The Types Of Fiber, Fat And Protein That Lower Diabetes Risk – By Author Brenda Davis

essential ingredient number four is sufficient fiber we want at least 20 grams per thousand calories so for a lot of people that means 40 grams at least a day we have strong consistent evidence that meeting the adequate intakes are the recommended intakes for fiber which are more than 14 equal to or more than 14 grams per thousand calories is associated with a 20 to 30 percent reduced risk of developing diabetes and we have a meta analysis that showed that for every s that there was a six percent decrease in diabetes risk for every two grams of fiber consumed imagine if we added 20 grams of fiber that would be a 60 reduction so fiber is important and in fact insoluble fiber reduces diabetes risk so that’s the type in you know wheat and and there’s quite a bit in lentils and beans and corn and apples and so forth but then soluble fiber that more sticky fiber actually improves glycemic control for people that already have diabetes and beans and barley and flax seeds and chia seeds and avocados and and beets and brussels sprouts if we look at the fiber in foods well legumes we’re looking at 10 to 20 uh grams of fiber in one cup avocados grains berries are all very high in fiber and then all other plant foods provide about two to five grams of fiber per serving only plant foods contain fiber refined carbohydrates are very low fiber sources fast foods very low in fiber and the no fiber foods are meat poultry fish eggs dairy products fats oils and sugars zero fiber so we want to include ideally a variety of high fiber foods with each meal

essential ingredient number five is plant protein why well if you compare legumes to meat it’s really very simple the food components that we want to increase in the diet the fiber and phytochemicals and antioxidants and prebiotics and sterols and stanils are either high or very high in legumes and they are either zero or very low in meat and poultry and the dietary components that we’re trying to limit like the saturated fat and cholesterol and heme iron and new 5gc and chemical contaminants and endotoxins are either low or zero in legumes and they are either moderate or high in animal products so it’s not rocket science you know if we look at protein type and diabetes risk there was a harvard study of over 200 000 participants that showed that replacing five percent of energy from animal protein with plant protein resulted in a 23 percent reduced risk of diabetes and the melbourne collaborative cohort study they found a 40 reduction of type 2 diabetes risk in the highest versus lowest quintile of plant protein intake and in the highest versus the lowest quintile of animal protein intake it was a 23 percent increased risk so this is when you divide the group in a quintile in into five parts and you’re comparing the highest uh versus the lowest and and they had a meta-analysis of 11 studies it wasn’t quite as impressive but diabetes risk with higher intakes of plant protein was reduced by five percent and highest intakes of animal protein increased risk nineteen percent and then there was a study from canada by uh levine uh in in 2014 people eating more than twenty percent protein who were 50 to 65 years of age increased their diabetes risk almost four times and those over 65 increased diabetes risk over 10 times when eating that much protein but was really what was really interesting is the associations were abolished or greatly attenuated when the protein came from plants it only was um valid when it came from animal products and this is a brand new remember last night for those of you that were here we talked about that that nutrients con consortium study that said they had new guidelines encouraging people to continue their current level of meat intake well in diabetes care in 2020 um the the diabetes association wrote a response and you can see they say right here these recommendations are not justified in large part because of the flawed methodology used to review and grade nutritional evidence they went on their expert conclusions were that there’s considerable evidence from long-term prospective cohort studies that have demonstrated that diets high in red and processed meat are associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes cardiovascular disease cancer and all cause mortality and they said it’s important to follow current national nutritional recommendations by the american diabetes association and other professional and government organizations that emphasize dietary patterns high in minimally processed fruits and vegetables whole grains nuts and legumes while limiting red and processed meat refined carbohydrates saturated fat and sugar sweetened beverages that’s the american diabetes association so very interesting

essential ingredient number six is healthy fat from whole plant foods how low should we go where fat is consumed concerned well i you know we had had success with very low fat diets like neil barnard’s group we’ve had success with more moderate fat diets like the um the czech republic or david jenkins or or even dr anderson um the the the thing is is we need to focus on quality of fat uh so we want to make whole plant foods our primary sources of fat because again they have fiber and antioxidants and stenos and sterols and phytochemicals concentrated fats and oils on the other hand provide a lot of calories with few nutrients so these are best limited or avoided so the type of fat and insulin sensitivity matters too saturated and trans fat have detrimental effects on insulin sensitivity whereas polyunsaturated fat improves it how much saturated fat well the american heart association the american college of cardiology say not more than five to six percent of calories which would be 11 grams on a 1600 calorie weight loss diet well check out the amount of saturated fat in animal foods just a cup of milk is 7 grams a double cheeseburger is 16 a pepperoni couple slices of pizza 15 whereas with plant foods even high fat plant foods the amounts are very very low with the exception of coconut of course which is predominantly saturated fat we want to minimize exposure to damaged fats so we want to avoid fried and highly processed foods we want to avoid oils and cooking particularly and to store high fat foods including shelled nuts and seeds to protect them like in the refrigerator freezer we want to optimize omega-3s and that means about two to four grams of alpha linolenic acid a day and possibly dha and epa supplements because dha because it desaturates enzymes that convert the plant fats to the long-chain omega-3s can be depressed