Vegetarian diet 'could have slight benefits in diabetes'

Conclusion This systematic review has identified six trials assessing whether vegetarian or vegan diets improve blood sugar control in type 2 diabetes compared with control. It found the vegetarian or vegan diet gave significant improvement in one measure of blood sugar control (HbA1c), but not in another (fasting blood glucose). However, there are some important limitations to consider before we can categorically conclude that people with type 2 diabetes should switch to a meat and fish-free diet: The improvement in blood sugar control was quite small The pooled results of five trials found a vegetarian or vegan diet was associated with a 0.39% reduction in HbA1c, but we don't know that this would have made any meaningful clinical difference in diabetes control for the individual. Overall, although any reduction is likely to be a good thing, the precise benefit would depend on what a person's HbA1c level was to start with. The target HbA1c is usually set at a level below around 7%, so it may be more useful knowing whether a vegetarian or vegan diet improved the proportion of people achieving their target HbA1c level. The review also found no improvement in fasting blood glucose control. The intervention diets were varied Despite the publication tending to refer to the intervention diets as vegetarian, they were actually quite varied across the trials. Four of the trials were described as low-fat vegan, one as lacto-vegetarian (a diet that includes dairy products but not...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Diabetes Food/diet Source Type: news