A study by researchers from the Dukes University Medical Center in the United States has found that changing the amount and type of carbohydrate the diet reduced the need for frequent medication in diabetics and obese patients. The authors recognised that manipulation of diet showed improvement in blood sugar control, need for diabetic medication reduction and weight loss. Results also showed that a low glycemic index diet without any weight loss could lead to improvement in diabetic control.  

Eat Well comment: At Eat Well we do not advise you to reduce prescribed medication without consulting your doctor. However we have seen great success in the past working in collaboration with medical professionals. Many of our patients have been able to reduce their level of medication by making specific changes to their diet.

Low carbohydrate diets encourage people to reduce their intake of starchy foods such as rice, potatoes, pasta and bread, sugars, fruits and some vegetables.  These diets have proved controversial as they have been linked to a number of health issues including kidney problems and heart disease. Now it seems that this type of diet may also affect mental performance.  The study published in the journal Appetite was conducted by scientists at Tufts university in the US.  The research involved 2 groups of women, one group followed a low carbohydrate diet, the other a low calorie diet.  The low carbohydrate diet invloved one week of eating no carbohydrates at all, one week of 5-8g of carbohydrate and one week of 10-16g.  The participants had to complete 5 cognitive tests before the diet and then at weeks 1, 2 and 3.  The study found that the low carbohydrate group perfomed worse on the menory based tasks than the low carbohydrate group but when carbohydrates were reintroduced into their diet, their scores improved.

Dark chocolate is in the news again with research that suggests that eating 100g of dark chocolate every day for 2 weeks can reduce your risk of heart disease. A study was conducted on a small group of adults with an average age of 44. All participants had high blood pressure and impaired glucose tolerance.  The study was conducted by L'Aquila university, Italy and Tufts University, in the US.  The partcipants were split into 2 groups, one group receiving 100g of either dark or white chocolate daily over a 15 day period.  After the 2 week period particpants on the dark chocolate regime had lower blood pressure, and decreased insulin resistance (which means improved blood sugar control). Those on the white chocolate diet did not experience these improvements.

Research from the Priceton Neuroscience institute suggests that animals show signs to addiction to sugar such as craving and relapse.  The research conducted in the department of Psychology, encourage rats to 'binge' on a sugar solution in addition to their normal diet.  After a month on this diet, the rats had adpated to higher levels of dopamine (a brain chemical produced as a result of pleasurable sensations such as eating). The rats were then subjected to a prolonged period without sugar. When sugar was reintroduced the rats worked harder than previously to obtain the sugar and their consumption increased.  Withdrawal symptoms were observed in the rats when they were deprived of sugar. These included a fall in dopamine levels and chattering teeth.  The research team believe their findings may help in the understanding of eating disorders.