Diabetes is one of the most common diseases that are prevalent across the country. It is a group of metabolic diseases that result in surged blood sugar levels. As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), diabetes may emerge to be the seventh leading cause of deaths in the year 2030. While it is impossible to cure diabetes, one has to manage it through eating a healthy diet, engaging in exercises and leading a healthy and fit lifestyle. Most health experts suggest that diabetics or people who are at a risk of developing the disease, should eat fibre-rich foods to stabilise the blood sugar levels. Turns out, this may be true. According to the study published in the Journal of Nutrition, consuming whole-grains like a slice of rye bread or a bowl of oat porridge daily can prevent the development of type-2 diabetes.
The study showed that it made no difference which type of whole-grain product or cereal the participants ate- rye bread, oatmeal, and muesli, for example, seem to offer the same protection against type-2 diabetes. For the study, the team included 55,000 participants, over a period of 15 years. In the study, men with the highest whole-grain intake- at least 50 grams of whole-grain each day, corresponding to a portion of oatmeal porridge, and one slice of rye bread- had a 34 percent lower risk of diabetes, while women had 222 percent lower risk, than people who had eaten less whole-grains.
According to the researchers, most studies similar to this one have previously been conducted in the US, where people mainly get their whole-grain from wheat. They wanted to see if there was a difference between different cereals. One might expect there would be; because they contain different types of dietary fibre and bioactive substances, which have been shown to influence risk factors for type-2 diabetes.
Whole grains are defined as consisting of all three main components of the grain kernel; endosperm, germ and bran. Those who avoid all cereals, in an attempt to follow a low-carb diet, therefore, lose out on the positive health effects of whole-grain, which come principally from the bran and the germ.