Short-term effects of a moderate fish oil or soybean oil supplementation on postprandial glucose and insulin responses in healthy horses.

This research aims to investigate the impact of fish oil or soybean oil supplementation on glucose and insulin responses after meals in horses. The results demonstrate that feeding horses a diet supplemented with fish oil or soybean oil doesn’t significantly affect their glucose and insulin responses after consuming a starchy meal.

Study Design and Methods

This study utilized a sample of four horses and devised three different diet plans for them:

• Cracked Corn (CC) diet
• Cracked Corn with Soybean Oil (CC+SBO) diet
• Cracked Corn with Fish Oil (CC+FO) diet

The researchers adjusted each of these diets so that the horses had a starch intake of 2 grams per kilogram of bodyweight (BW) and a fat intake (from fish oil or soybean oil) of 0.2 milliliters per kilogram of BW.

Measurements and Findings

The investigators monitored the mean glucose concentrations, insulin concentrations, peak values, and the areas under the curve (the total amount of glucose or insulin in the body over time) in these diets. The observations indicated statistically similar values for all three types of diets. This suggested that the addition of fish oil or soybean oil in the diet didn’t significantly affect the horses’ glucose or insulin responses.

Implications and Recommendations

The findings from the study suggest that supplementing a horse’s diet with fats such as fish oil or soybean oil doesn’t lower the glucose or insulin responses after a starchy meal. It implies that such supplementation might not be an effective strategy to control glucose and insulin levels in horses’ bodies post consumption of starch-rich meals.

The researchers, therefore, recommend focusing on decreasing the starch intake in horses’ diet, rather than incorporating fat additives, to avoid high postprandial (after meal) glucose and insulin responses. These responses are crucial as they may impact a horse’s metabolic health and potentially lead to diseases like equine metabolic syndrome.