If I told you that eating less would cut your diabetes risk, you would think I’m stating the obvious. However, if I told you that the reason for this wasn’t due to weight loss, then I’d probably get your attention.
According to a new study, small dietary changes, even if they don’t result in weight loss, can reduce your risk of diabetes.
The researchers took 69 people who were at risk for diabetes and overweight and fed them a diet of only slightly reduced fat and carb intake for eight weeks. They were split into two groups: one with lower fat, the other lower carbs.
The study concluded that limiting one’s daily fat intake to about 27 percent of your diet can lower diabetes risk long-term.
“At eight weeks, the group on the lower-fat diet had significantly higher insulin secretion and better glucose tolerance and tended to have higher insulin sensitivity,” says lead author Barbara Gower, a nutrition sciences professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Since the researchers found that diabetes risk was lowered, regardless of weight loss, it’s what you eat that matters most – and you don’t have to make drastic changes.
“What is important about our study is that the results suggest that attention to diet quality, not quantity, can make a difference in risk for type 2 diabetes,” says Gower.
(via: US News & World Report)