The Best Diet For Your Blood Sugar, According To Mayo Clinic Research

Did you know that 100 million adults in the United States1 are currently living with diabetes or prediabetes? This number is growing steadily and by 2015, diabetes was already the 7th leading cause of death. According to the CDC1, "People with diabetes are at increased risk of serious health complications including premature death, vision loss, heart disease, stroke, kidney failure, and amputation of toes, feet, or legs."

In other words: it's more important than ever to find ways to control blood sugar efficiently.

For this particular study, scientists at the Microbiome Program, Center for Individualized Medicine at Mayo Clinic followed over 300 people for six days. They each ate a bagel and cream cheese for breakfast and then ate whatever they wanted for the rest of the day. The researchers collected stool samples from each participant, measured their glycemic responses to the foods they ate by having them wear a blood glucose monitor, and collected information about how much and what they ate and how often they exercised.

So what's the deal with the microbiome and blood sugar? Is the key to balancing blood sugar in the gut? We're not entirely sure yet, but there's growing evidence that targeting the microbiome could help us combat diabetes. And it makes sense that if our microbiomes are all different, every person would respond a little differently to different foods—blood glucose response included. That would explain why, for example, some people can eat oatmeal and feel energized and others can eat carbs like this and feel fatigued and less than optimal.

This study highlights this fact that giving blanket nutrition advice to people with blood sugar issues is not just an oversimplification, it's ineffective. As Helena Mendes-Soares, Ph.D., a research associate in the Microbiome Program, Center for Individualized Medicine at Mayo Clinic, explained to mbg: "Cutting calories, eating fewer carbohydrates, and 'losing weight' may be the current available approaches, but in the future, more personalized treatments may yield better results in the control of glycemia."

And while we still need to know more, the future of diabetes treatment could entail identifying which foods respond well with an individual's microbiome—instead of lumping big categories of foods together and trying to get the patient to cut them all out completely. For now, Dr. Mendes-Soares recommends taking advantage of your multidisciplinary care teams if you have a blood sugar issue, which will help you take an individualized approach as well.