Patients with diabetes should be careful and measure food portions as precisely as possible to avoid blood sugar spikes. But in fact, many patients do not know which diet is best for them. To that end, a new study suggests that patients with diabetes eat a Mediterranean diet.
According to researchers, a diet that emphasizes the consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, wheat, fish, rich in healthy oils like olive oil and low in saturated fat is considered the most effective in losing weight and lowering blood sugar.
This conclusion was obtained after Ajala and his colleagues reviewed 20 studies that compared the effects of seven popular diet among patients with type 2 diabetes. From there it is known that the Mediterranean diet, a diet low in carbohydrate, high protein diet and low glikemi index diet can lower blood sugar levels of participants.
"If you look at the four types of diets, all of which can improve various aspects of the control of diabetes," said lead researcher Dr. Olubukola Ajala, a diabetes expert from the Western Sussex Hospitals, UK.
Follow-up period of six months, participants who practiced the Mediterranean diet also lost weight an average of 1.8 kilograms (4 pounds), when no other diets that have such a significant impact on the weight loss diet.
"We were quite surprised by these findings. Initially I thought a low karbolah is most appropriate for the patient to lose weight, but it looks like the Mediterranean diet proved better," Ajala said as quoted by FoxNews, Friday (02/08/2013).
Moreover, other studies have linked the Mediterranean diet to reduced risk of cancer, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and death from heart attack.