Type 2 diabetes: The fermented foods linked to lower rates of the condition

Type 2 diabetes can be a 'devastating diagnosis' says expert

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The World Health Organisation predicts that by 2030, diabetes will be the seventh leading cause of death worldwide. If left untreated, severe diabetes can heightened the risk of life-threatening conditions, including heart attacks, stroke, and heart disease. A new study has found fermented foods reduce inflammation and could lower rates of the condition.

Fermented foods are made by combining milk, vegetables and other raw ingredients with microorganisms like yeast and bacteria, making them rich in microorganisms.

A new study led, by the researchers at Stanford University, probed how fermented foods impacted the gut and immune system.

The team studied 36 healthy adults and randomly split them into two groups.

One group was asked to increase their intake of fibre-rich plant foods, while a second was instructed to eat more fermented foods, including yogurt, sauerkraut, kombucha, kefir, kimchi.

READ MORE: Type 2 diabetes: The sign on your toes of ‘advanced’ blood sugar damage – doctor’s warning

The participants were followed over the course of 10 weeks, while researchers tracked inflammation markers in their blood and analysed the microbiome in their gut.

Over the course of the study the participants in the first groups doubled their fibre intake, from about 22 grams to 45 grams per day.

The participants in the second group went from consuming almost no fermented foods to eating about six servings a day.

At the end of the 10-week period, neither group had significant changes in measures of overall immune health, however, the fermented food group showed significant reductions in 19 inflammatory compounds.

Among those compounds was interleukin-6, an inflammatory protein that tends to be elevated in diseases such as Type 2 diabetes.

The group who increased their intake of fibre did not show any decrease in the same inflammatory compounds.

Researchers noted that in the fermented food group, the reductions in inflammatory markers correlated with changes in the gut, which had harboured a wider and more diverse range of microbes.

However, only five percent of the microbes detected came from the fermented foods consumed.

Justin Sonnenburg, author of the new study and professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford, said: “The vast majority came from somewhere else, and we don’t know where.

“I think there were either low level microbes below the level of detection that bloomed, or the fermented foods did something that allowed the rapid recruitment of other microbes into the gut.

The first step in the development of type 2 diabetes is prediabetes, which means blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but are not yet high enough to be type 2 diabetes.

However, the long-term damage of diabetes, especially to the heart, blood vessel and kidneys, may already be starting.

Moreover, the same factors that increase the risk for developing type 2 diabetes, increase the risk for prediabetes.

These risk factors include high blood pressure, family history of diabetes and lack of physical fitness.

According to the NHS, symptoms of type 2 diabetes include:
Peeing more than usual
Feeling thirsty all the time
Feeling very tired
Losing weight
Itching around the penis or vagina, or repeatedly getting thrush
Cuts or wounds taking longer to heal

The health body said: “A GP can diagnose diabetes, you’ll need to do a blood test, which your may have to go to your local health centre for. The earlier the diabetes is diagnosed and treatment started, the better.”

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