Why Vegan Works for a Reactive Hypoglycemic Diet

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I’ve had a couple of emails asking me why a vegetarian diet works for reactive hypoglycemia. I realized that although I’ve got a good idea (a diet rich in fruits and vegetables wards of a host of diseases), I didn’t actually know the ins and outs of why eating nuts and beans is so good compared to chicken or fish. I turned to PubMed–the site sponsored by the National Institutes for Health–to find my answers. After spending a few weeks reading the research, I have decided to no longer be a vegetarian, but instead…

…I’m going fully vegan. That’s a big leap for me. I’ve never liked red meat, but if you’d have asked me a few years back to turn vegan I would have found it almost impossible to give up fried chicken and shrimp curries. In the last year or so (after reading lots of research on the benefits of being vegetarian on blood sugar control), I gradually progressed toward a vegan diet. I’m only an egg or two away from becoming vegan, and I’ve decided to take the leap.

vegan shopping by spanner dan@flickr

My decision to turn vegan was almost entirely health-related. Don’t get me wrong–I love animals. It’s just that their welfare wasn’t the primary motivation behind turning vegan. Controlling what had become a quite debilitating disorder became my first priority (honestly, if my doctor told me to eat sauerkraut by the bucket-full I would have tried it).

Here are just a few of the major research articles from the last couple of years featuring blood sugar disorders and the benefits of adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet. Although the studies fall under the umbrella of “diabetes research”, the studies look at overall blood sugar control and risk of contracting major diseases:

A research team from the School of Public Health at Loma Linda University conducted a study of 22,434 men and 38,469 women from the Seventh Day Adventist Church. They found that vegans were at the lowest risk of type 2 diabetes, followed by vegetarians, and finally meat eaters, who had the highest risk of contracting type 2 diabetes. The article appeared in Diabetes Care in April 2009.

Research from the George Washington School of Medicine, which appeared in the May issue of Nutrition Reviews states that vegetarians are half as likely to contract type 2 diabetes. Why? Primarily from a lower BMI but also from eating less saturated fat and high-glycemic-index foods and more fiber and vegetable protein resulting in better glycemic control.

A team from the Department of Nutrition at the University of North Carolina found that vegans following a low fat diet had better nutrient intake and dietary quality than their peers following the 2003 American Diabetes Association dietary recommendations. Why does this matter? The vegans improved diet also resulted in improved A1c values*.

The American Dietetic Association’s position on vegetarian diets: this July 2009 article stated that vegetarians have lower rates of just about every major disorder including type 2 diabetes. Vegetarians typically have lower BMIs (a lower body weight usually results in better blood sugar control). Why does the ADA think a vegetarian diet works? Vegetarians, they say, consume “lower intakes of saturated fat and cholesterol and higher intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, soy products, fiber, and phytochemicals.”

*In a lab test, A1c values give a patient an idea of their overall blood sugar control.

References:

Barnard ND, KAtcher HI, Jenkins DJ, Cohen J and McGrievy G. Vegetarian and vegan diets in type 2 diabetes management. Nutrition Reviews. 2009 May;67(5):255-63.

Craig WJ, MAngels AR; American Dietetic Association. Position of the American Dietetic Association: vegetarian diets. Journal of the American Dietetic Association. 2009 Jul; 109 (7): 1266-82.

Tonstad S, Butler T, Yan R, Fraser GE. Type of vegetarian diet, body weight, and prevalence of type 2 diabetes. 2009 May; 32(5):791-6. Epub 2009 Apr 7.

Turner-McGrievy GM, Barnard ND, Cohen J, Jenkinds DJ, Gloede L, Green AA. Changes in nutrient intake and dietary quality among participants with type 2 diabetes following a low-fat vegan diet or a conventional diabetes diet for 22 weeks. Journal of the American Diet Association. 2008 Oct; 108(10):1636-45.