Not to long ago, the dogma that eating fat was a risk factor why someone could develop type 2 diabetes as well as other risk factors. Slowly but surely this information is changing and for the better. If someone you know is at risk or has type-2 diabetes, the information you’ll most likely receive from your General Practitioner (GP) would normally consists of things like; “stay away from sugar”, “don’t eat too much fruit” (this gets me every time), or “Don’t eat saturated fats”. Without the affliction of metabolic syndrome looming overhead, general health advice would be to reduce or cut out fats. Why?
Unless your GP is qualified to give out dietary advice, this should be left to a specialist. I would not sit down with clients and start diagnosing any clinical issues they may have. I tell them to see their doctor. It would then make sense for your GP to then send you on to someone who can help with the other side of things, right?
Type-2 diabetes today has become more of a lifestyle problem, as in years ago it was referred to as “adult-onset diabetes” or “non-insulin dependent”. Many moons ago, when we hit old age it was considered “normal” to become diabetic. With a little understanding and a few lifestyle changes, this can be halted or even reversed. What gets me is that if someone does develop type-2 later in life, some doctors would even go as far as prescribing the patient with insulin, knowing that its not an insulin deficiency.
Right, to the point. Should you listen when you’re told to cut out saturated fat (SFA)? Several recent studies have shown that SFA does not spike insulin like glucose does. In fact, one met-analysis (Imamura.F et al, 2016) showed that when 5% of carbohydrate energy was replaced with SFA, fasting glucose and fasting insulin levels were reduced. The same study also went as far as replacing SFA with polyunsaturated fat (PUFA). The results showed that PUFA helped significantly lower levels of glucose, HbA1c, C-peptide, and HOMA, in the blood.
All the food we eat is converted into glucose in the body. Simple sugars and processed grains (things made from white flour), have been shown in many cases to spike insulin more than any other macronutrient. Interestingly, protein can also spike insulin when it is digested and turned into glucose for energy, although this process takes longer to become glucose compared to the digestion of carbohydrates, that is the carbs that are not high in fibre, such as fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts.
It is commonly believed that SFA’s are also to blame for type-2 diabetes just as much as sugar. This might have something to do with certain information suggesting that animal fat (which is made up mostly of SFA) inhibits insulin from communicating with our cells and doesn’t allow glucose absorption. Is this a good enough reason to want to go vegan? Although I am all about good health and prevention/reversal of Type-2 Diabetes, at the time of writing this, there is no definitive answer to say that we shouldn’t consume SFA or that we should. Lets not forget that some plants contain SFA’s, such as coconuts and their oil counterparts. There are a couple of things that spring to mind for the demonisation of fats SAF in particular. The first being the 7 country study by Dr Ancel Keyes about SFA and its role in heart disease, that then created the whole “low-fat” craze. Well in fact it was actually 22 counties that were used but 7 were cherry picked to give the result that he or even people above him wanted. I am sure there are many reasons when searching online on why he did it, I wont speculate here. Another study done was on rabbits. Rabbits were fed cholesterol and fat over a certain period of time. What this had shown was that the rabbits developed heart disease and high cholesterol. This hasn’t proven anything, except showing us that an animal whose diet is primarily vegetables and other plants gets diseases when introduced something in their diet that shouldn’t belong. We are not rabbits; we can digest SFA
Should you eat fats if you’re pre-diabetic or have type-2 Diabetes? As far as unsaturated fats go, yes. Not only will they help with lowering fasting glucose, Hba1c, fasting insulin etc, but also they are really healthy, good for your heart and brain and can help lower weight and reduce your waist line. SFA’s I would go as far as to enjoy them in moderation, or if you believe that we should/shouldn’t have them that is up to you. Whether you’re a meat eater or veggi/vegan. Err on the side of caution though, until more evidence comes forward if you do go ahead eating SFA.
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