Healthier diet helps control diabetes better than drugs

Healthier diet helps control diabetes better than drugs

A healthier diet helps control high risk Type 2 diabetes better than what drugs can achieve alone.

Kirsten Coppell of the University of Otago, who led the study, says the research indicates that providing the right dietary advice could help diabetics stave off the disease’s devastating complications.

Healthier diet for diabetics include whole grains for carbohydrates, brown rice, lots of protein-rich foods, meat, monounsaturated fats.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes.

Findings from the six-month lifestyle intervention trial involving New Zealand patients with poorly controlled diabetes were reported in the British Medical Journal.

Coppell said ensuring diabetes patients can maintain satisfactory control over their blood sugar levels is crucial in avoiding long-term complications such as kidney failure, heart disease, gangrene and blindness, according to a university release.

‘The patients in our study were already under intensive drug treatment to optimise their glycaemic control (regulation of blood glucose), which remained unsatisfactory. We found that by following carefully tailored dietary advice they could significantly improve this control,’ Coppell said.

‘Given the tendency for glycaemic control in high-risk diabetes patients to deteriorate – no matter how intensive their drug treatment – the findings are highly relevant for improving diabetes management,’ she added.