Friendly foods

We all know that fibre is good for us and we should eat plenty of fibre-rich foods every day but a new study shows it’s even more beneficial than we thought! Six meat-eating obese people with type 2 diabetes and/or high blood pressure were assigned to a strict vegetarian, high-fibre, low-fat diet for one month. At the end of the month, the diet had not only achieved weight loss but just about every marker of previous bad health – cholesterol, fats and blood sugar – was improved. Two people’s results showed they could no longer be diagnosed as diabetics. The diet also positively altered the ratio of gut bacteria – it encouraged the ‘good’ bacteria and decreased the numbers of ‘bad’ bacteria contributing to gut inflammation. Viva!Health conducted an in-depth research on diet and diabetes and produced materials to help you understand and defeat diabetes – go to Diabetes to find out more.

_{Kim, M.S. et al., 2013. Strict vegetarian diet improves the risk factors associated with metabolic diseases by modulating gut microbiota and reducing intestinal inflammation. Environmental Microbiology Reports. 5 (5) 765-775.}