Earlier in the week I awoke to the radio pronouncing that eating fruit was better than eating nuts, or some such. Google turned up a Swedish study "A Randomized Study of the Effects of Additional Fruit and Nuts Consumption on Hepatic Fat Content, Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Basal Metabolic Rate" by Christian Agebratt et al.
This study set out to compare the effects of adding about 500 calories a day of either fruit or nut intake to the existing diet of some young lean active healthy Swedish students. The primary objective was to see if the sugar in the fruits had any adverse effect.
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Saturday, 30 January 2016
Wednesday, 29 July 2015
Type 2 Diabetes - dietary advice from Diabetes UK
A couple of weeks ago I received an e-newsletter "Type 2 Together" about peer support for Type 2 diabetics arranged by the charity Diabetes UK. It featured a recipe :
One slice of this contains at least 4 times the amount of glucose in my bloodstream, so I am somewhat confused as to why this would be a good recipe for Type 2 diabetics. Perhaps it's because it is low in fat. That's right, patients with an excess of carbohydrate in their bloodstream and a problem managing it are apparently supposed to be primarily concerned about fat, so at least there's only 1g per slice.
The ingredients aren't exactly inspiring - mixed fruit, wholemeal flour and fructose - or sugar, sugar and sugar for simplicity.
Around the same time Diabetes UK were running a PR campaign about the number of foot amputations occurring in the UK diabetic population. As I understand it the foot amputations result from diabetic neuropathy, which is caused by elevated blood glucose, which in turn is caused by digesting carbohydrates.
If we're worried about foot amputations, why not suggest eating less carbohydrate !
The hand wringing about fat arises from increased heart disease in diabetics. I would imagine this is entirely due to the effects of elevated blood sugar on the cardiovascular system, so once again carbohydrate restriction would appear to have some merit.
I used the UKPDS risk calculator to estimate the effect of HbA1c on my personal heart disease risk over 10 years. With all other variables constant the risk rises with HbA1c :-
HbA1c % 10 year risk %
4 4.7
5 5.5
6 6.5
7 7.6
8 9.0
So reducing HbA1c from 8 to 4 brings a corresponding halving of the heart disease risk. Once again, does this not suggest less blood glucose is good for the heart ? Especially when low carb diets also improve the CVD risk profile by increasing HDL cholesterol and reducing triglycerides.
Whichever way I look at it the Diabetes UK cake recipe and their dietary advice in general is a recipe for heart disease and amputations.
One slice of this contains at least 4 times the amount of glucose in my bloodstream, so I am somewhat confused as to why this would be a good recipe for Type 2 diabetics. Perhaps it's because it is low in fat. That's right, patients with an excess of carbohydrate in their bloodstream and a problem managing it are apparently supposed to be primarily concerned about fat, so at least there's only 1g per slice.
The ingredients aren't exactly inspiring - mixed fruit, wholemeal flour and fructose - or sugar, sugar and sugar for simplicity.
Around the same time Diabetes UK were running a PR campaign about the number of foot amputations occurring in the UK diabetic population. As I understand it the foot amputations result from diabetic neuropathy, which is caused by elevated blood glucose, which in turn is caused by digesting carbohydrates.
If we're worried about foot amputations, why not suggest eating less carbohydrate !
The hand wringing about fat arises from increased heart disease in diabetics. I would imagine this is entirely due to the effects of elevated blood sugar on the cardiovascular system, so once again carbohydrate restriction would appear to have some merit.
I used the UKPDS risk calculator to estimate the effect of HbA1c on my personal heart disease risk over 10 years. With all other variables constant the risk rises with HbA1c :-
HbA1c % 10 year risk %
4 4.7
5 5.5
6 6.5
7 7.6
8 9.0
So reducing HbA1c from 8 to 4 brings a corresponding halving of the heart disease risk. Once again, does this not suggest less blood glucose is good for the heart ? Especially when low carb diets also improve the CVD risk profile by increasing HDL cholesterol and reducing triglycerides.
Whichever way I look at it the Diabetes UK cake recipe and their dietary advice in general is a recipe for heart disease and amputations.
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