Monday 14 November 2011

Fruit, nuts and diabetes

Well it seems that eating almonds at mealtimes may help reduce glucose excursions in the short term and improve glycaemic control in the long term [1]. Good news if you have diabetes and like nuts.

However, the picture is more complex for bananas. Apparently there are different species of banana but they all have a reassuringly favourable glycaemic index of about 60 - 70 [2]. The best bananas are, of course, Fairtrade bananas.


1. Cohen AE, Johnston CS. Almond ingestion at mealtime reduces postprandial glycemia and chronic ingestion reduces hemoglobin A(1c) in individuals with well-controlled type 2 diabetes mellitus. Metab. Clin. Exp. 2011 Sep;60(9):1312-1317. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21489570

2. Hettiaratchi UPK, Ekanayake S, Welihinda J. Chemical compositions and glycemic responses to banana varieties. Int J Food Sci Nutr 2011 Jun;62(4):307-309. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21250902

1 comment: