How vegetarianism can cure diabetes
A new study shows that a healthy diet that includes mostly vegetables can significantly reduce the risk of diabetes. According to the study, a vegetarian diet is even more effective.
Scientists from George Washington University have found that eating only plant-based foods lowers the levels of the blood protein /HbA1c/, which can cause complications in type 2 diabetes.
The study was published in the journal Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Therapy. In addition, when consuming mainly plant food, one gets rid of extra pounds, cholesterol levels and blood pressure values decrease.
And one of the findings in the scientific study, which is actually considered to be evolutionary, is the following – in some of the type 2 diabetes patients who adhere to a low-fat vegetarian diet, it is allowed discontinuing insulin injections and taking other medications to lower blood sugar.
In a publication in an authoritative English medical journal, Dr. Neil Barnard points out that a simple prescription can help reverse diabetes. By making only dietary changes blood sugar is lowered, body weight is quickly normalized and cholesterol levels are lowered.
However, such a diet would not be effective if people continued to eat too much. And getting rid of extra pounds is among the key factors in improving insulin sensitivity, even in people with prediabetes.
However, we should not get too excited, as the benefits of following such a diet seem to be negligible. Although the Daily Mail came out with the headline ‘How veganism can cure diabetes’ and the Daily Express with ‘Vegetable diet to beat diabetes: total meat-free cures deadly disease, experts say.’ But it should be pointed out here that health experts have never claimed such a thing.
The Ministry of Health of Great Britain /MOH/, however, takes a more restrained position and notes that a vegan diet, i.e. one that includes entirely plant-based food, almost does not have a positive effect on diabetes.
The Ministry of Health states that this slight lowering of the blood protein /HbA1c/ does not represent a cure for diabetes. The reduction was less than if the patient had been treated with a standard diabetes drug, metformin.
The MOH also criticized the way the scientific study was prepared, as it represents an analysis of the results of 6 separate studies.
And this, according to the Ministry of Health, is connected with a number of limitations, since the different way of conducting and the quality of the research are not taken into account.
More importantly, the MOH unequivocally states that the results of the study by scientists at George Town University do not prove that a vegetarian or vegan diet is better for people with type 2 diabetes and any media claims of a found “cure” for the disease are completely groundless.
The report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also emphasizes the conflict of interest that existed during the conduct of the study.
One of the co-authors is declared to have a non-financial conflict of interest. This author serves as president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine without being paid for this position.
In the MOH publication, this organization is stated to promote the consumption of low-fat foods and adherence to plant-based diets and does not endorse the use of animal foods. And this represents a potential conflict of interest in the interpretation of the results.
The conclusions of the aforementioned study, published in the journal Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Therapy, are that clinical trial data show that following vegetarian diets reduce levels of HLA1c, suggesting that plant-based food may be helpful in preventing and controlling type 2 diabetes.
