Eat Power Nutrients to Beat Diabetes

Eat Power Nutrients to Beat Diabetes

 Exciting new research in the Journal of Nutrition found that eating whole fruits high in certain phytonutrients

—plant-based nutrients—can decrease your risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 26 percent.  The phytonutrient that offered the impressive drop in disease risk?  Flavonols.

Flavonols are a type of flavonoids—a group of phytonutrients that act as Nature’s potent anti-inflammatories, and have been showing tremendous promise against cancer by preventing cancer cells from multiplying.  In this new research, flavonols from food sources demonstrate the ability to significantly decrease the risk of type 2 diabetes.

The study, called the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (Epic) was conducted in 26 study centers in eight European countries.  A massive study of 340,234 participants that showed 3.99 million person-years of follow-up, the sub-study of 12,403 people with type 2 diabetes yielded results showing a strong link between flavonol consumption and incidence of the disease. This specific flavonol, myricetin, showed the most promise.

Flavonols are predominantly found in fruits like apples, apricots, pears, purple grapes and blueberries. Additionally, potatoes, celery and eggplant are good sources of flavonols.

According to research on Nutrition.merschat.com, the following are the best sources of myricetin, along with the amount each contains (per 100 grams of the food):

Sweet potato leaves, raw 9.74 mg