Many of you will be familiar with the concept of the "diabetes time bomb," the explosion of diabetes that we are seeing as a result of our supposedly increasingly unhealthy lifestyle habits.
Health professionals often advise us, if we want to reduce our risk of diabetes, to moderate our weight with a low-fat diet. However, this assumes that fat is inherently fattening (which it isn't) and that low-fat diets are effective for weight control (which they're not). And anyway, let us not forget that diabetes is a condition characterized by a problem with handling carbohydrate (not fat).
I advise those who want to take positive steps in quelling their diabetes risk to concentrate on eating a natural, unprocessed diet of low "glycemic load".
And while I'm on the subject of "taking positive steps," I'd like to share with you the results of a study, which assessed the effects of walking on the risk of diabetes. Activity is believed to help insulin have its effect in the body. In other words, it reduces the risk of "insulin resistance," which is a hallmark feature of type 2 diabetes.
The study in question was published this month in the journal Diabetes Care. Researchers had followed some 8,600 Japanese men over a four-year period. All of these had sedentary jobs and were of similar socioeconomic backgrounds. At the start of the study, none of these men had a diagnosis of diabetes.
At the end of the four-year period of assessment, the researchers looked for any relationship between the length of time men spent walking to work and the risk of diabetes. It was found that men walking for 21 minutes or more each day, compared to those walking 10 minutes or less each day, were at a 27 per cent reduced risk of developing the disease. And this reduction was statistically significant.
In "epidemiological" studies of this nature it is never possible to know for sure that when two factors are associated, one is causing the other. Basically, we don't know whether it was the walking or other factors associated with walking (such as generally healthier habits) that led to a reduced risk of diabetes. However, the fact that the subjects were all of similar socioeconomic backgrounds does strengthen the association between walking and diabetes risk and suggests it might be the walking that did the trick.
As a big advocate of walking, I'm always pleased to see research such as this emerge. My experience is that most people can manage a half-hour walk most days without it disrupting their schedule. For some, it may be appropriate to walk to or from work but others might find it easier and more practical to walk either before, or after work. Yet others may prefer to step out either side of lunch.
Recently, I was giving a presentation in Paris to a group of human resources professionals and was "bigging up" walking. Most of the audience were women. A scan of the room revealed a lot of footwear that could make walking for more than a few minutes quite arduous. It's easier for men, I think, to find "business shoes" that are appropriate for a good yomp (soft rubber soles are key here, I think). However, in the City of London I've noticed a lot of women "power walking" to or from work in training shoes that I suspect are swapped for something more "business appropriate" once they're in work. I wonder how many of them realize they may be protecting themselves from diabetes.
References:
Sato KK, et al. Walking to work is an independent predictor of incidence of type 2 diabetes in Japanese men: the Kansai Healthcare Study. Diabetes Care. 2007; 30(9): 2296-8.
Dr. John Briffa is a London-based doctor, author, and health writer with an interest in nutrition and natural medicine.
Dr. Briffa's website
Feeds