When the metabolic form of type II diabetes (food diabetes) is diagnosed, a whole world about the way of eating opens up for the patient and questions such as "doctor now what do I eat?" Are frequently addressed to the family doctor .
To reduce the risk of type II diabetes it is not necessary to renounce all types of fat or carbohydrates.
The Mediterranean diet, rich in olive oil and nuts and with low glycemic load carbohydrates, reduces the risk of this disease by 30% in people already at risk of cardiovascular disease.
Research
The umpteenth confirmation of the value of eating Mediterranean is the result of numerous studies including the one conducted by a team of researchers from the Department of Internal Medicine, Motala Hospital in Sweden where twenty-one patients were recruited, in turn, on a low diet carbohydrate content and a low-fat one.
The fact that the characterization of diabetes refers to higher levels of blood sugar has encouraged, since the last century, to prescribe diets low in carbohydrates with a higher intake of fat and a little less towards those with a high intake of protein.
The results of this study showed instead that glucose and insulin levels, after eating, increased more markedly following low-fat meals than low-carbohydrate meals.
Furthermore, the reaction of insulin to a Mediterranean-type diet was positive, and in the hours following lunch it was better, favored by an increase in the secretion of incretins .
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The real benefits
In fact, a peculiarity of the Mediterranean diet is precisely that of favoring foods with low glycemic load because, says Dr. Carlo La Vecchia of the Department of Epidemiology of the Mario Negri Institute in Milan, "a diet with a high glycemic load leads to rapid increases in glucose and consequent increases in insulin in the blood.
The increased demand for insulin leads, in the long run, to a progressive functional decline of the pancreatic beta cells and consequently to an altered tolerance to glucose and to a greater resistance to insulin, a predictor of diabetes ".
Talking about the Mediterranean diet but only referring to its components continues to be a limiting approach. There are other important factors that characterize the Mediterranean diet, first of all the use of foods and foods in the appropriate seasonality (fruit and vegetables).
The intake of seasonal food also means the opportunity to make recipes with foods that are produced without excessive environmental manipulation, without a huge use of tricks, greenhouses and heating inside the greenhouses themselves.
