Eating a plant-based diet, including vegan and vegetarian diets, is a great prevention strategy and management tool to help fight type 2 diabetes. Learn more about these expert tips on how to eat more plants to fight diabetes.
What is the perfect picture of diet and treatment for type 2 diabetes? However, the latest science paints a picture of a plant-based diet of all colors, textures, and categories, including a rainbow of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts and seeds. More research shows that a plant-based diet, including a vegetarian and vegan diet, can reduce a person’s risk of developing this stressful, life-threatening condition, as well as control it if you already have type 2 diabetes. Given that this disease is a growing global epidemic, with an estimated 422 million cases worldwide and growing rapidly, the potential of a plant-based diet is promising. This comes at a good time, as I have just published my new book A Powerful Plant-Based Plan to Beat Diabetes, which gives you all the information you need to implement your anti-diabetic lifestyle. And I talked with my friend and colleague, Jill Weisenberger, MS, RDN, CDE, CHWC, FAND, author of Prediabetes: The Complete Guideto rate some of his favorite tips.
What the Science Says About Plant-Based Diets and Diabetes
Scientists have noticed that vegetarians and vegans have very low rates of type 2 diabetes, compared to non-vegetarians and vegetarians. Human studies suggest that a vegan and vegetarian diet may help prevent type 2 diabetes, according to Weisenberger. In another study, based on data from the Adventist Health Study-2, researchers found that a vegan diet had greater protection against type 2 diabetes compared to a non-vegan diet, even when accounting for other lifestyle factors and body fat levels; although all types of vegetarian food offer some protection compared to non-vegetarian food. In a recent scientific review (Journal of Geriatric Cardiology2017), evidence from observational and interventional studies has shown that a plant-based diet can help treat diabetes by reducing the main complications of vascular diabetes.
How Do Plants Help?
“It is not clear how a plant-based diet can prevent or delay diabetes, but other possibilities include a diet high in fiber, a diet low in heme iron, and a healthy weight status. “When people eat less animal foods, they tend to eat more beans, grains, nuts and other foods that contain a range of phytonutrients, which may act as anti-inflammatory compounds, antioxidants, and insulin-sensitizers,” says Weisenberger. Therein lies the beauty of a plant-based diet.
It is important to note that research includes i level of a plant-based diet for better health outcomes. Which means it’s not just about limiting animal foods and increasing plant foods—it’s about choosing a variety of healthy, lightly processed plant foods over highly refined, junk foods. Consider eating whole grains, such as oats with apples and pistachios, a kale salad with blood oranges, and boiled chickpea curry with brown rice, instead of sugary grains, white bread, chips, and cookies.
Join the Plant-Based Bandwagon
Motivated to make a change to lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, or manage a condition you already have? It’s not as difficult as it may sound to focus your diet on plants. Even if you’re not ready to take the plunge to eat vegetarian or vegan, you can go more plant-based by using a more flexible approach. “Flexitarian and pescatarian are smart ways to go, because they’re less restrictive than other plant-based diets and easier for some people to stick to,” says Weisenberger.
Weisenenberger suggests that if you have diabetes and have been counting carbs to control your blood sugar, continue to count carbs and measure your blood sugar regularly, including before meals and two hours after your first bite. Call your healthcare provider if your blood sugar level is too high or too low. If you have prediabetes, you should not count carbohydrates. Just choose healthy foods in reasonable amounts.
Power Your Diet to Fight Diabetes
Try these top 4 tips to allow plants to be more prominent in your diet to help prevent or manage type 2 diabetes.
1. Focus on Plant Proteins
To reduce your pet’s diet, you’ll need to let plant-based protein be the star of your plate. Top contenders include: beans, lentils, black-eyed peas, tofu, tempeh, seitan, almonds, pistachios, peanuts, hemp seeds, and sunflower seeds.
2. Add Whole Grains to Every Meal
Whole grains have a lower glycemic response than refined grains and whole grain flours. Rich in fiber, protein, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals, whole grains, such as wild rice, rye berries, farro, quinoa, and millet, should be a common feature in every meal.
3. Push those veggies
Simply pack your meals (2-3 cups per day) with a variety of non-starchy vegetables, including leafy greens, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, beets, fennel, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, peppers, -asparagus, tomatoes, and radishes. These plants pack in an arsenal of phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals, and fiber with a low calorie load.
4. Let Fruit Be Your Drink
Skip the stale, ooey-gooey desserts and replace them with natural delights: simple, seasonal fruits, in all their naturally sweet, nutritious glory. Persimmons, blueberries, watermelons, peaches, cherries, grapes, tangerines, pears, and apricots are examples of succulent plants that should be celebrated.
For more tips on a plant-based diet for diabetes, see the following:
Is Bitter Melon a Sweet Cure for Diabetes?
Does a Plant-Based Diet Work for Diabetes?
Open Beans to Help Control Diabetes
Be sure to order my new book A Powerful Plant-Based Plan to Beat Diabetes today for more information on how to fight diabetes with a plant-based diet.
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