Mediterranean Diet and Diabetes
Drug therapy deferred
Mediterranean Vegetables and infused Olive Oil
Readers with newly diagnosed Type II diabetes, pre-diabetes or insulin resistance syndrome, may find interesting reading in the Annals of Internal Medicine, September 2009 151:306-314.
The relevant article is entitled, “Effects of a Mediterranean -style diet on the need for antihyperglycemic drug therapy in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes: a randomized trial” and discusses the results of a 4 year study conducted by Katherine Esposito, MD, PhD and colleagues at the Second University of Naples, Italy.
The study suggests that following a low-carbohydrate, Mediterranean diet rather than a low-fat diet, may postpone the need for drugs to control this disease in newly diagnosed patients.
The 215 participants in the study were first advised about the importance of diet and exercise and how to prepare appropriate meals at home, before being randomly assigned to one of two diets for four years. One group followed a Mediterranean diet based on vegetables and whole grains, less red meat and more poultry and fish, where less than half the calories were from complex carbohydrates and more than a third of calories were from fat, mainly olive oil. The other group followed a low-fat diet where less than a third of calories were from fat.
Lifestyle
After four years, the authors concluded that compared with a low-fat diet, a Mediterranean-style diet led to more favorable changes in glycemic control and coronary risk factors and delayed the need for antihyperglycemic drug therapy in overweight patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes. The report’s authors observed that their ” … findings reinforce the message that benefits of lifestyle interventions should not be overlooked … “, even though the medical literature propounds a ” … drug-intensive style of medicine … “.
Sell up and move to Naples?
Relocation may be the stuff of dreams but is unnecessary as a Mediterranean-style diet is not hard to follow anywhere in the western world. Find a good local baker. Visit the fishmonger and poulterer more than the butcher, use good olive oil, eat plenty of green and red and orange and yellow vegetables. How hard is that, especially if you can defer the day when you have to start on the metformin and sulfonylureas?
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