“Doctor, how could my dad’s blood sugar get out of control since he has been a vegetarian for a long time after being diagnosed with diabetes!” Uncle Liu’s son exclaimed.
Uncle Liu, who is 62 years old this year, was diagnosed with diabetes the year he retired, and the doctor advised him to pay attention to a light diet.
Since then, he has completely avoided meat, with most of his daily diet consisting of flour-based foods. He only eats more when his family comes home for gatherings. Over the years, apart from losing a bit of weight, he didn’t experience any discomfort.
However, recently, he found that both his pre-meal and post-meal blood sugar levels were high, thinking it was due to lack of exercise. He quickly increased his exercise but during one day’s workout, he suddenly felt weak all over, nauseous, and even fainted on the road.
After being taken to the hospital by passersby, he was diagnosed with ketoacidosis. Despite rescue efforts, his life could not be saved.
After reviewing his medical history, the doctor believed that Uncle Liu’s ketoacidosis was largely related to his long-standing poor dietary habits. His family found this very surprising – could Uncle Liu, who had been eating a light diet for years, be unhealthy?
1. Friends with diabetes, take note: A light diet does not mean a vegan diet
Diet control is an important part of diabetes management. Many people begin to strictly control their diet after being diagnosed with diabetes, but it is easy to fall into dietary misconceptions.
Some diabetic patients mistakenly understand a light diet as only eating vegetarian and avoiding meat, which is actually a misconception. Dr. Xiao Xinhua, chief physician of the Endocrinology Department at Peking Union Medical Hospital, explains that a light diet involves balancing a diverse diet while controlling salt, oil, sugar, and cholesterol intake. In addition to consuming plant-based foods, it is also necessary to eat animal-based foods such as meat, eggs, and dairy products in moderation, maintaining a balance of both types of foods.
Moreover, long-term vegetarianism among diabetic patients can lead to various issues.
Long-term vegetarian diets can lead to deficiencies in vitamins B12, B6, niacin, calcium, and other essential nutrients because these substances mostly come from animal foods;
The protein content in a vegan diet is very limited, and getting enough essential amino acids and proteins through a vegetarian diet can be challenging, leading to insufficient protein intake and malnutrition;
Finally, vegetarian diets can easily lead to excessive consumption of starchy carbohydrates, causing blood sugar spikes, which is detrimental to blood sugar control.
In particular, there are three types of vegetarian dishes that seem healthy but actually cause blood sugar to rise more quickly.
1. Pickles, fermented vegetables
Pickled vegetables contain a high amount of salt. Excessive intake of sodium can lead to increased blood pressure, increasing the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Additionally, a high-salt diet can affect the normal secretion and function of insulin, exacerbating the condition.
2. Starchy root vegetables
Clinical nutritionist Chen Qiong from Zhengzhou Central Hospital explains that root vegetables like potatoes, taro, and yams have relatively high starch content. Excessive consumption can have adverse effects on blood sugar control.
3. Vegetarian dishes cooked with meat
Professor Du Tuo from the Endocrinology Department at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University points out that compared to meat dishes, the taste of vegetarian dishes is often inferior, and fat can enhance the flavor of vegetables. Many people tend to add significant amounts of fat during cooking, such as deep-frying vegetables and making fried pancakes. However, this method of cooking vegetarian dishes with meat additives significantly increases the fat content, leading to obesity and elevated blood sugar levels after consumption.
2. These 5 hyped blood sugar-lowering vegetables are misleading; do not believe them anymore
Diabetes is a common chronic disease, and many people look for foods that lower blood sugar after being diagnosed. Some vegetables are touted as having blood sugar-lowering effects, but are these claims reliable?
1. Pumpkin
It is said that in the early 1980s, the diabetes incidence rate among residents in Hokkaido, Japan, was as high as 5%, but there was a village where no one had diabetes. Medical experts found a link between the villagers’ consumption of tender pumpkin.
But the pumpkin indicated in the report comes from Japan, where the local sweetness and carbohydrate content are relatively low. In China, pumpkin has higher carbohydrate content and sweetness. Director Wu from the Endocrinology Department of the Third Military Medical University Southwest Hospital said that blindly consuming large amounts of pumpkin without reducing staple food intake would only result in rising blood sugar levels.
2. Bitter melon
It is rumored that bitter melon contains plant insulin – bitter melon glycosides, polysaccharides, and peptides, which can effectively lower blood sugar. Many diabetes patients consume a lot of bitter melon in an attempt to lower their blood sugar.
Nutrition director Lize Pa explained that these components can indeed lower animal blood sugar levels through antioxidant effects, insulin-like action, and effects on glucose metabolism enzymes. However, the extracts used in experiments are from purified extracts within bitter melon. The effects are achieved through oral pills or injections, not by simply consuming bitter melon.
However, the glycemic index of bitter melon is low and can be considered a quality food for friends with diabetes.
3. Okra
Okra extract okra saponin has a certain effect on experimental animals with diabetes and diabetic nephropathy. However, these experiments used concentrated and extracted substances, and there is currently no related human evidence. Animal experiments and human experiments are entirely different, and it’s difficult to ingest an effective dose through daily diet.
4. Buckwheat
The rutin component in buckwheat can regulate insulin activity and has some benefits in lowering blood sugar. However, like other foods, these studies were conducted only on animals, and the results obtained cannot be directly applied to humans. The amount of rutin in buckwheat is limited, and it is difficult to obtain a sufficient dose by consuming buckwheat alone.
5. Corn silk
The claim that corn silk can lower blood sugar comes from the medicinal book “Lingnan Collection of Medicinal Records,” which describes using corn silk decoction to treat diabetes symptoms. Modern medicine has also found that flavonoids and saponins in corn silk have a certain blood sugar-lowering effect. However, the sample size of the study is small, and the results of animal experiments cannot be directly applied to humans. It’s best to approach this information with caution and not blindly trust it.
The notion of lowering blood sugar through food is inherently unscientific. Carbohydrates in food, once ingested, will be broken down into glucose for the body to use, leading to an increase in blood sugar. It’s just that different foods have different rates of glycemic rise.
3. Beijing Hospital: Fasting for 2 Days a Week Improves Blood Sugar More than Medications
Recently, a study published by Chinese scholars stated that the 5+2 intermittent fasting diet regimen has a greater effect on weight loss and blood sugar reduction than metformin. This study has sparked widespread discussion in the industry.
The 5+2 fasting method refers to eating for 5 days a week and fasting for 2 days, with caloric intake limited to 500-1000 calories on fasting days.
Researchers from Beijing Hospital · National Center of Geriatrics included data from 405 newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes adult participants from 9 centers in China within a year. The participants had not used blood sugar-lowering medications in the past 3 months. The participants were divided into metformin, empagliflozin, and a 5:2 intermittent fasting group in a 1:1:1 ratio for a 16-week treatment and an 8-week follow-up.
The results showed that the blood sugar level and weight reduction in the fasting group were greater than those in the other two groups within 16 weeks. This indicates that 5:2 intermittent fasting may be an effective early intervention measure for type 2 diabetes, especially for overweight or obese newly diagnosed adult diabetes patients, showing better blood sugar control in this plan.
It is worth noting that this study cannot definitively attribute the patients’ blood sugar benefits to weight loss or fasting, requiring further research. It is not advisable for diabetes patients to blindly imitate this method, and specific measures should be followed under medical advice.
Diabetic patients should control their diet, but should not blindly restrict themselves to vegetarian diets. Otherwise, it may bring some unnecessary burdens to health, leading to counterproductive outcomes.
Reference materials:
[1] “Opinion: Is a vegan diet suitable for diabetic patients?” International Diabetes 2023-09-01
[2] “Is ‘food lowering blood sugar’ reliable?” Family Medicine 2021-09-09
[3] “Fasting for 2 days a week lowers blood sugar more than metformin, new research by Professor Guo Lixin and others”. Endocrine Channel, Physician News 2024-06-24
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