EATING WHOLE GRAIN MAY HELP PREVENT DIABETES

London, Sept. 6: Consuming whole grain foods like rye, oats

or wheat can help prevent type 2 diabetes, according to a study which also found that drinking coffee and avoiding red meat can reduce the risk of the disorder.

The ability to use whole grains for prevention of type 2 diabetes has been known for a long time. However, the role of whole grain sources has not been investigated.

It has also been unclear how much whole grain is needed to reduce the risk of developing diabetes.

“Most studies similar to ours have previously been conducted in the US, where people mainly get their whole grain from wheat,” said Rikard Landberg, a professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

“We wanted to see if there was a difference between different cereals. One might expect there would be, because they contain different types of dietary fibre, which have been shown to influence risk factors for type 2 diabetes,” said Landberg.

The study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, was conducted in Denmark, where there is a big variation in whole grain- intake.

The study showed that it made no difference which type of whole grain product or cereal the participants ate — rye bread, oatmeal, and muesli, for example, seem to offer the same protection against type 2 diabetes.

What is more important is how much whole grain one eats each day. — and the study also provides important clarification to the scientific knowledge.