Can the Paleo diet help control diabetes?

Discover the role the Paleo Diet can play in controlling your diabetic symptoms, while helping keep blood insulin and glucose levels under control.

The Paleolithic diet, or "caveman diet," harkens back to the diet people had prior to the rise of modern agriculture. People on the diet eat mostly lean meats, fish, nuts, eggs, vegetables, roots and some fruit. They aim to stay away from grains, as well as processed food and sugar.

Some versions of the Paleo diet also allow for dairy products, but people disagree on whether dairy is really acceptable, or helpful to the human body, especially in light of the numbers of people who suffer from dairy allergies.

Diabetes is likely caused by metabolic imbalances tied to our modern westernized diet, filled with preservatives and deprived of its nutrients. Heavy on sugar, processed foods and simple carbohydrates, modern eating has led to an explosion in obesity and insulin disturbance, both connected to diabetes growth around the world.

A number of studies have been conducted examining the relationship between type-2 diabetes and the Paleo diet, so it's not just a faddish new trend. The Paleo Diet is strongly supported by science. A number of these studies have found that a Paleo diet improves glucose tolerance, leads to weight loss, as well as reduces waist circumference and systolic blood pressure.

In other studies, the Paleo Diet was also shown to improve insulin blood plasma levels, improve insulin sensitivity, reduce total cholesterol levels, improve triglyceride levels, and reduce low-density lipoproteins (LDL).

The Paleo diet has even been shown to be better for diabetes than the famous Mediterranean diet, which features more grains than the Paleo diet. These studies also indicate that cardiovascular health is improved through the adoption of Paleo practises.

There are many theories on why the Paleo Diet works against diabetes and metabolic syndrome, but further research is needed. The Paleo diet—with its high fat and protein content—satiates hunger far better than a standard Western diet while you eat fewer overall calories. At the same time, the food in the Paleo diet has a lower glycemic index, which helps control blood glucose and insulin levels far better than other diets.

As always, you should first consult with your doctor or a nutritionist if you decide to make any changes in your diet. Diabetes is a difficult disease to deal with, and any diet transition can be hard at first. However, scientific evidence supports the benefits of a Paleo diet for diabetics, so it's a change you can consider making to help take control of your health.