Walnuts and T2

I have been keeping up with the Low Carb thread over the past few weeks, but now want to address another dietary issue for T2 Diabetics. I have also been reading quite a lot from a Nutrional Health Source, and as always I keep an open mind on what they advise...knowing that there is always some truth and some myth. However, I have a question for fellow T2 'colleagues' (I use this term in preference to 'sufferers' which I feel has such a negative and depressing tone, although some may wish to challenge this statement as not facing reality!)

Nevertheless, since being diagnosed as T2 some 18 months ago I have come across information on benefits of certain foods, and some keep cropping up. One of these is that Walnuts are beneficial for T2 (maybe T1, I have little knowledge in that area and cannot really say), this is an article I found on the website I mentioned above:

The Diabetes article Diabetes Deadly Deception alludes to the fact that healthy oils consumption is the main part of an anti-diabetic strategy, and I found this information below about walnuts that confirms this:

The National Center of Excellence for Functional Foods and former Smart Foods Center Director Professor Linda Tapsell said the research had demonstrated how a diet including 8-10 walnuts a day delivered the right kinds of fats and fatty acids that might help the body address one of the problems associated with early stage Type 2 Diabetes - insulin resistance - which hinders the absorption of glucose from the bloodstream into human cells.

"We understood the relationship between insulin resistance and fatty acids, and when we looked at the composition of walnuts we thought that they could be useful in delivering the right kinds of fatty acids. We knew walnuts contained substantial amounts of these fats, so our challenge was to prove that the theoretical benefits were real," Professor Tapsell said.

The team of dietitians from the Smart Foods Center and the Illawarra Diabetes Service developed individualized diets for around 60 people with Type 2 Diabetes for the six-month study. The diets were based on the core food groups of cereals and breads, fruit and vegetables, lean meat, fish, low-fat dairy products, oils, avocadoes, peanut butter and nuts. Each diet in the treatment group included 30g of walnuts (equivalent to around 8-10 nuts) per day.

The diets were carefully modeled to balance all the other dietary factors such as carbohydrates, proteins, calories and fats from the other foods to ensure the benefit was correctly attributed to the walnuts.

"The walnuts took the guesswork out of getting the right fats into the diet. We knew walnuts would deliver," Professor Tapsell said. "Thus, people with type 2 diabetes could ask their doctor or dietitian about the benefits of including walnuts in their dietary management."

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You may have heard of the article 'Diabetes Deadly Deception', and please remember that I read all of their philosphies (as with many others) with an extremely open mind, trying to glean the sublime from the ridiculous. Hence my question to you - are there really known benefits to eating walnuts as part of a regular diet as outlined in the article?

Look forward to receiving your invaluable feedback :wink:

Yes, that is what I thought, ironic really as walnuts were always nuts I did not enjoy, but have been eating in smaller quantities of late, perhaps I will increase the quantities now.


With reference about reversing diabetes (here I hope I am not convening any of the forum rules! If so, then apologies in advance), you may have read something similar to this http://www.regenerativenutrition.com/natural-supplements-cure-diabetes-sugar.asp/url*note reference towards the end of article

CAUTION It is sensible to monitor blood sugar when you introduce new foods/supplements as the level of drugs you may be taking may need to be adjusted to maintain a stable blood sugar level.

Please note that the advice about oils and fats in overcoming Type 2 Diabetes is taken from the article Our Deadly Diabetes Deception By Thomas Smith

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but again, I must reiterate that all information should be treated subjectively and under no circumstances would I recommend people take this as proven fact, nor give up their current treatment or medication in favour of following this advice. Personally I feel that gleaning the good advice, i.e. eating walnuts from the rest and using all advice in this manner, sensibly controlled and monitored is the way to go, it is a source of more information on the illness and helps to gain a deeper understanding, its causes, symptoms etc which for the most part is what any responsible diabetic is looking for, but again USE WITH CAUTION! :!:

I believe I have read about the benefit of almonds also, and wondering about effects of other nuts i.e. macadamia (I love these), pecan, brazils and cashews - does anyone have any knowledge on these?

Interesting article on the benefit of nuts, thanks for sharing it!

I bought some lovely walnuts from a fresh nut stall in Greenwich Market yesterday, if anyone lives within range it is worth making a visit.