dates do not significantly affect the acute glycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes.

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of date phytoestrogens on HbA1C and fasting blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes in comparison to the same glycemic load of raisins that have low phytoestrogen content.

Read the detailed description

Production and consumption of soy foods within Western countries have increased dramatically in the last decade with the postulated health benefits including improvement in bone health, relief of menopausal symptoms and reduced risk of certain types of cancers due to the soy phytoestrogens. In addition, habitual intake of soy phytoestrogens has also been associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is of particular relevance given the increasing global prevalence of diabetes. This is a particular problem here in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, where diabetes is considered as a serious and increasing health problem. According to the International Diabetes Federation the prevalence of diabetes in the MENA region is over 23.3%; however worldwide there is an epidemic increase in type 2 diabetes with the WHO report that approximately 415 million people have diabetes worldwide, and that by 2030, diabetes will be the 7th leading cause of death.

Dried dates (Phoenix dactylifera) have the second highest phytoestrogen content of any fruit, only secondary to dried apricots with 329ug of phytoestrogens per 100g. The date palm is one of oldest planted trees on the earth at around 2,000 years old. Dates are nutritionally rich and a good source of fiber and carbohydrates and their potential medicinal and nutritional effects have been suggested in a number of studies. Date sugars have also been shown to be phenol rich, potent antioxidant, and strong inhibitor of α -glycosidase that may also have benefit in diabetes. In addition, dates are rich in micronutrients that may also have benefit for diabetes and insulin resistance. Dates have a glycemic index of 50 and studies have shown that the consumption of differing varieties of dates do not significantly affect the acute glycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes.

There has not been a medium term study of the effect of date fruit in diabetes; therefore, this study will determine if the consumption Khalas dates (3 dates =30g undried dates) twice daily (phytoestrogen content 329ug/100g), in accord with that advised in the Holy Qur'an, will improve the glycemic control in men with type 2 diabetes, in comparison with the equivalent glycemic load of raisins (30g twice daily, phytoestrogen content of 9.6ug/100g). Each intervention will be taken as a snack mid-morning and mid-afternoon.

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Conditions studied

  • Type2 Diabetes

Keywords

  • Type2 diabetes
  • Dates
  • Phytoestrogen
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In context

Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2

10,371 studies on the registry are indexed under Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; 1,406 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 79 is close to the median of 80 across 8,350 interventional studies indexed under Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2.

Browse Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 studies →

Lead sponsor

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - Medical University of Bahrain is the lead sponsor of 11 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
45 Years to 75 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • The diagnosis of type 2 diabetes will be based on the WHO guidelines. An of 6.5% or greater, or 2 fasting plasma glucose readings of >7.0mmoll-1 or 2 random plasma glucose readings >11mmoll-1 in the absence of symptoms or concurrent illness or medication which might lead to hyperglycaemia (e.g. thiazide diuretics). Or one reading meets the diagnostic level with the presence of symptoms of polyuria, polydipsia, nocturia, fatigue or blurring of vision. The final diagnostic method of diagnosis type 2 diabetes is a positive oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) using a 75g glucose load. If doubt exists on the diagnosis of diabetes an OGTT will be performed.
  • Patients will be on stable medication for their diabetes, hypertension, lipids and gout (if appropriate) for 3 months prior to entry into the study.
  • HbA1c 7.5 - 10%
  • Patients between the ages of 45-75 years at the start of the study.
  • Capable to give and complete the study.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with concurrent illness or any medication in the last 3 months.
  • Patients who are taking hormone replacement therapy.
  • Patients who are currently or have taken antibiotics in the last 3 months.
  • Currently enrolled in other clinical trials.
  • at recruiting stage of more than 10%.
  • Patients with a less than 20 and more than 40.
  • Patients with known food allergies.
  • Patients on insulin.
  • Patients who are eating dates or raisins should be washed out for 4 weeks.
  • Pregnant or nursing, or plans to become pregnant in the next 3 months, or not using adequate measures.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(4)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

HbA1c

A blood test of average blood sugar over the past two to three months, given as a percentage or in mmol/mol. 6.5% (48 mmol/mol) or more is the usual threshold for diabetes, normally confirmed by a second test.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

BMI (body mass index)

Weight in kilograms divided by height in metres squared. Example: 70 kg and 1.75 m gives 70 ÷ (1.75 × 1.75) ≈ 22.9.

What counts as overweight or obesity differs between countries (some use lower cut-offs), so go by the range the study states.

Contraception

Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.

Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
79 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Dates Arm

    Consumption of Khalas dates (3 dates =30g undried dates) twice daily (phytoestrogen content 329ug/100g)

    Other: Dates

  • Experimental
    Raisins Arm

    Consumption of Raisins (30g twice daily, phytoestrogen content of 9.6ug/100g)

    Other: Raisins

Interventions

  • OtherDates

    The effect of date phytoestrogens on HbA1C and fasting blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes

  • OtherRaisins

    The effect of raisins phytoestrogens on HbA1C and fasting blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. The effect of phytoestrogens on HbA1C and fasting blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes

    Measuring the levels of phytoestrogen and evaluate if it has reduced the average blood sugar levels over a period of 3 months.

    Time frame: 90 days

Secondary outcomes

  1. Determine whether date phytoestrogens affect cardiovascular risk

    Determine whether the level of phytoestrogens has lowered risks of cardiovascular disease by measuring the fasting lipids, C reactive protein and blood pressure.

    Time frame: 90 days

  2. Determine whether date phytoestrogens affect insulin resistance

    Homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) is a method for assessing β-cell function and insulin resistance (IR) from basal (fasting) glucose and insulin or C-peptide concentrations.

    Time frame: 90 days

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - Bahrain
    Manama, Bahrain
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References and documents

Publications

  • Xiao CW. Health effects of soy protein and isoflavones in humans. J Nutr. 2008 Jun;138(6):1244S-9S. doi: 10.1093/jn/138.6.1244S. PubMed 18492864 ↗
  • Jayagopal V, Albertazzi P, Kilpatrick ES, Howarth EM, Jennings PE, Hepburn DA, Atkin SL. Beneficial effects of soy phytoestrogen intake in postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2002 Oct;25(10):1709-14. doi: 10.2337/diacare.25.10.1709. PubMed 12351466 ↗
  • Xu SZ, Zeng B, Daskoulidou N, Chen GL, Atkin SL, Lukhele B. Activation of TRPC cationic channels by mercurial compounds confers the cytotoxicity of mercury exposure. Toxicol Sci. 2012 Jan;125(1):56-68. doi: 10.1093/toxsci/kfr268. Epub 2011 Oct 9. PubMed 21984481 ↗
  • Thompson LU, Boucher BA, Liu Z, Cotterchio M, Kreiger N. Phytoestrogen content of foods consumed in Canada, including isoflavones, lignans, and coumestan. Nutr Cancer. 2006;54(2):184-201. doi: 10.1207/s15327914nc5402_5. PubMed 16898863 ↗
  • Vayalil PK. Date fruits (Phoenix dactylifera Linn): an emerging medicinal food. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2012;52(3):249-71. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2010.499824. PubMed 22214443 ↗
  • Hamad I, AbdElgawad H, Al Jaouni S, Zinta G, Asard H, Hassan S, Hegab M, Hagagy N, Selim S. Metabolic Analysis of Various Date Palm Fruit (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Cultivars from Saudi Arabia to Assess Their Nutritional Quality. Molecules. 2015 Jul 27;20(8):13620-41. doi: 10.3390/molecules200813620. PubMed 26225946 ↗
  • Alkaabi JM, Al-Dabbagh B, Ahmad S, Saadi HF, Gariballa S, Ghazali MA. Glycemic indices of five varieties of dates in healthy and diabetic subjects. Nutr J. 2011 May 28;10:59. doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-10-59. PubMed 21619670 ↗
  • Alkaabi J, Al-Dabbagh B, Saadi H, Gariballa S, Yasin J. Effect of traditional Arabic coffee consumption on the glycemic index of Khalas dates tested in healthy and diabetic subjects. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2013;22(4):565-73. doi: 10.6133/apjcn.2013.22.4.09. PubMed 24231017 ↗
  • Miller CJ, Dunn EV, Hashim IB. The glycaemic index of dates and date/yoghurt mixed meals. Are dates 'the candy that grows on trees'? Eur J Clin Nutr. 2003 Mar;57(3):427-30. doi: 10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601565. PubMed 12627179 ↗
  • Senn SJ. Covariate imbalance and random allocation in clinical trials. Stat Med. 1989 Apr;8(4):467-75. doi: 10.1002/sim.4780080410. PubMed 2727470 ↗
  • Senn S. Testing for baseline balance in clinical trials. Stat Med. 1994 Sep 15;13(17):1715-26. doi: 10.1002/sim.4780131703. PubMed 7997705 ↗
  • Knol MJ, Groenwold RH, Grobbee DE. P-values in baseline tables of randomised controlled trials are inappropriate but still common in high impact journals. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2012 Apr;19(2):231-2. doi: 10.1177/1741826711421688. No abstract available. PubMed 22512015 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: Yes — Monitoring, audits, and REC review will be permitted and provide direct access to source data and documents. The Lead PI and the researchers assigned by him will have access to the stored data/specimens. Only the Lead PI and the researchers assigned working on this study will be eligible to obtain the data/specimens from the participants during data collection.

Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Clinical study report, Analytic code

Time frame: Dr Naji will act as the data custodian and is responsible for the storage, handling and quality of the study data. Data will be collected in the case report form to allow for cross referencing to check validity. Study documents (paper and electronic) will be retained in a secure (kept locked when not in use) location during and after the trial has finished. All essential documents including source documents will be retained for a period of 3 years after study completion (last patient, last study point). A label stating the date after which the documents can be destroyed will be placed on the inside front cover of the case notes of trial participants.

Access criteria: Study documents (paper and electronic) will be retained in a secure (kept locked when not in use) location during and after the trial has finished.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Oct 4, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04616066
Lead sponsor
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - Medical University of Bahrain
Collaborators
King Hamad University Hospital, Bahrain
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Nov 4, 2020
Start date
Oct 10, 2021
Primary completion
Apr 30, 2022
Completion
May 30, 2022
Last update
Oct 4, 2022

Study contacts

Naji Alamuddin, Dr.
principal investigator · Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - Bahrain

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Oct 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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