Vegan diets for diabetics

Just how much can a low-fat vegan diet improve your health? Quite a lot, it seems, as a recent large study shows. People who were either overweight and/or diabetic (type 2) were asked to follow a wholesome vegan diet for 18 weeks whilst they carried on with their normal lives. A control group (people with similar characteristics to those who were prescribed a vegan diet) changed nothing about their lifestyle but were followed for comparison. The results showed that a plant-based diet can markedly lower your cholesterol, improve blood sugar control (crucial for diabetics) and shed excess weight. Participants in this study received dietary advice but were not asked to change anything else in their lifestyle. Control group participants achieved no significant changes. This study confirms that a low-fat vegan diet can indeed change your life – for the better and quite dramatically at that.

_{Mishra, S., Xu, J., Agarwal, U., Gonzales, J., Levin, S., Barnard, N.D., 2013. A multicenter randomized controlled trial of a plant-based nutrition program to reduce body weight and cardiovascular risk in the corporate setting: the GEICO study. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 67 (7) 718-724.}