Heena Sharma Blog

Can sugar be the sole culprit for making India the diabetes capital of the world? Well, if some experts and sugar industry representatives are to be believed, the sweetener is being unnecessarily dragged into the controversy over rising cases of diabetes in the country, especially as a host of factors, including sedentary lifestyle and growing urbanisation, are causing diabetes. In a seminar on 'Sugar and Health', organised by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), the premier association of private sugar factories in the country, industry players said there was an annual increase of 6.25 per cent in diabetes cases in the country between 2000 and 2016. During the same period, per capita sugar consumption grew by only 1.23 per cent. ISMA’s efforts to highlight the health benefits of sugar come at a time when India is staring at a massive glut in the sugar market, with production in the 2018-19 sugar season (October to November) projected at around 30-31 million to...

Eating an egg daily can have a beneficial effect on the blood metabolite profile that is related to a lower risk of Type-2 diabetes , a new study shows. The findings showed that the blood samples of men who ate more eggs included certain lipid molecules that positively correlated with the blood profile of men who remained free of Type-2 diabetes . "The study explored potential compounds that could explain this association using non-targeted metabolomics, a technique that enables a broad profiling of chemicals in a sample," said lead author Stefania Noerman from the University of Eastern Finland. Eggs remain one of the most controversial food items. High intake of eggs has traditionally been discouraged, mainly due to their high cholesterol content. However, eggs are also a rich source of many bioactive compounds that can have beneficial effects on health. This means that the health effects of consuming eggs are difficult to determine based solely on thei...

The findings of a recent study suggest that artificial sweeteners may not help with weight loss. The research, published in the journal The BMJ, also stated that there is not enough evidence on their safety.                                         Growing concerns about health and quality of life have encouraged many people to adopt healthier lifestyles and avoid foods rich in sugars, salt, or fat. Foods and drinks containing non-sugar sweeteners rather than regular ("free") sugars have therefore become increasingly popular. Although several non-sugar sweeteners are approved for use, less is known about their potential benefits and harms within acceptable daily intakes because the evidence is often limited and conflicting. To better understand these potential benefits and...

Turns out, alcohol consumption may attenuate long-term weight loss in adults with Type 2 diabetes . It was earlier noted that losing weight can help prevent or delay the onset of diabetes. While the best practice for weight loss often includes decreasing or eliminating calories from alcohol , few studies examined whether people who undergo weight loss treatment report changes in alcohol intake and whether alcohol influences their weight loss. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania suggested that while alcohol consumption is not associated with short-term weight loss during a lifestyle intervention, it is associated with long-term weight loss in people with overweight or obesity and Type 2 diabetes, In the study, close to 5,000 people who were overweight and had diabetes were followed for four years. One group participated in Intensive Lifestyle Intervention (ILI) and the other in a control group consisting of diabetes support and education. Read More Business...

While Type-2 diabetes is expected to rise by more than a fifth, from 406 million in 2018 to 511 million in 2030 globally, India along with China and the US will share over half of these high blood sugar cases , say researchers led by one of an Indian-origin, while asserting the need to improve access for the life saving insulin. The study, published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology journal, showed that China (130 million) followed by India (98 million), and the US (32 million) will constitute over half of Type-2 diabetics by 2030. As a result, the amount of insulin needed to effectively treat Type-2 diabetes will rise by more than 20 per cent worldwide over the next 12 years. Compared to current levels of insulin access, if universal global access was achieved (with a treatment target of HbA1c -- measure of blood glucose) seven per cent or lower, the number of people with Type-2 diabetes worldwide using insulin in 2030 would double from around 38 million (7....

Drinking three to four cups of coffee a day can lower your risk of developing Type-2 diabetes by nearly 25 per cent, suggests a study. The effect of coffee consumption on Type-2 diabetes was found in both men and women. The same protective effect applied to consuming the same amount of decaffeinated coffee, the study showed. It was not just caffeine, but a mix of compounds including hydroxycinnamic acids notably chlorogenic acid, trigonelline, diterpenes eg cafestol and kahweol, and caffeic acid, that is said to be the reason behind the link, said Mattias Carlstrom, Associate Professor from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. The results were presented at 2018 Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Germany. For the study, the team reviewed 30 prospective studies, with a total of 1,185,210 participants. Professor Kjeld Hermansen from the Aarhus University in Denmark, suggests that a number of factors may be involved in...

Including almonds in the diet may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with type 2 diabetes, researchers have found. According to the International Diabetes Federation, diabetes currently affects over 425 million people worldwide, and more than 72.9 million cases were reported in India in 2017. A study, published in the Journal of Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, on 50 Indians with type 2 diabetes and elevated cholesterol levels, found that substituting whole, unroasted almonds for 20 calories in a well-balanced diet significantly improved measures of heart health linked to type 2 diabetes. Another study, published in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism, looked at the effect of including 60 grammes of almonds a day on maintenance of blood sugar levels and cardiovascular disease factors among 33 Chinese participants with type 2 diabetes. While the almond diet offered better overall nutritional quality, neither diet -- with or without al...

A new study has found that prior to the onset of type 2 diabetes (T2D), women with versus without prediabetes experience significantly have larger adverse differences in their cardio metabolic health than men. However, the mechanisms responsible for these sex differences remain a mystery. The research, conducted by the Maastricht University Medical Centre, aimed to evaluate sex-related differences in cardiovascular risk factor levels, both before and after the onset of T2D. T2D is known to reduce or even reverse the protective effect of being female on the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The metabolic changes that eventually lead to T2D can precede the development of hyperglycemia (caused by poorly controlled blood glucose levels) by years or even decades. Despite this, there has been a little investigation into whether women suffer a relatively worse cardiometabolic risk profile before developing the disease. Read Complete Article Business Standard

Turns out, a high gluten intake by mothers during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of their child developing type 1 diabetes. Gluten is a general name for the proteins found in wheat, rye, and barley and is suggested to affect the development of type 1 diabetes . In animal studies, a gluten-free diet during pregnancy almost completely prevented type 1 diabetes in offspring. To better understand the nature of this association, researchers set out to examine whether gluten intake during pregnancy is associated with subsequent risk of type 1 diabetes in children. Read Complete Article Article Source >> Business Standard