Rachael Davis
Type 2 diabetes is a growing health concern, with more and more people developing the condition as a result of being overweight, obese, or otherwise following a high-sugar diet.
The condition arises when the body stops responding properly to its own insulin. Made in the pancreas, insulin is released to manage your blood-glucose levels effectively.
If you’re regularly releasing a lot of insulin in response to blood-sugar spikes, such as when you eat high-sugar foods, your body can essentially become numb to its own insulin and begin preventing it from managing the sugar in your system.
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Once it’s developed, it’s typically a lifelong condition that requires careful diet management and regular insulin injections.
Symptoms include: often feeling very tired, experience and increased level of thirst, urinating more frequently, and unintentionally losing weight.
Without treatment, type 2 diabetes can lead to vision damage, heart, kidney and liver problems, nerve damage, and even complications in the feet that require amputation.
In other words, you’re best off trying to avoid developing type 2 diabetes. Maintaining a healthy, balanced diet, avoid high sugar intake, and losing weight so as not to be classed as obese or overweight are the general tips for reducing your risk.
In terms of dietary changes you can make, the University of Cambridge has just released a study that has landed upon the ideal diabetes-preventing diet.
The study examined 33 other studies covering three different diets and 826,000 participants.
Following analysis of this data, the general advice around eating more fruit, vegetables and whole grains has struck once again.
When it comes to mitigating the risk of type 2 diabetes, prioritising fruit, vegetables and whole grains ‘can be promoted across all populations’ as the findings ‘suggest that major ethnic groups benefit equally from higher adherence to these dietary patterns’.
The three different diets covered in the analysed data included the Mediterranean diet, the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) and Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH).
According to the data, the top 10% of adherents to these diets had a significantly decreased risk of becoming type 2 diabetic
The study found that the top 10% who adhered to the diets had a significantly lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, with the DASH diet coming out on top, cutting the risk by 23%, while the AHEI diet reduced the risk by 21%. The Mediterranean diet placed third with a 17% reduction.
"This study strengthens the evidence that the Mediterranean, AHEI, and Dash dietary patterns may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes across diverse ethnic groups, and that they can be promoted across all populations,” said the study’s authors.