Let Food Be Thy Medicine

According to a report published in Diabetes Care, a journal published by the American Diabetes Association, people who ate a low-fat vegan diet, cutting out all meat and dairy, lowered their blood sugar more and lost more weight than people on a standard American Diabetes Association diet.Participants say the vegan diet was easier to follow than most because they did not measure portions or count calories. Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, which helped conduct the study said, "I hope this study will rekindle interest in using diet changes first, rather than prescription drugs." After 22 weeks on the diet, 43 percent of those on the vegan diet and 26 percent of those on the standard diet were either able to stop taking some of their drugs such as insulin or glucose-control medications, or were able to lower the doses. In other words, food really can be your medicine.The vegan dieters lost 14 pounds on average while the diabetes association dieters lost 6.8 pounds. An important level of glucose control called A1c fell by 1.23 points in the vegan group and by 0.38 in the group on the standard diet. A1c gives a measure of how well-controlled blood sugar has been over the preceding three months.Small changes made now can make a BIG difference later, when it comes to educating your children and teaching them to steer clear of type-2 diabetes.

To Your Health!

John Hall NSCA-CPT