Have walnuts to control diabetes

INCLUDING walnuts in your daily diet can help keep type-2 diabetes under control, finds a new study.

The study was conducted by a team handed by Linda Tapsell, professor at the Smart Foods Centre ( SFC ), University of Wollongong.

" The study shows that including key foods in the diet that deliver the right type of fat --- in this case walnuts --- is very important," said Tapsell.

Fifty overweight adults with non-insulin treated diabetes followed a well balanced low fat diet with the SFC for a year.

Researchers found the group that were given 30 grams of walnuts a day had more of the good fats in their diets than those who followed a low fat diet alone. tapsell said that both groups had low intakes of saturated fats, but the walnut group had more unsaturated fats. The effects were seen in the first three months.

"As whole foods, the walnuts also delivered fibre vitamin E. The walnut group also showed improvements in insulin levels and this may have been due to the presence of good fats in the diet," Tapsell said.

The findings were published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.