VEGETARIAN DIET AND DIABETE

Vegetarian Diet And Diabete

Vegetarian Diet And Diabete

Introduction

Diet is an important tool in regulating diabetes. There is growing evidence that a vegetarian diet may be very beneficial in reducing calories, choleresterol and insulin resistance as well as increasing overall health. Therefore, vegetarianism should be viewed as an important part of a diabetes treatment plan.

Vegeterian Diet

Vegetarianism excludes high-calorie foods and animal products laden with saturated fats. It instead concentrates on foods that give necessary minerals and vitamins that help give diabetics a better chance of blood glucose control. These include whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables.

Vegetarian diets are rich in fibre, which has numerous benefits. When a diabetic eats a fibre-rich meal, the desire for further food disappears. Fibre also plays a protective role for pre-diabetics, and can lead to lower daily requirements of insulin amongst type 1 diabetics. Fibre is well known as being important in the improving blood sugar control, lowering cholesterol levels and providing folate, thereby reducing the risk of complications like heart disease. Considerable research is available as evidence for the role of fibre in diabetes.

Recent nutritional research suggests that diabetics should partake in as many as nine servings in the vegetable and fruit group, and up to six servings of whole grains for optimum benefit.

Vegerterian diets and Dibetes

A high-fat diet contributes to diabetes and its resulting complications. Ideally, approximately 20-30 percent of the total calories in the diet should come from fat. Not more than 10 percent of the calories should come from saturated fat. If low-density lipoprotein (LDL) blood cholesterol levels are too high, saturated fat intake may need to be reduced below 7 percent of the total calories. From 6-to-8 percent of the calories should come from polyunsaturated fatty acids. Because heart disease is the leading cause of death for those who have diabetes, such persons should limit the amount of cholesterol they eat to not more than 100 milligrams per 1000 calories. In order to bring their blood cholesterol down to acceptable levels, some diabetics may need to limit dietary cholesterol to 100 milligrams per day.

Elevated triglyceride levels is another risk factor. If weight loss does not sufficiently reduce blood triglyceride levels, the American Diabetes Association suggests increasing total fat intake to as much as 40 percent of calories with a corresponding cut in carbohydrate intake. This additional fat should primarily be monounsaturated fat of plant origin, from such foods as olives, olive oil, canola oil, and avocadoes. However, great caution is advised on this point since dietary fat is so closely related to poor control of diabetes.

Studies have shown that people who eat meat frequently have 3.8 times greater risk of mortality form NIDDM as well as a greater risk of developing diabetes than do vegetarians. This may be due to meat containing large amounts of fat. Because vegetarians consume more unrefined grains, fruits, and vegetables, and less saturated fat, they usually have lower body weight. Snowdon (1985) found type II diabetes to be only half ...