A tough-love diet could reverse type 2 diabetes: SA study

A very low kilojoule diet has the potential to reverse type 2 diabetes, research in the UK and South Africa has found.

Eleven patients in Johannesburg who followed this diet (less than 3347 kilojoules/800 calories a day for an average of 3.8 weeks) could safely stop insulin therapy, based on case studies published in the South African Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

This result was similar to one this year from a study in Newcastle in the UK, in which 12 patients were able to reverse type 2 diabetes mellitus even after 10 years. The condition stayed reversed in patients who kept their weight down.

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Professor Roy Taylor, a medicine and metabolism specialist at Newcastle University, said: "The study also answered the question that people often ask me: 'If I lose the weight and keep the weight off, will I stay free of diabetes?' The simple answer is 'yes'.

"Interestingly, even though all our volunteers remained obese or overweight, the fat did not drift back to clog up the pancreas. The bottom line is that if a person really wants to get rid of their type2 diabetes, they can lose weight, keep it off and return to normal."

He cautions that this regimen (three diet shakes and non-starchy vegetables a day for the first two months) may not be suitable for everybody. The semi-starvation diet removes fat from the pancreas and returns its insulin production to normal, the results suggest.

The Newcastle study showed that diabetes would not return if patients did not regain the weight lost (on average 14kg), according to the results published in the journal Diabetes Care.

Dr Stanley Landau, from the Centre for Diabetes and Endocrinology in Johannesburg, said that the local volunteers, like those in Newcastle, had had terrific results. They had felt incentivised to stick to the very low-calorie diet.

Dr June Fabian said she had had one patient who successfully reversed her diabetes by eating healthily and being active.

Diabetes South Africa support group leader Carol Hendricks, 60, said she had had diabetes for about 30 years and lived a healthy life. "I had high sugar, high blood pressure and was overweight. I realised what you put in is what you get out, and I lost about 40kg," says Hendricks, who runs support groups in Mitchells Plain twice a week.

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She educates people about their risks for diabetes and how to manage it. Her mother had diabetes and her daughters are pre-diabetic.

If type 2 diabetes is effectively controlled, those who have it can live well with no symptoms.

Landau said: "There is misinformation that it is a death sentence ... Poorly controlled it can lead to complications like blindness and leg amputation but if it is well controlled people feel well."

Many people with diabetes or pre-diabetes do not realise they have it because they have no symptoms.

Banting-diet advocate Professor Tim Noakes said lifestyle changes like a high-fat diet had helped to prevent diabetes among people in rural Canada. The research was published in the South African Medical Journal in July this year.

In South Africa an estimated 3.5-million people have diabetes, said Diabetes South Africa national manger Margot McCumisky.

DID YOU KNOW?

There are three pillars of diabetes management:

• Education.

• Healthy eating and physical activity.

• Medication.

Risks for type 2 diabetes:

• A family history of diabetes.

• Being overweight.

• Being over 40 years old, with an unhealthy lifestyle.

Statistics:

• 422 million people had diabetes in 2014.

• The number of adults with diabetes worldwide has quadrupled since 1980,

•  The increase is fastest in low- and middle-income countries.

Source: Lancet Journal

For more information about diabetes, visit: diabetessa.org.za