Eating Nuts, Cooking With Vegetable Oil 'Prevents The Progression Of Type 2 Diabetes'

Eating foods high in polyunsaturated fats – such as vegetable oils and nuts – slows the progression of type 2 diabetes, scientists today revealed.

Prediabetes is a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal, but not sufficient to be classified as type 2 diabetes.

Scientists have long regarded weight loss as an effective way to prevent the progression of prediabetes into type 2 diabetes.

But now, experts discovered that a targeted dietary intervention could have a similar impact as well.

Replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats helps prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes in people with prediabetes, said experts from King’s College London.

Prediabetes is often a precursor to type 2 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Scientists have split prediabetes into two separate conditions – one in which the liver produces too much glucose, and one in which glucose is not taken up properly by the muscle.

The new study, published in the journal PLOS One, investigated the differing effects of dietary fats on prediabetes as two separate conditions.

A group of scientists tested small groups of people across a wide spectrum of glucose levels.

They tested 15 healthy people, 14 athletic and 23 obese people, as well as 10 people with prediabetes and 11 with type 2 diabetes.

The scientists analysed glucose levels and fatty acids in the blood of the participants.

Additionally, those people’s diets were evaluated in a dietary questionnaire.

The scientists found that in the condition where glucose uptake into the muscle is repaired, replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats helped to slow development of diabetes.

The results suggest that polyunsaturated fats promote uptake of glucose by the insulin receptors in the muscles.

And, in people whose livers were producing too much glucose, reducing saturated fat was found to be linked to slower progression of the disease.

However, in that group, replacing saturated fat with polyunsaturated fat was found to have no effect.

Study author Dr Nicola Guess said: ‘'This study is the first to explore whether we can target dietary advice taking into account the underlying differences in the two prediabetes states.

'The findings suggest that increasing dietary intake of polyunsaturated fats may have a beneficial effect for patients with a certain type of prediabetes but also illuminates why certain dietary changes may have no effect on progression of type 2 diabetes in the other subtype.

‘We intend to build on this work with larger studies, and ultimately test this idea in a randomized trial.'

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