Dealing with Type 2 diabetes is costing the health service a staggering £10 billion a year as nearly four million Brits now suffer from the illness.
The NHS is sitting on a diabetes time-bomb.
Dealing with Type 2 diabetes is costing the health service a staggering £10 billion a year as nearly four million Brits now suffer from the illness.
And it is estimated that a staggering 11 million of us have an increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Dr Naresh Kanumilli said: “If you look at the incidents of diabetes that is going to happen in 2030, it far outnumbers the numbers of cancers put together.”
Ninety per cent of people with Type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese – so it appears that what we eat may be a big part of the problem.
And now doctors have proven that diet can be a cure for some people with diabetes.
Professor Roy Taylor and his team at Newcastle University have been doing ground-breaking research on the condition.
Using an MRI scan they can reveal the hidden carnage inside people's bodies – the amount of fat inside their liver and pancreas which can indicate their risk of developing diabetes.
People with an excessively high percentage of fat in their livers are at an increased risk.
But the doctors have have been able to show that just two months of dietary changes can make dramatic improvements.
And it is thought that carefully combining certain foods can be key on controlling blood sugar levels and therefore Type 2 diabetes.
Professor Taylor tells ITV's Tonight Programme: “We've been able to show that with eight weeks of very low calorie diet we could not only get the liver back to normal, but also wake up the pancreas and diabetes had gone.
"So a very striking finding because no-one had ever watched the pancreas waking up and going back to normal before.
“Some individuals hearing about this have put their own interpretations on it and have done exactly the same, cutting back to seven/eight hundred calories just with ordinary food stuffs and that is fine.”
Peter Maher had been diabetic for the last three decades and was injecting insulin daily. But when he read Professor Taylor's research he decide to have a go himself.
He cut back on carbohydrates, reduced his portion sizes and focused on eating combinations of foods that kept his blood sugar low.
He says: “Over time I developed a whole new menu of things that not only I could eat but I really enjoyed eating. And as long as you keep your carbohydrate under control you can have some really delicious meals.
"One of my favourites is to go out to a restaurant and have a steak and a salad – zero carbohydrate. And once you understand that you know dieting is a dream.”
After four months Peter dropped two and a half stone, his blood sugar levels came down and he was able to come off insulin altogether.
He says: “So I had gone from a position at the start of March pumping loads of stuff into my body and by mid-August, simply by changing what I ate all of my diabetic symptoms were improving and medication was down to zero.”
Medicinal chef Dale Pinnock says people should look for carbohydrates with low GI levels – the Glycemic Index being what measures how quickly carbs are turned into sugar in our bodies.
He says people should be looking to ditch the chips in favour of good quality carbs like brown rice and combine them with a good quality protein like a chicken breast.
Dale says this creates a meal which takes longer to digest and in turn releases its energy much more slowly.
Claire Poole was quite cynical about Dale's methods - until she tried them for herself. She is overweight, using medication to control her type 2 diabetes symptoms and admits one of her favourite meals is homemade sausage pie and chips.
Before eating her regular meal she tested her blood glucose level which was 7.7. Official recommendations say it should only rise to a maximum of 8.5 two hours after eating. But instead it shot up to 15.9
But under Dale's guidance she has managed to keep her blood sugar levels much more controlled after a meal.
She cooked one of his recipes, chicken breast, bacon and puy lentils - and her blood glucose level only rose to eight.
Last year school welfare worker Val Cornall had a routine test which revealed she had a very high blood sugar level putting her at risk of type 2 diabetes.
She weighed over 16 stone at the time and the diagnosis was the incentive she needed to lose weight.
She followed an eight week diet, specifically aimed at reducing foods that cause a spike in blood-sugar levels.
Full fat dairy, meat, nuts, salads, porridge and veg were in, and high sugar foods – including high sugar fruits - and her favourite fish and chips were out.
In just eight weeks she lost two stone. She says: “I kept losing weight. I have lost weight every week since then and I have lost six stone and 11 pounds so far.
"I feel much fitter and much healthier and my blood glucose is now back to normal...and I am really thankful and relieved about that.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/can-your-diet-defeat-diabetes-9137229
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