Advertisement

Can a crash diet hold the cure for diabetes?

New study finds a short-term diet of 800 calories can cure overweight patients of the life-threatening disease

It might be the only time we can recommend a crash diet for genuine health reasons.

But a new trial has found that a short-term diet of 800 calories can cure diabetes in overweight patients.



The study, initially carried out on 11 participants, could lead to life-changing results for the three million diabetes sufferers in the UK.

Researchers have called the results ‘enormously exciting’ with patients being free of the life-threatening disease just a few weeks into the low calorie diet.

Crash diets, although not always advisable, can help to remove the fat around the liver and pancreas.

[Seven easy ways to detox]

[Five shocking secrets the fitness industry don't want you to know]




Around two per cent of fat is the norm for a healthy individual but in the obese this number can reach a staggering 40 per cent around these vital organs, blocking the production of insulin.

Professor Roy Taylor of Newcastle University lead the study and is very encouraged by initial results: ‘The good news is that if you cut fat in the diet then the liver fat falls very rapidly and that means the pancreas can start working again.’

‘The new study is to see whether GPs can use this approach to reverse diabetes in their patients and whether it will stay reversed. The evidence is that it will, but we need a large-scale trial to prove that it works.’



While there are three million known diabetes sufferers in the UK, it’s thought that around 850,000 of us have the disease but have yet to be diagnosed.

According to current trends, this number may rise to five million by 2025.

Oscar-winner Tom Hanks was the latest celebrity to reveal he suffered from Type II diabetes, which can lead to blindness, limb amputation, kidney failure and even stroke.