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Low-carb diet followers were given a boost this week. An American study found that a low-carb diet led to greater weight loss than a low-fat diet and can be more effective for people looking to control their blood glucose levels. People with diabetes certainly fit into this category.
A low-fat diet has been long-advocated by medical guidelines for people with diabetes, despite the success stories of people who have followed a low-carb diet. The findings suggest these guidelines may be flawed.
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The logic makes sense. Carbohydrates, as do proteins and fats, provide energy so they help to fuel the body.
Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose so when carbohydrates are consumed, an increase in blood sugar levels occurs to a greater or lesser extent according to the carbohydrate.
By reducing carbohydrate intake, you can help to reduce the rise in blood glucose levels after meals. Low carbohydrate diets have been found to be successful in aiding weight loss. There is some debate as to how the diet helps.
The reduction in carbohydrates means that people need not produce, or inject, so much insulin. As insulin helps to store fat, less circulating insulin could help to prevent, reduce or reverse weight gain.
A further theory is that by restricting the amount of carbohydrates, people are often restricting their calorie intake to some extent, which also helps it weight loss and weight management.
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Prediabetes has also been in the news. Specifically, a new method of identifying prediabetes has been developed. This is done using a blood sample which measures levels of fatty acids.
Researchers from the University of Hawaii report that unsaturated fatty acid markers can identify prediabetes long before conventional methods.
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But, is prediabetes a useless label anyway? Our man Kurt investigated if a diagnosis of prediabetes is an important method of preventing type 2 diabetes, or if it actually causes more harm than good.
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Elsewhere, Elizabeth Rowley – the Founder and Director of T1International – wrote a guest blog on the #insulin4all campaign, which strives to raise awareness of the global problems facing diabetes, such as lack of access to insulin, education and other supplies.
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