The headline this morning was simple, “Legumes help lower blood sugar in diabetics.” But I know that legumes, while high in fiber are remarkably high in carbohydrate. So I looked up the actual study in Archives of Internal Medicine. The research team led by Dr. David Jenkins, famous for the “plant-based studies” he has promoted over the years. Back in 2003 he found that a diet rich in soy protein and sterol ester-enriched margarine lowered cholesterol. Apparently he never looked at the data that suggests that margarine increases the risk of atherogenic heart disease despite any possible drop in cholesterol. Well, he is back and here are the numbers.
121 Type-2 diabetics with no control group were split into 2 groups, one ate a cup of legumes per day and the other ate wheat products. They concluded that the legume group had a drop in A1C blood sugars marked by HgBA1C of 0.5%.
I don’t get it.
Legumes have between 10 and 12 grams of Carb per quater-cup. So how would adding 40-50 grams of carb per day to a diabetic lower blood sugars?
It doesn’t.
If some unhcotrolled diabetic comes in with an A1C of 8.0, this means their average blood glucose is about 208. A drop of 0.5% means that they came down to a blood sugar average of 207. WOW.
Dr. Jenkins’ fundamentalist precept that plant-based diets are superior is clouding his ability to do math. I look for type 2 diabetics to get their A1C below 6. Preferably close to 5.5.
