Research

Hormonal

Increasing alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) intake may increase fasting insulin levels by approximately 7%, but has little or no effect on other glucose metabolism markers.

If you are increasing your intake of alpha-linolenic acid (found in flaxseed, canola, and walnuts), be aware that it might slightly increase your fasting insulin levels. While the effect on blood sugar itself is negligible, this insulin change is worth monitoring if you have insulin resistance.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Increasing α-linolenic acid, omega-6, and total polyunsaturated fatty acids had little or no effect on glucose metabolism, except that increasing α-linolenic acid may increase fasting insulin by about 7%.
Tracey Brown et al. · BMJ · 2019

Why this rating

Based on 12 trials, with low quality evidence due to imprecision and risk of bias.

Source

Omega-3, omega-6, and total dietary polyunsaturated fat for prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Tracey Brown et al. · BMJ · 2019

DOI 10.1136/bmj.l4697

Meta-analysis · 83 studiesCited 315×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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