(Crossposted on Hell Food.)

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From: DawnWatch - news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: Jul 25, 2006 4:33 PM
Subject: DawnWatch: Washington Post on vegan diets and diabetes 7/25/06

The Tuesday, July 25, Washington Post, has an interesting article on the cover of the Health section (Pg F01) by Sally Squires, headed, “‘Good’ Carbs To the Rescue.”

It opens:

“People with Type 2 diabetes are advised to limit carbohydrates because of worries that too many carbs could overtax the body’s dwindling insulin production and lessen its ability to process glucose.

“Now some scientists are asking if a very-low-fat diet rich in healthy carbohydrates — whole grains, beans, fruit and vegetables — might be another option.

“The idea borrows a lesson from the heart disease field, which has shown that very strict vegetarian diets quite low in fat and very high in carbohydrates can help reverse arterial blockages.”

Then Squires writes: “Such diets have proven very difficult to stick with, absent high motivation and plenty of support.”

On the benefits, she writes:

“In May, physician Dean Ornish, a proponent of the very-low-fat approach for reversing heart disease, reported that this regimen also helped a subset of people with both diabetes and heart disease.

“In the study, published in the American Journal of Cardiology, participants who followed the approach shed pounds. Blood levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), ‘bad’ cholesterol that raises heart disease risk, dropped. Levels of protective high-density lipoprotein (HDL) didn’t drop, and unhealthy fats known as triglycerides didn’t rise, as some researchers had feared. Another key finding: 20 percent of participants who stuck with the diet for a year were able to cut or eliminate their insulin and other glucose-lowering medications.

“Similar results are expected later this week from a study headed by the University of Toronto’s David Jenkins and Neal Barnard of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a pro-vegetarian group.”

We learn that in PCRM’s study, the group on the American Diabetes Association standard diet and PCRM’s vegan diet both improved blood sugar control and LDL cholesterol levels, but that the vegan group lost an average of 15 pounds, compared with six for the ADA group.

Then Squires suggests (again):

“Learning to go vegan takes effort, time and some sacrifice, however.”

You can read the whole article on line at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ OR tinyurl.com/otvt4

It cries out for letters from those who don’t find plant based diets difficult to follow or requiring of much sacrifice. The Washington Post takes letters at letters [at] washpost.com

Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Shorter letters are more likely to be published.

Yours and the animals’,
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi
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