We could all benefit from added fiber in our diets. However, it seems the type of fiber consumed is important too. A new study concludes that vegetable fiber is a good defence against type 2 diabetes. The study comes courtesy of researchers at the University of Sydney, Australia, who found that adults eating five grams of vegetable fiber daily were 24 percent less likely than other adults to develop the disease. People over the age of seventy enjoyed a thirty-one percent risk reduction.The study tracked the eating habits of more than two thousand people over a ten year period. Wow. The researchers also reported that those whose diets contained fiber from mainly cereal or fruit sources did not fare so well - they had a higher risk for type 2 diabetes than those getting lots of fiber from veggie sources. The reason could be that foods high in vegetable fiber produce smaller fluctuations in blood glucose and insulin levels than would cereal or fruits. Lead researcher, Alan Barclay, says legumes are the best fiber source of all.
The results have been published in the latest Diabetes Care.
