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Buckwheat-rich Diet Effective in Diabetes Control: Study
Eating buckwheat-rich food can dramatically reduce the risk of hyperglycemia and diabetes, according to a study made by Chinese researchers.
The average blood sugar level of people who eat buckwheat as staple food is 3.9 millimole per liter, compared with 4.56 millimole per liter among the people who don't eat buckwheat, revealed the study made among some 1,000 residents in Inner Mongolia, one of China's major buckwheat production bases. Detectable rates of high blood sugar and diabetes are respectively 1.6 percent and 1.88 percent in buckwheat-eating areas, compared with 7.33 percent and 3.84 percent in the regions without the buckwheat-eating habit.
The researchers at Harbin Medical University also found that the blood sugar level of lab rats dropped from 9.41 millimole per liter to 7.57 millimole per liter as a result of a 15-day buckwheat diet, said a Health News report.
The report quoted researcher Zhang Hongwei as saying that buckwheat contains much more chromium and alum than other foods, which indicates that the elements might play the leading role in lowering blood sugar.
In addition, the buckwheat which is widely grown in north China is rich in protein and cellulose, he said.
China now has more than 50 million diabetics, and the incidence rate for diabetes has reached 3.21 percent, almost five times the level in 1980.
Resulting in more than 170 billion yuan (about 20 billion U.S. dollars) in medical costs each year, the disease has become the third most serious chronic disease in the country, following cardio- and cerebral-vascular illnesses and cancer.
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