Overall diet key to diabetes prevention
About 30 million adults in the United States have diabetes and, unfortunately, the numbers are on the rise. It is commonly believed that eating sweets and other foods high in sugar is the cause of type 2 diabetes. While diabetes does impact how the body processes sugar, the overall quality of diet is more relevant to diabetes risk than sugar intake. There are simple steps you can take to improve your overall eating habits to help prevent or delay diabetes.
A study published last month in PLOS Medicine that looked at over 35,000 U.S. adults found that regardless of genetic risk, a low-quality diet was associated with a 30% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared with a highquality diet. Diet quality was assessed using the Alternate Healthy Eating Index, an evidenced-based dietary grading system that assigns a score from 0 to 110 depending on the frequency of consumption of certain foods. Although we cannot alter a genetic predisposition to diabetes, we can improve the quality of our diets to help protect against it.
Another recent study published in Diabetologia found that consuming healthful, plant-based foods such as fruit, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and legumes is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes in healthy people. Researchers distinguished between these healthful plant-based foods and unhealthful plant foods such as refined grains, fruit juice and sugar-sweetened beverages. The results of this study revealed that it wasn’t just a lower intake of sugar or animal products that was associated with a reduction in diabetes risk, but the regular consumption of polyphenol-rich plant foods that is beneficial.
The mounting diabetes research strongly suggests that genetics alone do not fully determine risk of diabetes as well as other chronic illnesses. Individuals, especially those with a family history of diabetes, can feel empowered to know that lifestyle factors such as diet quality and food choices play an important role in the prevention of this disease. There are steps that we can all take daily to improve our eating habits for diabetes prevention.
• Don’t simply focus on foods to limit or avoid, but emphasize foods to increase.
• Focus on eating healthy, plant-based foods such as beans, whole grains, fruit, vegetables and nuts every day. Incorporate these ingredients in home-cooked meals and when dining out.
• Include more plant-based meals to reap the benefits of a plant-based diet.
• Opt for plant-based protein sources such as tofu, tempeh, beans and other foods made from beans as alternatives to animal protein. Another strategy is to serve smaller portions of animal proteins alongside plant protein sources, such as salmon with lentils, or chickpea pasta with some shrimp or chicken.
• Swap out staple refined grain products for whole-grain products. When purchasing grain products like cereal, bread and pasta, look for items with whole grain listed as the first ingredient. These products should have at least 3 grams of fiber or more per serving.
• Opt for a smoothie instead of juice. Swap out your morning orange juice for a fruit and veggie smoothie that contains the whole fruit and vegetable. While juices are lacking in fiber, smoothies can be a good source of fiber.
• Choose fruit and veggies for snacks. Common processed snack foods are high in fat, sugar and calories and lack important micronutrients. Reach for whole food snacks like fresh or frozen fruit and fresh sliced vegetables when hungry between meals.