There are many lifestyle changes you can make to lower your risk of getting type 2 diabetes. For example, you can reduce added sugarsyou can add more fruits and vegetables to your diet, you can manage your stressand you can maintain a regular exercise routine, to name a few.
Now, new evidence suggests it might be worth rethinking your entire diet. Specifically, a new study finds that eating a healthy plant-based diet is linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
In the study, published earlier this month in the journal diabetologyIn the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, researchers analyzed plasma metabolite profiles (a way of measuring metabolites) from more than 10,000 people.
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They found that the profiles of people following plant-based diets, especially those whose plant-based diets consisted of healthier foods, were linked with lower odds of getting the disease.
“This is a fascinating study that adds more evidence to the ever-growing database on reduced risk of type 2 diabetes with a whole food, plant-based diet.” Julieanna Hever, MS RD CPTauthor of The Choose You Now Diet and Plant-Based Nutrition (Idiot’s Guide)He says Eat this, not that! “With each new study, we learn more about the myriad mechanisms of action by which a plant-based diet is so effective in improving type 2 diabetes, which is a diagnosis that causes immense suffering in hundreds of millions of people worldwide. world”.
The study specified that the plasma metabolite profiles of those who maintained a healthy plant-based diet were more strongly associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes than those whose plant-based diet was unhealthy.
While having a diet that includes a wide variety of nutritious foods can certainly have a positive effect on your health, some nutritionists caution against thinking of foods in black-and-white terms such as “healthy” and “unhealthy.”
“One thing I encourage everyone starting to eat plant-based is to not be hard on yourself,” Rhyan Geiger, RDN, owner of Phoenix Vegan DietitianHe says Eat this, not that! “When we are strict about not allowing ourselves to have things that are ‘unhealthy,’ it can create a harmful relationship with food and lead us to want it even more. Having a good balance of nutrient-rich foods and less-nutrient-rich foods can lead to to greater overall satisfaction with the food we eat.
For more tips on reducing your risk of the disease, check out these Eating habits to follow if diabetes runs in your family.
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