This week’s round-up of diabetes in the news flagged up research carried out in Australia, showing that low-carb diets help people with type 2 diabetes to drastically reduce the amount of medication they need.
I’ll admit it. I’m very guilty of confirmation bias, i.e. I look for the research and the reports that back up my opinions and I would have made a rubbish scientist. However, in six months or so of weekly Google alerts for “diabetes news”, not once has my search term brought up research which proved a high-carb, low-fat diet worked…
Anyway, the latest research was carried out by CSIRO, Adelaide University, Flinders University and the University of South Australia.
40 Percent Reduction
Adelaide University researchers developed a diet and exercise programme which resulted in an average 40 percent reduction in medication levels for people with type 2 diabetes. The diet used was low in carbohydrates and higher in protein and unsaturated fats.
The programme was based on findings from a National Health and Medical Research Council funded study which compared low carb eating with the current Australia best practice approach of managing type 2 diabetes with a diet high in unrefined carbs and low in fat.
“Ground-breaking”
In a news report on the CSIRO website, CSIRO’s associate professor and principal research scientist Grant Brinkworth described the research results as “ground-breaking”, and that patients who followed low-carb diets reduced medication levels by more than double the amount of volunteers following a high-carb plan, with others managing to stop taking their medication altogether thanks to low-carb eating.
He said: “This research shows that traditional dietary approaches for managing type 2 diabetes could be outdated, we really need to review the current dietary guidelines if we are serious about using the latest scientific evidence to reduce the impact of the disease.”
Well. No new news here for us at The Diabetes Diet! We know the benefits of low-carb eating and are prepared to run the gauntlet of official disapproval. If you’d like to try out a low-carb approach to managing your blood sugar levels yourself, why not check out our book or any of the recipes on this website which will help keep meal carb counts low?
Picture thanks to MCM Science on flickr.
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