Fresh research: The best diet to control diabetes
By Bob Condor
The new Barton Publishing “How to Reverse Diabetes Naturally” rightfully devotes a significant number of pages to how your diet can control and even reverse this disease. It’s a report you don’t want to miss if diabetes is a health issue for you or a loved one. There are a number of achievable action steps you can take to control not only blood sugar but your quality of life.
And, happily, it’s not all deprivation and dull. Nothing even close.
Three new studies published in a recent issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine support just that point. In one paper, researchers found that low-fat diet doesn’t necessarily lead to a lower diabetes risk. But one caution: The fats in your diet need to be healthy—olive oil, salmon and nuts are examples—rather than overdo it on saturated fats and, worse, trans fats in processed foods.
Another study in the journal linked higher diabetes risk with lower consumption of vegetables and fruits. Don’t interpret the findings as a negative. What’s to be learned here is that eating more fresh veggies and fruits (some ideas: add frozen berries to your smoothies, spread peanut butter on celery stalks, try cherries/raisins/grapes in your salad, routinely add a whole vegetable to any soups that you make from scratch or the can) is a positive step. Aiming for a minimum five servings (basically equivalent to a half-cup per serving) and regularly hitting eight to nine servings can dramatically improve blood sugar regulation.
The third discovery from the same issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine makes it evident that a soda or, surprise, fruit juice habit might be setting you up for Type 2 diabetes.
Researchers are Boston University reviewed the food/drink consumption questionnaires of nearly 44,000 African American women. The questionnaires were filled out in 19
95, then again in 2001. The women who drank two or more sugar-sweetened soft drinks and even fruit juices (other than orange and grapefruit) were found to be at up to a third higher risk for diabetes than women who drank less than one soft drink/fruit juice per month. What put those women at greater risk is the soft drinks and juices appeared to be directly linked to obesity and extra weight.
The BU researchers did not find a diabetes link with diet sodas or orange/grapefruit juices. But before popping the top your fave sugar-free soda, note that a number of studies have associated diet soda habits with obesity risk (one theory is artificial sweeteners only encourage a taste and craving for sugary foods). And that’s before even addressing the potential toxicity of artificial sweeteners. For what it’s worth, the respected Center for Science in the Public Interest recently published a position paper stating that only Splenda is on its “safe to drink” list.
One note about fruit juices: Nutrition researchers in recent years have strongly urged us to keep our juice intake (and that of kids too) at about six to eight ounces max each day. It’s feasible that the women in the Boston U study drank their OJ and grapefruit juices in those amounts, while too many Americans incorrectly associate “fruit drink” with “good for the body.” Plus, there is scientific evidence that juices are not high in satiety, meaning we don’t feel full and actually respond to body-brain signals for more calories. Eathing a whole piece of fruit is more like it, especially if you want to hold off, control or reverse diabetes
“Bob Condor is the Daily Health Blogger for Barton Publishing . He is also the Living Well columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer . He covers natural health and quality of life issues and writes regularly for national magazines, including Life, Esquire, Parade, Self, and Outside. He is a former syndicated health columnist for the Chicago Tribune and author of six books, including “The Good Mood Diet” and “Your Prostate Cancer Survivors' Guide.” He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and two 11-year-old kids.
Someone diagnosed with Diabetes 2 loses weight instead of gaining and gaines when not eating much and exercising.
How do you explain this?