A Low-Calorie Diet  May Improve Your Diabetes

Are you ready to embrace a low-calorie diet? If you’re looking to improve your health, lose weight and potentially reverse your Type 2 Diabetes, a low-calorie diet may be the answer you’re looking for.

During a study  of 30 people with type 2 diabetes, researchers discovered a very low-calorie diet of around 600 to 700 calories a day for eight weeks, followed by a more moderate six-month weight control diet, resulted in an improvement in blood glucose levels in 40 percent of the participants.  Lead researcher, Roy Taylor, MD, FRCP, a professor of medicine and metabolism at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom noted that  all the volunteers were type 2 diabetes patients, diagnosed within a two year period and were all overweight or obese.

 

For eight weeks, participants consumed three  diet shakes and tiny portions of non-starchy vegetables that amounting  to 600 and 700 calories a day. After the initial eight-week participants were allowed to consume approximately one-third the amount prior they ate prior to the study.

Researchers noted that  there is a person fat threshold:  When a person gains more weight than their physique can tolerate, then diabetes is triggered, but if they lose that weight, they can return to their normal lives. It all depends on  metabolism –  just keep in mind that 70% of severely obese people do not have diabetes.

A low-calorie  diet , researchers noted  removed excess fat from the pancreas and resulted in normal levels of insulin. However, not all participants had this response. While losing weight and keeping it off might be a way for some to reverse their condition through diet alone, everyone has the willpower to make those changes.

While these results are encouraging, it is important to note that this was a small, uncontrolled, non-randomized clinical trial; further study is needed. A larger trial of 280 patients is underway, funded by Diabetes UK.