Diabetes: healthy fat instead of carbohydrates

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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For a long time, fat was considered to be the ultimate fat maker: With 900 kilocalories per 100 grams, it contributes more than twice as much to the energy balance as the same amount of carbohydrates or protein. Since diabetes and obesity are closely linked, people with a high risk of diabetes in particular were advised to eat as little fat as possible for a long time. In fact, fat can even protect against diabetes - all that matters is that it's the right one.

"This is good news for the public: Don't be afraid of healthy fats!" Says Dariush Mozaffarian of Tufts University. It has been known for a long time that fats that contain many unsaturated fatty acids are healthy. But now it has been shown that a diet that contains a lot of it can even protect against type 2 diabetes.

Unsaturated fatty acids versus sugar

“The world is facing an epidemic of insulin resistance and diabetes,” explains the researcher. Obviously, this can be counteracted with a diet high in fat instead of carbohydrates: “Our results show that diabetes can be prevented and treated with a diet that replaces white flour, sugar and animal fat with high-fat foods such as walnuts, sunflower seeds, linseed, vegetable oils and fish lets ", so Mozaffarian.

A study by the scientist showed that replacing carbohydrates and saturated fats with monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fatty acids as part of a change in diet has an enormously positive effect on blood sugar control.

Together with a team led by colleague Fumiaki Imamura from the University of Cambridge, the researchers evaluated the data from 102 high-quality studies with more than 4,600 participants. In doing so, they turned their attention to how diet influenced metabolism - in particular blood sugar and insulin levels, insulin resistance and sensitivity of the body's cells, and the body's ability to produce insulin.

Small change, big effect

For every five percent of the daily amount of energy that was replaced by healthy instead of unhealthy fats and carbohydrates, the so-called HBA1c value fell by 0.1 percent. This value shows how well the body has been able to control blood sugar over a longer period of time.

What does not sound like much has an enormous impact on the sugar metabolism: According to previous studies, an average reduction in HBA1c values ​​of 0.1 percent is associated with a 22 percent reduction in type 2 diabetes. The heart and circulatory system also benefit: New diseases are reduced by 6.8 percent in this way.

"Until now, our understanding of how dietary fats and carbohydrates affect blood sugar, insulin and other risk factors has been based on individual studies with inconsistent results," says Imaura. "By combining the results of more than 100 studies, we were able to show how strongly the various nutrients actually influence the risk of diabetes."

Diabetes in Germany

Around six million people in Germany have diabetes. It is estimated that there will be eight million people by 2030 - that would be around one in ten. One reason is that people are getting older because the risk of type 2 diabetes increases with age. Decisive factors are also lack of exercise, obesity and an unhealthy diet. In the meantime, more and more children and adolescents are also suffering from type 2 diabetes, which used to be called old-age diabetes to differentiate it from type 1 diabetes. This term is now less and less fitting.

Sources:

Fumiaki Imamura et al .: Effects of Saturated Fat, Polyunsaturated Fat, Monounsaturated Fat, and Carbohydrate on Glucose-Insulin Homeostasis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Feeding Trials, PLOS medicine; July 19, 2016 ttp: //dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002087

German Center for Diabetes Research, www.dzd-ev.de, accessed on July 18, 2016

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