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Overweight
adults can reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes by eating
a diet rich in whole grains, according to researchers at Harvard
University.
Researchers
gave eleven overweight or obese adults a diet rich in whole-grain
foods, including brown rice, oats, corn and barley. All of
the participants were sedentary and had a body mass index
of at least 27.
For six
weeks, the participants consumed a diet that was 55 percent
carbohydrate and 30 percent fat, including six to ten servings
per day of breakfast cereal, bread, rice, pasta, muffins,
cookies, and snacks of either whole or refined grains.
As a result,
the groups' insulin sensitivity improved, showing the body
was more efficiently responding to insulin, the hormone that
converts glucose in the blood into energy. Their insulin levels
were ten percent lower and blood glucose levels were slightly
reduced when the participants at the diet included whole grains,
according to the study published in the American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition.
"Insulin
sensitivity may be an important mechanism whereby whole-grain
foods reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease,"
concluded the researchers.
Source:
Medical Week staff,
week of May 12, 2002
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