For diabetics, eating this just twice a week could be a sight-saver
It’s one of the most frightening side effects of diabetes, and preventing it may all boil down to what you have for dinner.
Diabetic retinopathy can steal your eyesight before you even know what’s happening. And the longer you’ve had type 2 diabetes, the greater the danger.
But some just-released research involving thousands of patients with type 2 has found a simple way to slash the risk of this complication by nearly a whopping 50 percent!
If you or someone you love has type 2 diabetes, these findings are something you need to know about right now.
With type 2 diabetes, you’ve got a lot on your plate already.
Well, here’s something else you need to add — but to your dinner plate!
At least two weekly servings of fish.
I know, it sounds hard to believe that such a small addition to your diet could make such a big difference in your life. But this finding, what an expert calls a way to “fight the complications of diabetes by clever eating” is quite clear: If you’re diabetic you need more omega-3 fatty acids in your diet. Something you can easily get from fish.
We already know that omega-3s can stop the pain of RA and help keep our hearts healthy and memories intact. And just last month I told you how having higher levels of omega-3s in your blood can cut the risk of a fatal heart attack by 25 percent.
So it’s no wonder it can also help diabetics in such a powerful way.
This new research involved over 3,400 men and women in Spain. And for those who were over 55 and had type 2 diabetes, having at least 500 mg of omega-3 fatty acids a day was able to reduce the risk of diabetic retinopathy by 48 percent.
And getting that 500 mg a day, the researchers said, is as easy as two weekly servings of fish.
Diabetic retinopathy is a devious disease. If your blood sugar isn’t tightly controlled, it can sneak up on you, causing the small blood vessels that feed the retina to become weak, leaky and eventually blocked. As the damage to the eye continues, it can result in a detached retina, glaucoma and eventually blindness.
So certainly anything we can do to stop this devastating condition in its tracks is an amazing find. Especially when it’s so simple!
One of the researchers said that the “current challenge” is now to find a way to screen diabetics at high risk for this kind of vision loss. But seriously, why wait?
I mean how hard is it to add at least 500 mg of omega-3 to your diet — especially considering all the other benefits this amazing fatty acid has to offer?
Fish with the highest amounts of omega-3s include salmon, trout and sardines (the fattier, the better!). And if fish doesn’t appeal to you, there are lots of other good ways to sneak omega-3s into your meals.
For example:
- Walnuts, flax and chia seeds are excellent sources. And you can add them as toppings to almost any dish. Walnuts on your oatmeal, anyone?
- Organic, grass-fed beef. If you’re more turf than surf, make it a point to buy grass-fed beef. While not the best source of omega-3s, it’s still much higher than conventional kinds.
- Fish oil supplements. Just be sure to get a high-quality brand, as the least expensive kind might not give you all the benefits omega-3s have to offer.
And as I’ve told you many times, steer clear of farmed salmon. Wild caught (which includes most all canned salmon) is what you want.
Sources:
“Greater intake of dietary omega-3 fatty acids associated with lower risk of diabetic retinopathy” JAMA Network Journals, August 18, 2016, sciencedaily.com
