There’s a reason that professional diabetes associations recommend bean, chickpea, split pea, and lentil consumption as a means of optimizing diabetes control.
Diabetics Should Take Their Pulses
4.4/5 - (107 votes)
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
How did doctors treat diabetes before insulin? Almost a thousand medicinal plants [were] described as antidiabetic agents,…most of [which] have been used in traditional medicine.” And, these included beans. Of course, just because something has been used for centuries doesn’t mean it’s safe. Other treatments for diabetes have included arsenic and uranium. Thankfully, many of these remedies fell by the wayside, but “[s]cientific interest in the antidiabetic potential of bean[s] never vanished completely, and even was raised in the past decade.”
“Health authorities from all over the world universally recommend increasing [the] consumption of whole grains and legumes for health promoting diets.” And, one of the reasons is that they may decrease insulin resistance—the defining trait of type 2 diabetes.
“Diabetes…[is] a global public health…epidemic. Although [oral hypoglycemic medications] and injected insulin are the mainstay…treatment[s] of diabetes and are effective in controlling [high blood sugars], they have prominent side effects and fail to significantly alter the course of diabetic complications.” [C]ommon side effects [include] weight gain, [swelling],…liver disease.”
But, I want to emphasize that second part. “[T]he mainstay [of diabetic] treatment fail[s] to significantly alter the course of diabetic complications.” Shouldn’t that be the whole point of treatment? Thankfully, “lifestyle modifications have proven to be greatly effective in the management of this disease.” And, if there is one thing diabetics should eat, it’s legumes: beans, chickpeas, split peas, and lentils.
The European Association for the Study of Diabetes, the Canadian Diabetes Association, and the American Diabetes Association all “recommend the consumption of dietary pulses as a means of optimising diabetes control.” What are pulses? They’re peas and beans that come dried, so a subset of legumes, so excluding green beans and fresh green peas, which are considered more like vegetable crops, and also excluding the so-called oilseeds—soybeans and peanuts.
This review compiled 41 “randomised controlled experimental trials,” including more than a thousand patients, corroborating the official “diabetes association nutrition guidelines recommending the consumption of pulses as a means of optimising diabetes control.” Any better than any of the others? Well, some of the strongest evidence came from the studies that used chickpeas, and in terms of beans, pintos and black beans may beat out kidney beans. Compared to the blood sugar spike of straight white rice, black beans and rice, and pinto beans and rice appeared to beat out kidney beans and rice. This may be because “dark red kidney [beans] [can] have lower levels of indigestible starch.” One of the reasons beans are so healthy is they contain compounds that partially block our starch-digesting enzyme, which allows some starch to make it down to our colon to feed our good gut bacteria.
And, in fact, the inhibition of this starch-eating enzyme, amylase, just by eating beans, approximates that of a carb-blocking drug, acarbose, sold as Precose, “a popular diabetes medication.” The long-term use of beans may normalize hemoglobin A1C levels (which is how you track diabetes) “almost as well as” the drug, without drug side effects, with names like “acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis.”
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- U Schlemmer, W Frolich, R M Prieto, F Grases. Phytate in foods and significance for humans: Food sources, intake, processing, bioavailability, protective role and analysis. Mol Nutr Food Res 2009 53 - Suppl - 2:S330 – 75.
- P Singhal, G Kaushik, P Mathur. Antidiabetic potential of commonly consumed legumes: A review. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 2014 54(5):655 – 672.
- J L Sievenpiper, C W C Kendall, A Esfahani, J M W Wong, A J Carleton, H Y Jiang, R P Bazinet, E Vidgen, D J A Jenkins. Effect of non-oil-seed pulses on glycaemic control: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled experimental trials in people with and without diabetes. Diabetologia 2009 52(8):1479 – 1495.
- S V Thompson, D M Winham, A M Hutchins. Bean and rice meals reduce postprandial glycemic response in adults with type 2 diabetes: A cross-over study. Nutr J 2012 11:23.
- S Song, H Y Paik, Y Song. High intake of whole grains and beans pattern is inversely associated with insulin resistance in healthy Korean adult population. Diabetes Res Clin Pract 2012 98(3):e28 – 31.
- A Helmstadter. Antidiabetic drugs used in Europe prior to the discovery of insulin. Pharmazie 2007 62(9):717 – 720.
- Helmstadter A. Beans and diabetes: Phaseolus vulgaris preparations as antihyperglycemic agents. J Med Food. 2010 Apr;13(2):251-4.
Images thanks to Osseous, k.landerholm, and Stacy Spensley via Flickr.
- alternative medicine
- American Diabetes Association
- arsenic
- beans
- black beans
- blood sugar
- chickpeas
- colon health
- complementary medicine
- diabetes
- dietary guidelines
- Europe
- grains
- green beans
- insulin
- kidney beans
- legumes
- lifestyle medicine
- liver health
- medications
- peanuts
- peas
- pinto beans
- prediabetes
- rice
- side effects
- soybeans
- vegetables
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
How did doctors treat diabetes before insulin? Almost a thousand medicinal plants [were] described as antidiabetic agents,…most of [which] have been used in traditional medicine.” And, these included beans. Of course, just because something has been used for centuries doesn’t mean it’s safe. Other treatments for diabetes have included arsenic and uranium. Thankfully, many of these remedies fell by the wayside, but “[s]cientific interest in the antidiabetic potential of bean[s] never vanished completely, and even was raised in the past decade.”
“Health authorities from all over the world universally recommend increasing [the] consumption of whole grains and legumes for health promoting diets.” And, one of the reasons is that they may decrease insulin resistance—the defining trait of type 2 diabetes.
“Diabetes…[is] a global public health…epidemic. Although [oral hypoglycemic medications] and injected insulin are the mainstay…treatment[s] of diabetes and are effective in controlling [high blood sugars], they have prominent side effects and fail to significantly alter the course of diabetic complications.” [C]ommon side effects [include] weight gain, [swelling],…liver disease.”
But, I want to emphasize that second part. “[T]he mainstay [of diabetic] treatment fail[s] to significantly alter the course of diabetic complications.” Shouldn’t that be the whole point of treatment? Thankfully, “lifestyle modifications have proven to be greatly effective in the management of this disease.” And, if there is one thing diabetics should eat, it’s legumes: beans, chickpeas, split peas, and lentils.
The European Association for the Study of Diabetes, the Canadian Diabetes Association, and the American Diabetes Association all “recommend the consumption of dietary pulses as a means of optimising diabetes control.” What are pulses? They’re peas and beans that come dried, so a subset of legumes, so excluding green beans and fresh green peas, which are considered more like vegetable crops, and also excluding the so-called oilseeds—soybeans and peanuts.
This review compiled 41 “randomised controlled experimental trials,” including more than a thousand patients, corroborating the official “diabetes association nutrition guidelines recommending the consumption of pulses as a means of optimising diabetes control.” Any better than any of the others? Well, some of the strongest evidence came from the studies that used chickpeas, and in terms of beans, pintos and black beans may beat out kidney beans. Compared to the blood sugar spike of straight white rice, black beans and rice, and pinto beans and rice appeared to beat out kidney beans and rice. This may be because “dark red kidney [beans] [can] have lower levels of indigestible starch.” One of the reasons beans are so healthy is they contain compounds that partially block our starch-digesting enzyme, which allows some starch to make it down to our colon to feed our good gut bacteria.
And, in fact, the inhibition of this starch-eating enzyme, amylase, just by eating beans, approximates that of a carb-blocking drug, acarbose, sold as Precose, “a popular diabetes medication.” The long-term use of beans may normalize hemoglobin A1C levels (which is how you track diabetes) “almost as well as” the drug, without drug side effects, with names like “acute generalized exanthematous pustulosis.”
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- U Schlemmer, W Frolich, R M Prieto, F Grases. Phytate in foods and significance for humans: Food sources, intake, processing, bioavailability, protective role and analysis. Mol Nutr Food Res 2009 53 - Suppl - 2:S330 – 75.
- P Singhal, G Kaushik, P Mathur. Antidiabetic potential of commonly consumed legumes: A review. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 2014 54(5):655 – 672.
- J L Sievenpiper, C W C Kendall, A Esfahani, J M W Wong, A J Carleton, H Y Jiang, R P Bazinet, E Vidgen, D J A Jenkins. Effect of non-oil-seed pulses on glycaemic control: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled experimental trials in people with and without diabetes. Diabetologia 2009 52(8):1479 – 1495.
- S V Thompson, D M Winham, A M Hutchins. Bean and rice meals reduce postprandial glycemic response in adults with type 2 diabetes: A cross-over study. Nutr J 2012 11:23.
- S Song, H Y Paik, Y Song. High intake of whole grains and beans pattern is inversely associated with insulin resistance in healthy Korean adult population. Diabetes Res Clin Pract 2012 98(3):e28 – 31.
- A Helmstadter. Antidiabetic drugs used in Europe prior to the discovery of insulin. Pharmazie 2007 62(9):717 – 720.
- Helmstadter A. Beans and diabetes: Phaseolus vulgaris preparations as antihyperglycemic agents. J Med Food. 2010 Apr;13(2):251-4.
Images thanks to Osseous, k.landerholm, and Stacy Spensley via Flickr.
- alternative medicine
- American Diabetes Association
- arsenic
- beans
- black beans
- blood sugar
- chickpeas
- colon health
- complementary medicine
- diabetes
- dietary guidelines
- Europe
- grains
- green beans
- insulin
- kidney beans
- legumes
- lifestyle medicine
- liver health
- medications
- peanuts
- peas
- pinto beans
- prediabetes
- rice
- side effects
- soybeans
- vegetables
Republishing "Diabetics Should Take Their Pulses"
Terms
You may republish this material online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You must attribute the article to NutritionFacts.org with a link back to our website in your republication.
If any changes are made to the original text or video, you must indicate, reasonably, what has changed about the article or video.
You may not use our material for commercial purposes.
You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from doing anything permitted here.
If you have any questions, please Contact Us
Title
Diabetics Should Take Their Pulses
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
What about avoiding metabolic derangements in the first place? See Preventing Prediabetes by Eating More.
What else might help?
What might hurt?
If you haven't yet, you can subscribe to our free newsletter. With your subscription, you'll also get notifications for just-released blogs and videos. Check out our information page about our translated resources.
Previous Video
Next Video
