Not being diabetic myself I was still curious about the dietary guidelines for type II diabetics in my country. Studying the homepage for the diabetic patient association I found a section about carbohydrates. Two scientists presented two opposing views:
One view being the classical that carbohydrates are essential, that you should follow the national dietary guidelines eating more fruit and vegetables, more fish, low fat dairy, whole grains and less saturated fat and less sugar. Also, type II diabetes is a progressive disease that cannot be reversed by following a diet.
The other view was that lowering carbohydrates will allow you to reduce or completely get rid of your medication. This was backed by the an article containing a meta study of the effects of restricting carbohydrates to manage diabetes.
Repeating the highlights of the article:
We present major evidence for low-carbohydrate diets as first approach for diabetes.
- Such diets reliably reduce high blood glucose, the most salient feature of diabetes.
- Benefits do not require weight loss although nothing is better for weight reduction.
- Carbohydrate-restricted diets reduce or eliminate need for medication.
- There are no side effects comparable with those seen in intensive pharmacologic treatment.
So here is a scientific piece of work that strongly supports what this forum is about.