There was a time when type 2 diabetes was a disease that affected older adults only. The past few decades have unleashed the onset of this disease among children, adolescents and young adults around the world. Obesity is considered to be a major factor in this change. Generally, weight issues are the result of eating unhealthy food.
There was also a time when type 2 diabetes did not affect people in most “non-Western-diet” countries. But the increasing popularity of junk food over the past thirty years or so is believed to explain the rise of this life-threatening disease worldwide for all age groups.1 Again, the finger points at unhealthy food as the main culprit.
What’s Wrong with This Diet?
Highly processed food that is high in calories and low in nutrients can be considered “junk” particularly when it contains added salt, sugar and saturated or trans fat. Junk foods tend to be addictive and promote inflammation in the body. Consuming them more than twice a week increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.2
If people equate eating junk food with consuming inflammation, they would be correct. Inflammation is at the core of diseases such as diabetes, so why choose to feed on inflammatory nutrition when there are proven healthier choices?
The Proof Is in the Plants
With so much research on type 2 diabetes and “going plant-based”, it’s not always easy to make sense of it all. The Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health succeeded in putting it altogether in July 2019.
The data from nine recent studies were combined, examining nearly 24,000 cases of incident type 2 diabetes and over 300,000 participants.3 The conclusion: stick to a mostly plant-based diet to prevent type 2 diabetes.
References accessed August 30, 2019.
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