from the star
December 16, 2008
Sheryl Ubelacker
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Type 2 diabetics who eat a diet rich in slower-to-digest foods like nuts, beans and lentils have better blood-sugar control and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, compared with those whose diets
Sheryl Ubelacker
THE CANADIAN PRESS
Type 2 diabetics who eat a diet rich in slower-to-digest foods like nuts, beans and lentils have better blood-sugar control and a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, compared with those whose diets rely more heavily on cereal-fibre foods, researchers suggest.
In a study of 210 people with Type 2 diabetes, University of Toronto researchers had half of the participants eat a low glycemic-index diet that emphasized beans, peas, lentils, nuts, pasta, parboiled rice, slow-to-digest breads like pumpernickel and cereals such as large-flake oatmeal.
The remaining subjects were advised to consume a "brown" diet, which included whole grain breads, whole grain breakfast cereals, brown rice, potatoes with skins, and whole wheat bread and crackers.
All participants, who continued taking their medications for reducing elevated blood glucose (sugar), also were encouraged to eat three servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables daily.
After six months, the group on the low glycemic diet was found to have better blood glucose control than the brown diet group, as determined by levels of a specific substance in red blood cells.
As well, those on the lower glycemic diet had improved cholesterol levels, with more good cholesterol and less of the bad, said lead author Dr. David Jenkins, a clinical nutritionist at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.
"I think the changes are significant because, remember, these are diabetic folk who are already on one, two or three glucose-lowering medications," Jenkins said Tuesday. "So many of them are topping the balance at the maximum number of medications that you'd naturally want to give a diabetic."
The study, published in Wednesday's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests that by improving their cholesterol levels with the low glycemic diet, diabetics cut their risk of cardiovascular disease, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke.
But that's just one of the many complications that can arise from uncontrolled diabetes – and that a low glycemic diet would perhaps help prevent, Jenkins said, explaining that slower-to-digest foods avoid the rapid surge and fall of glucose that occurs with quickly metabolized products.
Such fluctuations in blood sugar are believed to give rise to free radicals, which can harm blood vessels and other tissues throughout the body.
"So I think what this does," said Jenkins, "is this now gives another tool ... for getting the blood glucose levels down, which is tremendously important to stop diabetics from going blind, losing their kidneys and succumbing to other problems."
