Fibre study promotes whole grains for diabetes!

(Jamie Hayes) #1

Has anybody read this study suggesting…

"In research based in China, Zhao and scientists from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Yan Lam, a research assistant professor in Zhao’s lab at Rutgers, randomized patients with type 2 diabetes into two groups. The control group received standard patient education and dietary recommendations. The treatment group was given a large amount of many types of dietary fibers while ingesting a similar diet for energy and major nutrients. Both groups took the drug acarbose to help control blood glucose.

The high-fiber diet included whole grains, traditional Chinese medicinal foods rich in dietary fibers and prebiotics, which promote growth of short-chain fatty acid-producing gut bacteria. After 12 weeks, patients on the high-fiber diet had greater reduction in a three-month average of blood glucose levels. Their fasting blood glucose levels also dropped faster and they lost more weight."

I’m not sure what the real difference was between the low fibre and high fibre groups. They definitely did not run a low carb or keto group to compare against.

And so Dr Joanna McMillan tweets “Fighting type 2 diabetes with fibre … including whole grains”

Thoughts?

(Rob) #2

Higher fiber generally mean lower carbs. I doubt they rebalanced the macros for this. Also, there’s no quantification of how much the A1C was reduced.

Since we know how people go from very diabetic to non-diabetic on keto in 3-6 months, this is probably a small or maybe even insignificant reduction or they’d be shouting about reversal etc.

It may also be confounded by the glucose management drug.

Again, tinkering with the paintwork when the problem is the fuel and the engine.

(Ken) #3

China is somewhat different, in terms of Genetics. I’ll attempt an explanation, at the risk of generalization. Due to a much longer exposure to a Carb based diet, many Chinese have much slower rises in Leptin Resistance. This results in lower rates of Obesity, but still high rates of Diabetes. You seldom see overweight children, with the exception of the “Little Emperor” syndrome, when Chinese parents stuff their children with food constantly as fat children are considered more healthy in a cultural sense. Due to this greater adaption to carbs, especially to high glycemic White Rice, a change to higher fiber, slower digesting grains would enable some positive improvement. However, it’s still following the mythology that diabetics should base their nutrition on complex carbs, in terms of Management, as is still common here in the West. Alleviation is only possible through lipolysis, so currently it’s surely going to bolster the Chinese pharma industry.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #4

That was highly puzzling to me.

Just eat to manage your glucose naturally.

(Brian) #5

I suspect the highlighted part of it got passed by a little too quickly.

Isn’t this at least a similar mechanism that allows a cow to eat grass and end up with fat and protein from it?

I wondered if the reporters are looking at glorifying the fiber for something the gut bacteria ultimately did.

(Ken) #6

Kind’a nutty. The human digestivè system is putrafactive, based on acids and enzymes, rather than fermentative, such as in ruminants. Sounds like a fanciful rationalization to me.

(Brian) #7

I agree. And I suspect the actual differences were very small. Humans don’t have a rumen, we have a very acid stomach environment. About as close as we come to a rumen would be the bowel, where we may get a little of that type of action going on, the operative word being “little”.

The whole thing did seem a bit like grasping at straws, trying to find something, anything, that would prove even a tiny point.

(Ken) #8

Especially in light of the fact that when fermentative reactions occur in the bowel, it’s usually considered socially repulsive to other people.

(Brian) #9

LOL!!! :smiley: