Control Blood Sugar Levels with Intermittent Fasting

Eat the right foods at regular meals times throughout the day to manage diabetes. You’ve heard the advice before. It’s an effective way to avoid rapid changes in blood glucose levels.

If you’re testing throughout the day, you already know this. Or if you compare your food diary with A1C test results, you’ll get a picture of how your food choices impact blood sugar levels.

But if you’re taking medication for diabetes, you may wonder if that’s something you’ll have to do for the rest of your life, even if you’re making the effort to follow a Diabetic-Friendly Diet.

It may be possible. In a recent study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers found that intermittent fasting may help eliminate the need for medications, insulin, and even reverse diabetes.

Intermittent Fasting for Diabetics

Researchers followed three men living with diabetes for 10 months. Each received extensive training on diabetes and nutrition at the beginning of the study. Then two of the men fasted every other day for 24 hours. The third member of the study fasted for 24 hours three days per week. Fast days included water or low-calorie drinks, and one small meal at the end of the day.

Here’s what happened thanks to intermittent fasting: Blood sugar levels dropped, then stabilized. They lost 10 to 18 percent body fat. And they no longer needed daily insulin injections.

Lead researcher Dr. Suleiman Furmli says intermittent fasting has yet to be used as a treatment method to help diabetics. But results from this observational study suggest, it’s a viable way to improve blood sugar levels and maybe even reverse diabetes.

Before you make dramatic changes to your diet or try intermittent fasting, talk with your doctor or nutritionist. Careful monitoring of blood sugar levels will help you avoid complications.

If you do plan to fast for a 24-hour period like the people in the study, stay hydrated by drinking water or low-calorie beverages. And close your fast with one of these easy-to-make Diabetic-Friendly meals.