Raisins!

No!

If you look beyond the headline, all they actually found was that eating a small portion of raisins instead of an alternative processed snack resulted in a 23% lower post prandial reading than with the alternative.

Here’s the abstract for anyone interested:

‘Just as the type and duration of physical activity can have variable effects on the glucose levels and other cardiometabolic parameters among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), so can the types of foods have variable effects as well. This 12-week randomized study of 51 study participants evaluated the impact of routine consumption of dark raisins versus alternative processed snacks on glucose levels and other cardiovascular risk factors among patients with type T2DM. In this study, compared to alternative processed snacks, those who consumed raisins had a significant 23% reduction in postprandial glucose levels (P = 0.024). Also compared to snacks, those who consumed raisins had a 19% reduction in fasting glucose and 0.12% reduction in hemoglobin A1c, although these latter findings did not achieve statistical significance. Regarding blood pressure, compared to alternative processed snacks, those who consumed raisins had a significant 8.7 mmHg reduction in systolic blood pressure (P = 0.035) (7.5% [P = 0.031]) but did not experience a significant reduction in diastolic blood pressure. Compared to alternative processed snacks, those who consumed raisins did not have a significant improvement in body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, fasting insulin, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), triglyceride, or non-HDL cholesterol levels. Overall, these data support raisins as a healthy alternative compare to processed snacks in patients with T2DM.’

They work perfectly fine to get me out of a hypo.
I think the missed key part is this:

"The 12-week randomised study evaluated the impact of routine consumption of dark raisins versus alternative processed snacks on glucose levels in 51 study participants with type 2 diabetes." (My bolding)

So what were those other snacks, and did the raisin eating group stop eating the snacks they usually ate?

Also compared to snacks, those who consumed raisins had a 19% reduction in fasting glucose and 0.12% reduction in hemoglobin A1c, although these latter findings did not achieve statistical significance

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Also that says that there was not enough data for anything definite at any rate, so really any findings should not really be based on it

I just think these types of studies are as dangerous as the eatwell plate! It gives people the impression that the eating of the 'better' alternative snack must surely be healthy for them then, a tonic, a magic pill that lowers their glucose levels. Take 3 a day!

As an alternative for a study:
The impact of drinking two bottles of wine a day versus three, Headline: drinking two bottles of wine a day is good for you.
(and of course the study to be funded by a wine grower and conducted/written up by a team that excluded a statistician)
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Antje77 said:

So what were those other snacks

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If raisins were a better option, my guess is Kellogg's Frosties with chocolate syrup.

The problem is more with the Headlines that the study itself, IMHO.

The study was small (49 people), but at least was an RCT. Not much can be read into the findings given the size of the experiment; all you can say is that in their they found some effect from eating raisins.

The study itself showed (not in the Media or Abstract!) that snacks made things worse for the Snack group ... so Raisins are better than Snacks, but no snacks....?

For the geeks:
Looking quickly at the study
http://www.californiaraisins.de/fil..._Bays_H.__Raisin_DM_Sports_Medicine_Final.pdf
yes, it was sponsored by the California Raisin company!
- the randomisation itself left the two groups somewhat different (e.g much higher pre test lab results in raisin group (eg 30% higher post prandial glucose ) higher BMI, waist circumference, more race diversity, etc). This could easily dominate any effect due to raisins alone.
- the snacks (which look like they were calorie matched and approx carb matched) all led to increases in the measurements for the snack group), some of which would be statistically significant
- "statistically significant" used in the conclusions can easily mislead, especially in a small study like this, and of course doesn't directly relate to the truth of whether Raisins caused a real effect. (Sorry, I need to take off my statistician's hat; wrong forum!)

Haven’t tested them personally but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that dried balls of concentrated glucose and fructose probably isn’t an optimal snack for a type 2…

SheilaCanning said:

Honestly, it's so irresponsible to have a headline like this! Makes me quite cross. And I would like to add that I don't read the Express - it popped up in a news feed.

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The express is incredibly bad for headlines. It’s click bait at the best of times unfortunately

Andydragon said:

The express is incredibly bad for headlines. It’s click bait at the best of times unfortunately

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It's their raisin d'etre.

EllieM said:

Possibly off topic, so the other mods can delete

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No way we will!
Perfect explanation of how things go wrong, and very fun to read too. Those people must have so much fun working this out, although the results are pretty horrifying.