Article content
Diabetes is difficult to treat. However, you should know that there are a number of natural substances that improve its course and reduce the need to take medications.
Many plants have strong antidiabetic effects and have been used to treat this disease for centuries.
The problem is that in today’s world full of pharmaceutical drugs these time-tested remedies are sometimes somewhat forgotten.
And one group of crops that are extremely beneficial for diabetes are certain types of legumes. We’ll talk more about them in our article today.
What happens in the body with diabetes?
Before we move on to the mentioned legumes, it is necessary to clarify how diabetes actually affects our body.
It is a rather serious metabolic disorder in which the beta cells in the pancreas lose the ability to produce insulin, which ensures a stable blood sugar level.
Sharp sugar swings can on one hand lead to hypoglycemia when there is too little in the blood. A person then faces collapse due to lack of energy.
The opposite extreme is high blood sugar levels, which cause overloading of the kidneys, liver and other organs.
Long-term unbalanced blood sugar levels cause a whole range of serious health complications – from swelling, through nerve numbness to blindness.
The current medical solution for diabetes is the regular administration of insulin in injectable form. However, it is a rather unpleasant procedure that significantly reduces patients’ quality of life.
The most common undesirable side effects of traditional diabetes treatment include:
- weight gain
- edema
- retention of fluids in the body
- liver disease
- many others
The biggest problem of current diabetes treatment, however, is that it is essentially not even a cure, but only maintenance of the condition and an effort to prevent possible complications.
What did studies find about the impact of legumes on diabetes?
Many medical experts recommend that, in addition to regular insulin use, patients also undergo a change in their lifestyle.
This will help them reduce the need to take medication and, not least, improve quality of life.
And among the things that need to be changed is the recommendation to consume larger amounts of certain types of legumes and cereals.
These types of foods reduce the body’s insulin resistance, meaning the body better utilizes the insulin it still produces, or the insulin that is artificially administered.
With type 2 diabetes, the body still produces some insulin, but cannot use it.
The European Association for the Study of Diabetes, the Canadian Diabetes Association and the American Diabetes Association all recommend legumes as a natural way to control blood sugar.
According to an analysis of 41 studies conducted in Canada, which included over 1,000 patients, legumes are indeed the best way to maintain stable blood sugar.
Which legumes are best for diabetes?
Some legumes have proven more effective for diabetes than others.
The best of all turned out to be chickpeas.
Besides them, black and pinto beans are also fairly effective; they proved somewhat more effective than the common bean.
When observing the rise in blood sugar levels after consuming rice, it was found that if rice is consumed together with the mentioned types of beans, its level stabilizes much faster.
Red and dark beans proved to be less effective.
How do legumes stabilize blood sugar?
The mechanism of action of legumes is that they contain substances that block the action of enzymes that digest starches.
These then pass through the intestine undigested and provide food for beneficial gut bacteria.
Inhibition of the enzyme amylase has a similar effect to some conventional diabetes drugs.
Regular consumption of the mentioned types of legumes also normalizes A1C hemoglobin levels. The effect is as good as with pharmaceutical preparations.
This makes legumes an ideal natural remedy against diabetes.
