Wellfie Wednesday Tip #150: Reducing Diabetes with Plant-Based Foods

Happy Wellfie Wednesday! Welcome back!

This week’s tip looks at following a plant-based dietary pattern and it’s associated reduction in risk of developing diabetes. A new systematic review and meta-analysis was released on Monday, which found that greatest adherence to a plant-based pattern produced a 23% lower risk of developing diabetes. And greater adherence was said to be a predominant/frequent consumption of a “healthy” plant-based pattern that consists of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts.

Benefits of following a plant-based pattern have been found to far exceed that of just reducing diabetes, and has also been found to reduce lipid cholesterol, reduced risk of coronary heart disease, and reduce systemic inflammation within the body. And even for those with a diagnosis of diabetes, adopting a more plant-based pattern is found to be an excellent component of disease management, improving glycemic index and insulin sensitivity.

Now know that other factors are at play for risk of developing diabetes, but chances are good that you can successfully reduce that risk substantially with a healthy eating pattern, adequate physical activity, sufficient sleep, and maintenance of a healthy weight. And if adopting a more plant-based pattern is something you’d like to try out, remember to start small and gradually make changes for sustainability.

Thank you for all of the #WellfieWednesday support, be sure to post your pictures this week that demonstrate your active patriotism and tag the WW crew members in your post (@TheFuelPhysio, @Eric_in_AmERICa, @AaronPerezPT, @DianaKlatt) and keep the wave of healthy change going!

- WW Crew

Qian F, Liu G, Hu FB, Bhupathiraju SN, Sun Q. Association Between Plant-Based Dietary Patterns and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. Published online July 22, 2019. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2019.2195