Type 2 Diabetes: More Than One Type Of Diet Can Help People Achieve Remission By Duane Mellor, Aston University and Adrian Brown, UCL for Natural Blaze
Until recently, type 2 diabetes has mainly been managed by controlling risk factors – such as high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar (glucose) levels – usually by prescribing drugs. But this approach doesn’t address the underlying causes of type 2 diabetes – such as problems with the hormone insulin no longer effectively controlling blood sugar. While taking drugs can help to manage blood sugar levels, it won’t help unpick the biological causes behind type 2 diabetes.
A growing body of research shows that losing weight, either through surgery or dieting, can help address some of the underlying causes of type 2 diabetes. It does this by helping the body control blood sugar levels. This is significant as controlling blood sugar by improving how insulin is made and works is key to bringing type 2 diabetes into remission.
Most of this body of research so far has looked at using meal-replacement shakes to help people with type 2 diabetes, which is why this approach may be prescribed by a doctor. But, more recently, researchers have begun investigating other diets – such as low-carbohydrate diets – in achieving remission. Although research in this area is still emerging, study results have so far shown a low-carbohydrate diet to be promising.
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To better understand which diets are best at helping people achieve type 2 diabetes remission, our recent review looked at over 90 papers describing the effects of various diets on type 2 diabetes. We found that although the better quality research tended to focus on meal-replacement shakes used in clinical trials, other approaches (such as low-carbohydrate diets) were also shown to work well.
Our review found that meal-replacement diets helped around one in three people successfully achieve remission, while low carbohydrate diets were able to help around one in five people achieve remission. People who lost weight using both of these diets were able to stay in remission for up to two years if they maintained their weight loss.
Low calorie and Mediterranean diets were also able to help people achieve remission – but at much lower rates. Only around 5% of people on low-calorie diets stayed in remission after one year, while only 15% of people on a Mediterranean diet stayed in remission after a year.
Defining remission
One of the big challenges we faced when writing our review was defining what “remission” is. Knowing how to define it was important so we could understand which diets worked best in helping people achieve remission.
