• Highlights
• Introduction
• General Dietary Guidelines
• Major Food Components
• Weight Control for Type 2 Diabetes
• Heart-Healthy Diets
• Diabetic Exchange Lists
• Exercise
• Resources
• References

Diabetes diet

Description

An in-depth report on how people with diabetes can eat healthy diets and manage their blood glucose.

Alternative Names

Diet - diabetes; Blood sugar management

Highlights

Coffee

• Coffee, especially decaf, helps reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, suggests a 2006 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine . Postmenopausal women who drank 6 cups of coffee a day had a 22% lower risk of diabetes than women who did not drink coffee. Decaffeinated coffee drinkers had a 33% lower risk compared to non-coffee drinkers.
• A 2005 review in the Journal of the American Medical Association also found that drinking coffee on a regular basis helps reduce diabetes risk. The preventive effect was greatest for people who drank at least 4 cups of coffee a day.

Red Meat

• Eating lots of red meat does more than boost unhealthy blood fats. It also increases heme iron intake, which can raise the risk of type 2 diabetes. In a 20-year study of 85,000 women, the risk of diabetes increased along with heme iron intake. Women with the highest intakes had a 28% increased risk compared to those with the lowest intakes.
• Replacing red meat with chicken may help improve kidney function in patients with type 2 diabetes, suggests a small study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition .

Vitamin E

Vitamin E supplements do not help prevent cancer or heart disease and may increase the risk of heart failure for patients with diabetes, according to a 2005 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association .

Folic Acid and B Vitamins

Vitamin B supplements do not help prevent heart disease, according to several 2006 studies in the New England Journal of Medicine . In the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation (HOPE) trial, researchers assigned over 5,500 patients with diabetes or vascular disease to receive either a folic acid - vitamin B6 - vitamin B12 combination or placebo for 5 years. The vitamins did not reduce the risk of heart disease or heart attack.

• Review Date: 7/14/2006
• Reviewed By: Harvey Simon, M.D., Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital

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