The growing epidemic of type 2 diabetes can be blamed on a sedentary lifestyle and a poor diet that is top-heavy with sugar. With 90 percent of diabetics diagnosed with the type-2 type version the disease, the adverse impact the disease has on a person’s health includes slowing the body’s wound healing speed as well as making a person more prone to cardiovascular ailments such as heart stroke, blindness, nerve pain and shorter life expectancy.
Experts believe that sticking to this diet will not only help control high blood sugar levels, it can help a person control their weight, combat depression, heart attack, inflammation as well as Alzheimer’s disease.
That’s why many health experts are advocating a Mediterranean diet.
The Mediterranean diet follows eating patterns which are common to Southern Europe. It features less meat, more fish and unsaturated fats such as olive oil and butter and places a major emphasis on fruits and vegetables. Ideally, followers of the diet eat fish four or more times a week, plus three or more servings of fruit, and four or more servings of vegetables daily. Legumes, such as lentils or beans should be consumed a least once a week, as well as one or more serving of whole grains with and nuts and sets. It also encourages the consumption of one or two alcoholic drinks a day.
The diet has been proven to improve a variety of common ailments that include everything from eczema to polycystic ovary syndrome to heart disease and there is now an overwhelming amount of evidence showing that a traditional Mediterranean-style diet rivals medications when it comes to these important health conditions. Spanish scientists made an impressive contribution when they published the first results of their PREDIMED study (New England Journal of Medicine, Apr. 4, 2013).
Experts believe that sticking to this diet will not only help control high blood sugar levels, it can help a person control their weight, combat depression, heart attack, inflammation as well as Alzheimer’s disease. The high consumption of vegetables positively impacts health, ensuring longevity and a recent study indicates that people with diabetes are only about half as likely to develop diabetic retinopathy if they follow a Mediterranean diet that includes at least two servings a week of fish and seafood (JAMA Ophthalmology online, Aug. 18, 2016). Diabetic retinopathy is one of the leading causes of blindness among working-age people.
