Dashing diabetes with your diet
Q: I’m looking for some tips on how to best shape my diet to control my Type 2 diabetes. I know about the glycemic index and try to stay away from sweets, but what else can I do?—Fern G., Madison, Wisconsin
A: What you eat has a huge influence on all aspects of your health (food is medicine). But if you have Type 2 diabetes, there are some new findings that will superpower your ability to control elevated glucose levels.
All the action takes place in your digestive system, where fermenting complex carbs meet gut bacteria that produce short-chain fatty acids.
Researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey found, during a six-year study, that eating lots and lots of diverse, fiber-rich foods significantly improves glucose control, increases weight loss and improves blood lipid (cholesterol and triglyceride) levels. What’s not to love?
HOW IT WORKS
Various types of gut bacteria thrive on a diet of fiber, and that allows them to produce plenty of SCFAs. SCFAs are essential for healthy cells in the gut lining. Ever hear of leaky gut? Well, nurturing SCFA-producing gut bacteria could protect you from that. They also reduce inflammation and help control appetite. Plus, byproducts of SCFA-producing bacteria, butyrate and acetate, produce a mildly acidic gut environment that reduces potentially harmful gut bacteria and increases insulin production. If you aren’t feeding the bacteria that produce SCFAs, you’re vulnerable to Type 2 diabetes.
WHAT TO EAT
Diverse fiber that promotes production of SCFAs comes from eating:
Resistant starches in 100 percent whole-grain cereals, barley, brown rice, beans, lentils, green bananas, cooked and cooled potatoes or pasta.
Pectin from apples, apricots, blackberries, carrots and oranges.
Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) and inulin from Jerusalem artichokes, onions, leeks, asparagus and 100 percent whole wheat and rye.
Arabinoxylan in oats and all bran.
So, if you want to see your A1C improve, the researchers suggest a diet that relies on these gutsy foods.