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Vegetarian and vegan diets in type 2 diabetes management |
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| Authors: | Neal D Barnard Heather I Katcher David JA Jenkins Joshua Cohen Gabrielle Turner-McGrievy |
| Affiliation: | Department of Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC, USA.; Washington Center for Clinical Research, Washington, DC, USA.; Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, and Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Center, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Canada.; Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA. |
| Abstract: | Vegetarian and vegan diets offer significant benefits for diabetes management. In observational studies, individuals following vegetarian diets are about half as likely to develop diabetes, compared with non-vegetarians. In clinical trials in individuals with type 2 diabetes, low-fat vegan diets improve glycemic control to a greater extent than conventional diabetes diets. Although this effect is primarily attributable to greater weight loss, evidence also suggests that reduced intake of saturated fats and high-glycemic-index foods, increased intake of dietary fiber and vegetable protein, reduced intramyocellular lipid concentrations, and decreased iron stores mediate the influence of plant-based diets on glycemia. Vegetarian and vegan diets also improve plasma lipid concentrations and have been shown to reverse atherosclerosis progression. In clinical studies, the reported acceptability of vegetarian and vegan diets is comparable to other therapeutic regimens. The presently available literature indicates that vegetarian and vegan diets present potential advantages for the management of type 2 diabetes. |
| Keywords: | diabetes diet plant-based vegan vegetarian |