Change Your Diet Could 50% Reduce Type 2 Diabetes Risk

A simple diet change could reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by half, research suggests.

Change Your Diet Could 50% Reduce Type 2 Diabetes Risk

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Type 2 diabetes is a condition which causes the level of sugar in the blood to become too high.

This causes symptoms like excessive thirst, peeing a lot and tiredness.

The disease is caused by problems with the hormone insulin.

The NHS claims that Type 2 diabetes is often linked with being overweight, inactive, or a family history of the illness.

A simple change in diet could reduce your risk of developing the disease by 50%.

Eating two bananas, four broccoli spears, a portion of strawberries and some cherry tomatoes every day could stop you from becoming diabetic, says study.

Researchers compared the vitamin C levels in the blood of 9,754 Type 2 diabetics and 13,662 people who do not have the disease.

They also tested for carotenoid levels – that’s the plant pigment which makes some fruits and veggies so bright.

This includes most orange, yellow and red produce like carrots, tomatoes and corn.

The volunteers were split into five groups based on their blood “biomarker” levels.

The lowest level group was recorded as eating around 274g of fruit and veg per day.

While the highest group ate about 508g.

Those in the top level group had up to a 50% reduced risk of developing diabetes compared with the lowest group.

They ate the equivalent of two bananas, four broccoli spears, seven strawberries and 10 cherry tomatoes each day.

The study was published in The British Medical Journal, and claimed that people could lower their diabetes risk by consuming a similar amount of fruit and veg every day.

The new research proves that changing your lifestyle is an effective way to reduce the risk of, or reverse, a diabetes diagnosis.

This does not necessarily work for Type 1 diabetes which is not caused by age or being overweight.

Type 1 diabetics are often born with the illness and diagnosed in childhood.

Prof Nita Forouhi, the study’s lead author, told The Telegraph : “Though the benefits of fruit/veg consumption have been promoted for decades in the “five-a-day” message, in the past there has been uncertainty about their role for the prevention of Type 2 diabetes.

“Our study, using objective blood markers of fruit/veg intake shows that even a small increase in the amount of fruit/veg in the diet can help to reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes.”

Originally published at Daily star