Increasing fiber in the diet could help free some diabetics from their dependence upon insulin, according to a recent study.
R.B. Toma and D.J. Curtis, food scientists at the California State University in Long Beach, report in a recent issue of Food Technology that increasing high-fiber complex carbohydrates to up to 65 percent of total caloric intake has ``allowed reduction or even withdrawal of insulin use in diabetics.``
As long as a diabetic does not require more than 40 insulin units a day, he or she might benefit from such a diet, they said.
One study on people whose intake of carbohydrates ranged from 22 to 61 percent of total calories with added dietary fiber (guar gum) showed that higher fiber intakes reduced glucose in urine by up to 64 percent. But high-carbohydrate diets that were lower in fiber did not show the same effect, Toma and Curtis said in the official journal of the Institute of Food Technologists, a scientific society.
However, if high-fiber diets are initiated suddenly, they can produce fullness and flatulence and interfere with absorption of essential minerals, the scientists said.