Vegetarians and Diabetes
When you find out that you have diabetes it is easy to become overwhelmed by, all that you will need to do to manage this disease. Diet will be the first issue addressed by your physician because this is the area that has the biggest impact on treatment. Some people turn to strict diets that eliminate all animal products and sugar. Vegetarianism and diabetes has gotten a lot of attention over the years. Is it a good path to take?
Diabetes is a disease where your body cannot produce enough insulin. Insulin is what carries glucose in the blood and then to the cells to fuel them. If you have diabetes either your cells are not using the insulin correctly or the pancreas does not make enough insulin. This all causes a build up of blood sugar which can cause problems for your health.
Vegetarianism is a life change. You can go as strict as not eating meat at all or you can with other vegetarian diets you can eat mean on special occasions.
Whether you extremely strict or more lenient on whole a vegetarian diet are lower in calories than an average diet. Since weight, loss is a major goal of most diabetics this is a good plan. Weight loss can reduce the cells resistance to insulin, which in turn allows them to process sugar like they are supposed to.
A vegetarian diet contains little or no animal products; this in turn reduces fat and cholesterol in the diet, which reduces the occurrence of other complications from diabetes. Namely cardiovascular and kidney disease, two of the most common complications.
There are many health benefits of a vegetarian diet. Lower cholesterol and calories will increase overall health and have been shown to reduce insulin resistance in patients with type II diabetes. Overall vegetarianism as a diabetes treatment plan has little if any downside.
