Study Finds Link Between Gluten-Free Diet And Type 2 Diabetes Risk

contrary to popular belief, gluten is not actually the devil. Teri Virbickis/Shutterstock
Most dietitians and doctors will tell you, a varied diet is key to being healthy. And seeing as they are actual qualified experts and not Instagram or blog-based advocates, you should be listening to them and not the latter. A new study has found that adopting a gluten-free or low-gluten diet can enhance your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The major study from Harvard University, which was presented yesterday at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Portland, reviewed 30 years’ worth of medical data from 200,000 participants, and found that those who limited their gluten intake or avoided it completely actually had a 13 percent higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes.
"We wanted to determine if gluten consumption will affect health in people with no apparent medical reasons to avoid gluten,” explained Dr Geng Zong of Harvard’s School of Public Health. “Gluten-free foods often have less dietary fiber and other micronutrients, making them less nutritious and they also tend to cost more."
Gluten is a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, and other related grains. It is the protein that gives baked goods that chewy texture and elasticity in the baking process. Those who are genuinely intolerant have an autoimmune condition known as celiac disease, where their immune system responds to the gluten protein by attacking the small intestine. Only about 1 percent of the population is diagnosed as celiacs.
In the study, researchers used data from the Nurses Health Study, Continue reading

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Diabetes-Friendly Brown-Bag Lunch Ideas

Whether you're headed back to school or brown-bagging it at work, these diabetic lunch ideas will have you anticipating your lunch break all morning.
Packing a lunch rather than buying one gives you a little extra planning time to pick foods that will be compliant with your meal plan. Changing up your lunch on a daily basis also helps you stick to your plan by preventing boredom.
Here are five ideas—one for each day of the work week—that are low in fat, low glycemic, and high in lean protein and fiber.
There is even a PB&J sandwich for the kid in all of us and a vegetarian option.
Add a 16-ounce sugar-free beverage or water to round out each of these five meal ideas.
Grain-Based Salad Lunch
(510 calories, 56 percent from carbohydrate)
2/3 cup cooked barley, brown rice, or quinoa
3 ounces cooked and diced skinless chicken breast
1/2 diced red pepper
2 tablespoons reduced-fat raspberry-walnut salad dressing
8 chopped dried apricot halves
Lunchables Lunch
(505 calories, 54 percent from carbohydrate)
10 low-fat whole-wheat crackers
3 ounces sliced turkey breast
2 ounces sliced low-fat cheese
1 apple
1 cup baby carrots
3 gingersnaps
Wrap Sandwich Lunch
(496 calories, 57 percent from carbohydrate)
2 Low-Fat Turkey and Ham Wraps
1 cup sliced cucumbers
1 clementine
Old, Faithful PB&J Sandwich
(460 calories, 53 percent from carbohydrate)
Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich made with 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 2 teaspoons diet jelly, and 2 slices of whole-wheat bread
1 orange
6 ounces fat-free yogurt
Veggie Lunch
(450 calories, 59 percent from carbohydrate)
15 baked snack chips an Continue reading

The Differences Between Type One And Type Two Diabetes

Diabetes is an epidemic in 21st century Australia, with 280 Australians developing the disease every day. In 2017, approximately 1.7 million Australians are living with diabetes and around 500,000 of these people are undiagnosed.
Diabetes, in both its forms, is a complex disease that affects the entire body and can cause secondary conditions such as heart and kidney disease. Diabetes in Australia has risen significantly in the past few decades and there are some fundamental differences between the two types that are important to understand. Here is what you need to know.
What is diabetes?
When a person has diabetes, their body is unable to properly manage the levels of glucose -- or sugar -- in the blood. Insulin is the hormone that helps manage blood sugar and it is produced by the pancreas.
For the body to function efficiently, it needs to be able to convert glucose -- a form of sugar -- into energy. Glucose is the main source of energy for the body.
Type one diabetes is a condition where the immune system destroys the cells in the immune system that produce insulin. So essentially, type one diabetes occurs when the pancreas does not produce insulin.
Type two diabetes is a condition where the body becomes resistant to insulin or eventually stops being able to produce enough insulin for the pancreas to function properly. This can be influenced by lifestyle and genetic factors (but we'll get to that later).
Diabetes in Australia has gone up enormously over the last few decades and and it is likely to continue to go up.
How is diabetes developed?
While the inability to manag Continue reading

CDC: November is National Diabetes Month

It's Your Life. Treat Your Diabetes Well.
November is National Diabetes Month. Here’s to managing your diabetes for a longer, healthier life.
There isn’t a cure yet for diabetes, but a healthy lifestyle can really reduce its impact on your life. What you do every day makes the difference: eating a healthy diet, being physically active, taking medicines if prescribed, and keeping health care appointments to stay on track.
The Basics
More than 30 million people in the United States have diabetes, but 1 out of 4 of them don’t know they have it.
There are three main types of diabetes: type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes (diabetes while pregnant, which can put the pregnancy and baby at risk and lead to type 2 diabetes later).
With type 1 diabetes, your body can’t make insulin (a hormone that acts like a key to let blood sugar into cells for use as energy), so you need to take it every day. Type 1 diabetes is less common than type 2 diabetes; about 5% of the people who have diabetes have type 1. Currently, no one knows how to prevent type 1 diabetes.
Most people with diabetes—9 out of 10—have type 2 diabetes. With type 2 diabetes, your body doesn’t use insulin well and is unable to keep blood sugar at normal levels. If you have any of the risk factors below, ask your doctor if you should be tested for diabetes. The sooner you find out, the sooner you can start making healthy changes that will benefit you now and in the future.
Diabetes by the Numbers
• More than 30 million US adults have diabetes—and 1 out of 4 of them don’t know they have it.
• At leas Continue reading

The Full-Fat Paradox: Dairy Fat Linked To Lower Diabetes Risk

If you melt at the creaminess of full-fat yogurt, read on.
A new study finds the dairy fats found in milk, yogurt and cheese may help protect against Type 2 diabetes.
The research, published in the journal Circulation, included 3,333 adults. Beginning in the late 1980s, researchers took blood samples from the participants and measured circulating levels of biomarkers of dairy fat in their blood. Then, over the next two decades, the researchers tracked who among the participants developed diabetes.
"People who had the most dairy fat in their diet had about a 50 percent lower risk of diabetes" compared with people who consumed the least dairy fat, says Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, who is also an author of the study.
The study does not prove a cause and effect, but it builds on a body of evidence suggesting that dairy fat may have protective effects, both in cutting the risk of diabetes and in helping people control body weight.
"For a long time we've had this notion that saturated fat [the kind found in dairy products] is always bad for you," says Mark DeBoer, a pediatrician at the University of Virginia.
But this assumption is being questioned. As we've previously reported, DeBoer has studied the connection between dairy fat and children's body weight. And he published a surprising finding.
"It appears that children who have a higher intake of whole milk or 2 percent milk gain less weight over time" compared with kids who consume skim or nonfat dairy products, explains DeBoer.
And there's some evidence Continue reading