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For long, we've been told that the key to healthy living is several small meals a deal. A new research however suggests that fasting could be the key to warding off diabetes.
Fasting can reduce cholesterol levels in prediabetic people over extended period of time, according to a new research. The research on periodic fasting has identified a biological process in the body that converts bad cholesterol in fat cells to energy, thus combating diabetes risk factors. Researchers at the Intermountain Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, noticed that after 10 to 12 hours of fasting, the body starts scavenging for other sources of energy throughout the body to sustain itself. The body pulls LDL (bad) cholesterol from the fat cells and uses it as energy. 'Fasting has the potential to become an important diabetes intervention,' said Benjamin Horne, director of cardiovascular and genetic epidemiology at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute and lead researcher on the study.
'Though we've studied fasting and it's health benefits for years, we didn't know why it could provide benefits we observed related to the risk of diabetes.' Prediabetes means the amount of glucose, also called sugar, in the blood is higher than normal but not high enough to be called diabetes. Research by Horne and his team in 2011 focused on he8althy people during one day of fasting and showed th8at routine, water-only fasting was associated with lower gl8u8cose levels and weight loss. pti 'When we studied the effects of fasting in apparently healthy people, cholesterol levels increased during the one-time 24-hour fast,' said Horne.'The changes that were most interesting or unexpected were all related to metabolic health and diabetes risk. (Read: 10 tips to keep your blood sugar under control (Gallery))
'Together with our prior studies that showed decades of routine fasting was associated with a lower risk of diabetes and coronary artery disease, this led us to think that fasting is most impactful for reducing the risk of diabetes and related metabolic problems,' Horne said. Horne launched the new study to look at the effects of fasting in prediabetics over an extended period of time. The study participants were prediabetics, including men and women between the ages of 30 and 69 with a least three metabolic risk factors. (Read: Beat diabetes with these 7 foods (Gallery)
These risk factors include a large waistline, a high triglyceride level, a low HDL or 'good' cholesterol level, high blood pressure and high fasting blood sugar. 'During actual fasting days, cholesterol went up slightly in this study, as it did in our prior study of healthy people, but we did notice that over a six-week period cholesterol levels decreased by about 12 per cent in addition to the weight loss,' said Horne. 'Because we expect that the cholesterol was used for energy during the fasting episodes and likely came from fat cells, this leads us to believe fasting may be an effective diabetes intervention,' Horne said. (Read: 10 ways to control diabetes naturally)
How to prevent diabetes?
Diabetes has already become a huge epidemic of our times, and the number of diabetics will keep on increasing over the next 20 years or probably beyond that. A lot is being said and written about controlling diabetes and living a healthy life with diabetes, but the prevention aspect of diabetes also needs to be highlighted. The most disturbing part of this disease is that you cannot tell if you're destined to be a diabetic. Therefore, it's better to take the right measures beforehand and keep diabetes at bay.
1. Get your sugar levels checked: A lot of people have prediabetes (fasting sugar: 100-125 mg/dl) and are totally clueless about it. A blood sugar test will help you to understand whether you're prediabetic and what are your chances of developing diabetes. If you get diagnosed with prediabetes, then you can take the right steps and prevent it from transforming into irreversible diabetes. Here are things you should know about prediabetes.
2. Change your lifestyle: Sometimes, small changes can make a huge difference. Lifestyle intervention for preventing diabetes is the best example for this. Several studies on diabetes prevention programme have proved that diabetes can be prevented effectively by giving up sedentary lifestyle and adopting healthier changes. Read more about sedentary lifestyle and diabetes risk.
3. Eat healthy: Eat a healthy diet that has low calories, especially low saturated fats. Trials have shown that fat intake should not exceed 30 percent of the total calorie intake, whereas saturated fats should be restricted to just 10 percent. Include more of vegetables, fresh fruits, whole grains, dairy products and sources of omega 3 fats. Also, increase your fibre intake. Here's how fibre can help you to prevent diabetes.
4. Eat smart by limiting your portion size: How much you eat and when you eat is as important as what you eat. Reducing portion size and dividing meals throughout the day reduces the risk of obesity and diabetes.Eatingproportionately will definitely be more helpful than starving yourself and overeating later due to excessive hunger. Irregularity in pattern of eating also causes drastic changes in blood sugar levels. (Read: 10 tips to prevent diabetes)
With inputs from PTI
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