Study Says Six Meals a Day is Best for Diabetic Patients

According to the research conducted by the Centers for Disease Control, more than 29 million people in America are diagnosed to have diabetes while 86 million are reported to have pre-diabetes. It is stated that one of the primary causes of the aggravating number of diabetes development among many is due to ‘insulin resistance.’ Insulin resistance is the major predictor of type 2 diabetes, obesity, and heart disease, which is primary triggered by carbs intake, hence increasing the blood sugar level.

However recently, the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (simply known as EASD) proved their research in the Annual Meeting held in Lisbon Portugal last September 11 to 15, 2017. They explained that six meals daily is better than three meals a day for regulating blood sugar among obese people who experience impaired glucose tolerance or known as full-blown type 2 diabetes.

The Study

In the study, Dr. Emilia Papakonstantinou (Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition in Athen, Greece) and her colleagues from Harokopio University, Athens University Medical School, and Attikon University Hospital, associated the effects of two meal patterns that have the same total calories right on satiety and glucose metabolism.

These recent studies found that lifestyle intervention for those who suffer from prediabetic symptoms could prevent or delay the progression to T2D (type 2 diabetes). But then, the author emphasized that they still don’t know the effect of meal frequency on glucose metabolism. Likewise, this research relates the effect of ingesting either six or three meals daily while calorie intakes are in constant number.

If you weren’t aware type 2 diabetes occurs when the body doesn’t respond anymore to the presence of insulin—known as insulin resistance. As a result, the body is less than able to get glucose from blood. In the early stages of type 2 diabetes, the body can still respond by means of producing more insulin than it normally produces. But if type 2 diabetes progresses over a number of years, the extra demand on the person’s pancreas to produce insulin might lead to loss of insulin-producing cells (referred to as pancreatic beta cells) as it wears out. People who have type 2 diabetes are hard to cure and need to undergo medication and a diet to control blood sugar level.

Meanwhile, the study had  47 people considered obese categorized into three groups, comprising of two smaller groups with prediabetes. On the other hand, there’s a group which have full-blown T2D. For 12 weeks prior on swapping over, they were all provided with specially tailored weight-maintaining diet for a 24-week duration of the entire study that was consumed in a six or three-meal pattern.

At the beginning and at the end of every intervention, blood samples were being taken to identify the amount of insulin and glucose and measure other range of health markers. These participants also had their weight taken every two weeks and were asked about their cravings, subjective hunger, and satiety.

The Result

While the weight of the body remained stable within the period of the study, most of the participants who were adhering the six-meal plan discovered that they reduced in terms of post-oral glucose tolerance test (blood glucose levels and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c). Meanwhile, for the groups which have prediabetes, that six-meal plan lessened the incidence of unusually high level of insulin within the group with extremely impaired glucose tolerance and at the same time slowed down the time taken to peak blood glucose right next to the ingestion of sugars.

With that, the three groups greatly decreased their hunger levels and cravings to eat right adhering strictly the six-meal plan unlike when they were ingesting three meals every day.

These researchers conclude that their 24-week weight maintenance research demonstrated that utilizing six-mean pattern rather than three meal while at the same time they both contain the same calories, reduced hunger, and enhanced blood sugar control among obese people with either full-blown diabetes or prediabetes.

These outcomes recommend that the improved frequency of meals that were consumed regularly is perhaps an effective tool for physicians when curing subjects with diabetes and obesity, particularly those who hesitate to diet.

Effective Monitoring Your Diabetes

Diabetes is a fatal health condition. It is when the white blood cells of the human body become so much higher than the red blood cells. This will result in difficulty in healing these cells and tissues, which can get worst to the extent of amputating affected parts of the body. By doing so, the chance of healing becomes a little higher, although not all are successful. If healing does not happen, the same body part will be amputated once again and again until there is nothing left to cut off. If effective monitoring of your diabetes is done, there is a huge chance that you can reverse some of these bad effects.

Diabetes today can already be tamed with the help of proper diet, exercise, and some supplements. With healthy food, which should be approved by your doctor, one can be assured that all those things that can trigger diabetes are not ingested. Exercise is also very important and is highly recommended by doctors. These activities can guarantee that the patient or the person suffering from diabetes is burning all those bad fats, thus reducing his or her chances of triggering diabetes. Supplements, on the other hand, is also very important in health monitoring, especially with regard to diabetes. These natural or synthetic medicines can help improve the insulin level of the body that helps reverse diabetes.

There is no total cure for diabetes but it can be monitored. This is through some health monitoring techniques that are recommended by top medical practitioners. Through these strategies, a doctor can finally provide data analysis. This study can offer some information on the best practices to prevent triggering diabetes. With that, people can be able to totally avert attacks on their diabetes, and thus live a healthier and happier life.

Diabetes health monitoring and data analysis are now at your hands through the power of the internet. Apps can even be used to help monitor diabetes and other data.

Conclusion 

The research simply denotes that it would be good if you’ll practice to eat ‘little and often.’ This could stop anyone who suffers from diabetes in eating foods that can throw off their healthy meal plans.

With the help of discipline and perseverance, achieving a healthy lifestyle despite a diabetic condition is possible. Whether it’s hereditary or not, there’s always something that can cure or prevent diabetes from ruining your life.