Whole grain, fibre diet offers boost to diabetes women
Saturday February 11 2006
in New York
WOMEN with type two diabetes who incorporate more whole grains, bran and cereal fibre into their diets may reduce their risk of heart disease, according to a new study.
What's more, low-glycemic index foods, that is, readily digested carbohydrates that cause a rapid rise in blood sugar levels, may also help to curb early signs of heart trouble for women.
Reduce risk
"To adapt a diet high in whole grains and low in glycemic load will help diabetic patients to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease," study author Dr Lu Qi, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, said yesterday.
The findings of the dietary study are based on an analysis of data from 902 women with diabetes who participated in the extensive research for Dr Lu Qi's study.
The study is entitled Nurses' Health Study.
Qi and his Harvard colleagues found that women who reported eating more whole grains, bran and cereal fibre in their daily diets would tend to have lower levels of two markers of blood vessel inflammation that have been linked in the past to incidents heart disease in women - CRP and TNF-R2.
In fact, cereal fibre, the study states, which is largely composed of whole grains like bran, "may confer stronger effects than fibres from other food sources such as fruit and vegetable", they note in the medical journal Diabetes Care.
Based on the current findings of the Harvard University study, Dr Qi highly recommends that women with diabetes "consume more whole grain bread and cereals and less refined grains".
"In addition, a meal with more low-glycemic components, such as beans, cruciferous vegetables, low-fat unsweetened plain yogurt, grapefruit, apples and tomatoes will also help," he states.
