Should diabetics become vegetarians?
While researchers are arguing that diabetes can be prevented or cured by following one diet or another, there are scientists and doctors who are leaning towards the need for a plant-based diet. We will briefly review how different diets such as raw food, veganism and lacto-vegetarianism can reduce the risk of disease and improve health. What would your reaction be if you heard that you can easily lose weight, reduce blood glucose and blood pressure, prevent cardiovascular disease, and most importantly, stop or prevent diabetes? It sounds too good to be true, but a growing body of research indicates that a plant-based diet can help diabetics. What are the research data? The seventy-two-week study, published by Neil Barnard, MD and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, provides compelling evidence for the benefits of a plant-based diet for people with diabetes. People with diabetes followed vegan, low-fat or moderate-carbohydrate diets. Representatives of both groups lost weight and reduced the content of cholesterol in the blood. A health study of approximately 100 Seventh-day Adventist Church members who follow a vegetarian diet found that vegetarians were much less likely to develop diabetes than non-vegetarians. “The more plant-based diets people follow, the more they maintain a healthy weight and prevent diabetes,” said Michael J. Orlich, MD, assistant professor of preventive medicine at Loma Linda University in California. Orlic participated in the study. Avoiding red and processed meats can help prevent type 000 diabetes without even affecting body weight. Two long-term studies conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health, involving approximately 150 health advocates of various profiles, showed that people who ate an additional half serving of red meat daily for four years increased their risk of developing type 000 diabetes by 50%. Restriction in the consumption of red meat minimizes the risk of developing this disease. “Study after study shows that there is a strong link between plant-based nutrition and a growing number of chronic diseases: diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease and certain types of cancer,” says Sharon Palmer, nutritionist and author of The Plant-Powered Diet. . As a rule, diabetics face such phenomena as chronic inflammation and insulin resistance. Both of these phenomena, which are interrelated, are markedly reduced when switching to a plant-based diet. In addition, studies point to the fact that vegetarians are healthier because they tend to follow other healthy habits: they don’t smoke, they are physically active, they watch less TV, and they get enough sleep. Vegetarian Spectrum You can often hear people say, “I’m vegan.” Others call themselves vegetarians or lacto-vegetarians. All of these terms refer to the spectrum of plant-based nutrition.
Raw food diet. Its supporters consume exclusively foods that have not been cooked, processed or heated to high temperatures. These foods can be eaten strained, mixed, juiced, or in their natural state. This diet typically eliminates alcohol, caffeine, refined sugar, and many fats and oils. Vegan diet. Animal products such as meat, fish, poultry, seafood, eggs and dairy products are excluded. Meat is being replaced with alternative protein sources such as tofu, beans, peanuts, nuts, vegan burgers, etc. Lacto vegetarians exclude products of animal origin, but consume milk, butter, cottage cheese and cheeses.
In general, compared to a lacto-vegetarian diet, a vegan diet is more effective in preventing and treating diabetes. We are talking about a diet from which any refined foods are excluded – sunflower oil, refined wheat flour, spaghetti, etc. In such a diet, fats form only ten percent of the calories, and the body receives eighty percent of the calories from complex carbohydrates.
How does plant nutrition work?
According to Palmer, plant-based diets are beneficial for one simple reason: “They’re rich in all the great stuff — fiber, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and healthy fats — and free of bad stuff like saturated fat and cholesterol.” Orlich recommends that people with prediabetes and diabetes limit their intake of animal products, especially red meat, or avoid meat altogether. In addition, it is very important to avoid refined grains and sugars found in drinks and sweets, and eat as varied as possible, freshly prepared plant-based meals.