Eating more ultra-processed foods, from diet sodas to packaged crackers to certain cereals and yoghurts, is closely associated with higher blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes, says a British university study. Presented by a team of researchers in nutritional science, kinesiology, and health education. Texas at Austin discovered.
In a recently published paper, Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and DieteticsThe researchers found that consuming more ultra-processed foods, which are loaded with additives and not just sugar and salt in your diet, can lead to higher average blood sugar levels over months, a measurement called HbA1C. It is explained that there is a sex.
“There are many ways to monitor and measure healthy eating habits,” says lead author Marissa Bergermaster, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Texas. “We set out to find out which measurements were associated with glycemic control in people with type 2 diabetes. The more ultra-processed foods a person has in their diet, the worse their glycemic control, and We found that the more minimally processed or unprocessed foods in your diet, the better your blood sugar control.”
The study used baseline data from an ongoing clinical trial called Texas Strength Through Resilience in Diabetes Education (TX STRIDE), led by Mary Steinhardt of the University of Texas College of Education. Participants included 273 African American adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes who were recruited through Austin-area churches. Each participant provided two 24-hour dietary recalls and a blood sample to measure HbA1C.
The researchers examined meal memories and scored them against three widely used indicators of the overall quality and nutrition of a person's diet, but these tools are not related to glycemic control. It wasn't. Instead, how many grams of ultra-processed foods participants ate or drank was associated with worse control and, accordingly, more whole foods or minimally processed foods. Better control occurred in participants who ate or drank.
Recent studies have shown that eating more ultra-processed foods is associated with higher rates of cardiovascular disease, obesity, sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, and premature death. Although ultra-processed foods typically contain high amounts of added sugar and sodium, researchers believe that the increase in A1C is not simply due to added sugar and sodium, but rather due to the overall nutritional quality of the diet. We conclude that there is a correlation with tools that measure The paper's author, graduate student Erin Hudson, hypothesizes that synthetic flavors, added colors, emulsifiers, artificial sweeteners and other artificial ingredients may be partly to blame. This may suggest that dietary guidelines may need to start giving more weight to ultra-diet foods. -Processed foods.
For study participants not on insulin therapy, HbA1C levels were on average 0.28 percentage points higher for diets containing 10% more total grams of ultra-processed foods. Conversely, people whose diets included 10% more total minimally processed or unprocessed foods had HbA1C levels that were, on average, 0.30 percentage points lower. An HbA1C of less than 7 is considered ideal for people with type 2 diabetes, and those who consumed 18% or less of ultra-processed foods on average were more likely to meet this criterion.
The paper's authors are also UT Austin's Jaimie N. Davis, Keally Haushalter, Hirofumi Tanaka, and Susan K. Dubois. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.