Item	Authors’ judgement	Support for judgement
Adequate sequence generation?	Yes	The authors were interviewed by phone and advised that randomisation by a random table
Allocation concealment?	No	Not mentioned in the report. From the phone interview: not adequate allocation concealment
Blinding?	No	No placebo so probably not blinded.
Incomplete outcome data addressed?	Yes	All participant data reported, no withdrawals.
Free of selective reporting?	Unclear	No protocol provided. All expected and nominated outcomes appropriately reported.
Free of other bias?	Yes	None identified.

ADA: American Diabetes Association; AUC: area under the curve; BMI: body-mass index; FBG: fasting blood glucose; GTT: (oral) glucose tolerance test; HbA1c: glycosylated haemoglobin A1c; HDL: high-density cholesterol; IGT: impaired glucose tolerance; M/F: male / female; LDL: low-density cholesterol; TCM: Traditional Chinese Medicine; t.i.d.: three times daily