Diabetes Archive

Sweet drinks go down easy, but they may be hard on your heart. Aside from plain water, the healthiest choices are unsweetened tea, coffee, and flavored waters.

When you want to quench your thirst with something a little more exciting than plain old water, there are a dizzying array of choices these days. However, many of the beverages in supermarkets and convenience store aisles are loaded with added sugar. Even many of those that sound healthy (such as 100% fruit juice and vitamin-enhanced water) contain as much sugar as regular sodas.

Yes, the sugar in fruit juice is naturally occurring, as opposed to the processed sugar (usually high-fructose corn syrup) found in many carbonated and noncarbonated drinks such as sodas, vitamin water, and the like. But people should still be mindful about consuming too much fruit juice, says Vasanti Malik, a nutrition researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

At least one additive — a preservative called propionate — could be linked to diabetes and obesity.

Scientists are giving food additives and other ingredients more scrutiny these days, thanks to new technology that allows them to get an up-close view of how individual molecules affect the body. And they are already discovering some surprising information that could change what you put on your plate in the future.

Consider propionate, or propionic acid, a naturally oc-curring fatty acid and a common preservative found in everything from bread and animal feeds to pudding and cheese. A study published online April 24 by Science Translational Medicine found that this ingredient may disrupt the metabolism, triggering the body to produce excess glucose (blood sugar), which could lead to diabetes and obesity.

Research we're watching

A near-daily serving of nuts may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease in people with type 2 diabetes, new research suggests. The study, published online February 19 by Circulation Research, relied on diet surveys from more than 16,000 people before and after they were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, a condition that elevates the risk of heart disease. Researchers asked them about their nut-eating habits over a period of several years. People who ate five servings of nuts per week had a 17% lower risk of cardiovascular disease compared with those who ate less than a serving per week.

Chock full of unsaturated fat, fiber, and minerals, nuts can help control blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol. Tree nuts, which include walnuts, almonds, and pistachios, seemed to offer the strongest benefits in the study. Peanuts, which aren't technically nuts but legumes, weren't quite as healthy. While this study can't prove cause and effect, eating a small handful of unsalted nuts on most days will likely help your heart, even if you don't have diabetes.

Research we're watching

Sleep has long been known to help protect you against heart disease, and researchers now think they know at least one reason why. A study published online February 13 by the journal Nature looked at how sleep duration and quality relates to the buildup of damaging plaque in the arteries.

Harvard Medical School researchers found that a lack of good sleep boosts the body's production of inflammatory white blood cells that earlier research has linked to fatty buildup in the arteries. This could help explain why sleep problems can lead to arterial buildup. Poor sleep is linked not only to clogged arteries, but also to a host of chronic health conditions, such as cancer, obesity, and diabetes — all good reasons to make sure you get your z's.

Sales of cannabidiol-infused products are expected to top $2 billion by 2021. But is CBD right for you?

Cannabidiol (CBD) is touted as a natural wonder that can help treat symptoms of everything from anxiety to arthritis pain. The plant extract comes from two varieties of cannabis — hemp and marijuana — and is available in creams, tinctures, oils, patches, gummy bears, capsules, and more. You can even add CBD to a latte if you walk into a coffee shop in some cities.

But is CBD safe for older adults? There haven't been a lot of large studies of CBD's safety, but more traditional medicines for pain and anxiety are not free of adverse effects, either. "I think CBD is likely safer than many other treatments people use for pain, insomnia, or anxiety," says Dr. Peter Grinspoon, a primary care physician with Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. Other physicians don't think we know enough about the safety profile of CBD to be sure.

Research we're watching

A long-used vaccine is showing promise in helping to restore near-normal blood sugar levels in people with advanced type 1 diabetes. Researchers from Harvard Medical School injected adults who had type 1 diabetes with two doses of the bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine, which is traditionally used to prevent tuberculosis.

Participants in the study, all of whom had type 1 diabetes for many years, all showed significant improvements in their average blood sugar levels after the vaccination. The improvements lasted for the next five years. Researchers said that it appears the vaccine affected a metabolic mechanism that increases consumption of glucose by cells.

It’s more than okay to skip the early-morning breakfast, but no matter what time of day you break your overnight fast, make your first meal a healthy one that won’t cause your blood sugar to spike.