Researchers have claimed that, contrary to popular opinio, eating fatty foods may actually help people with type 2 diabetes to control their blood sugar levels.
The Swedish study into the best diet for diabetics, reported in the journal Diabetologia, found that type 2 diabetes patients could improve their condition with a carbohydrate diet, even if it was high in fat. Although the general increase in obesity has meant that we are constantly warned about the effects of a high-fat diet, this research claimed that being able to manage diabetes could be more about carbohydrates than fats.
When they split a group of 61 participants into those who consumed a low-fat diet and those who consumed a low-carbohydrate diet, it was shown that the low-carbohydrate group had much better control of blood sugar than the low-fat group after a period of six months.
Although those eating a low-carbohydrate diet had much higher levels of fat, they did not experience a downturn in their levels of lipoproteins, molecules comprised of proteins and fat that can increase the risk of heart disease. Also, the low-fat group did not achieve improved blood sugar control or lipoprotein levels compared to the other group.
Researcher Fredrik Nyström said “You could ask yourself if it really is good to recommend a low-fat diet to patients with diabetes, if despite their weight loss they get neither better lipoproteins nor blood [sugar] levels.”

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