Even small improvements in diet can help fight against diabetes

Tue, 24 May 2011
With being overweight or obese already known to increase your chances of getting type 2 diabetes, and weight reduction helping to lower the risk, a new study by scientists in the United States has found that making a small number of changes to your diet can help achieve this. Researchers also showed that the risk was lowered independent of weight loss .

The study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, monitored the health of 69 overweight people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes who were given just the right amount of food needed to maintain body weight, with any minor changes in weight being taken into account. The participants receiving a diet that involving small reductions in levels of carbohydrates and fat over an eight-week period.

At the end of the study period, those people who were on the lower fat diet exhibited significantly greater insulin secretion and improved glucose tolerance, as well as tending to have higher insulin sensitivity, all indicating a reduced risk for diabetes .

The findings also indicate that people wanting to minimise risk for diabetes in the long term could consider keeping their daily consumption of fat down to about 27 per cent of their diet.

Barbara Gower, lead researcher on the study, commented "People find it hard to lose weight. What is important about our study is that the results suggest that attention to diet quality, not quantity, can make a difference in risk for type 2 diabetes."

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