Bucking the System
When I sent you an e-Alert last June about the nutritional value of buckwheat as a possible prebiotic (a carbohydrate that prompts the growth of “friendly” bacteria in the digestive tract), I didn’t imagine that I’d have more to say about buckwheat just a few months later.
Now a new study shows that buckwheat may also help diabetics lower blood glucose levels. And when you consider that buckwheat is also rich in omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, minerals, and essential amino acids, then you’ve got a food product that’s primed and ready to become the next health- food superstar.
Something in the mix
As I told you in the e-Alert “To the Waffle House” (6/18/03), buckwheat is not a type of wheat or even a grain. In fact, technically it’s a fruit. And because previous studies have shown that buckwheat may help increase insulin sensitivity, researchers at the Department of Human
Nutritional Sciences at the University of Manitoba (UM) in Canada devised a study to examine the effects of buckwheat on elevated blood glucose levels.
The UM scientists chemically induced type 1 diabetes in about 40 laboratory rats. The rats were fed either buckwheat extract or a placebo. When their blood glucose concentrations were measured, the rats given the buckwheat had glucose levels that were reduced 12 to 19 percent. There was no reduction of glucose concentration in any of the rats that received only placebo.
The next step for the UM team will be to duplicate the test in rats induced with type 2 diabetes. The researchers predict that buckwheat will also lower glucose concentrations in the type 2 test. This prediction is based in part on previous studies that have shown how a component of buckwheat called chiro-inositol may prompt cells to become more insulin-sensitive.
In a news release issued by the American Chemical Society, the lead author of the study, Carla G. Taylor, said their research demonstrates that buckwheat may provide diabetics with a “safe, easy and inexpensive way to lower glucose levels and reduce the risk of complications.” But until research can be done with human subjects, the researchers can’t yet estimate just how much buckwheat would need to be eaten to create a beneficial effect on glucose levels.
Helping the good guys
Whether you eat buckwheat products to help with glucose concentrations or to reap the benefits of B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids, there is another potential health benefit to eating buckwheat. As I said in the June e-Alert, researchers in Madrid, Spain, used a trial with rats to
demonstrate that buckwheat may act as a prebiotic, encouraging the growth of probiotics – or friendly bacteria – in the digestive tract.
At HSI we’ve written many times about the necessity of probiotic organisms. In a healthy individual, these beneficial bacteria inhabit the digestive tract in massive numbers, crowding out harmful bacteria, aiding digestion, and supporting immune function. This healthy “gut flora”
produces valuable nutrients (including certain B vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids), digestive enzymes like lactase, and immune chemicals that fight harmful bacteria and even cancer cells.
But this critical ecosystem is fragile and can be easily disturbed by any number of factors, including poor nutrition, stress, surgery, parasitic infestation, and synthetic drugs. When the number or activity level of your good bacteria drops too low, it opens the door for harmful
bacteria to proliferate, allowing the opportunity for diseases to develop.
Sufficient amounts of intestinal flora can be maintained through dietary sources such as cultured products like yogurt and kefir, and lignans such as flaxseed, carrots, spinach, cauliflower, broccoli, millet, and buckwheat!
The way of the buckwheat
I asked HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., for his opinion on buckwheat, and he reminded me of the acronym “BROW,” which can help us remember which grains pose potential problems for diabetics. Dr. Spreen said: “Barley, rye, oat, and wheat (BROW) are the high-gluten grains, so buckwheat would be fine in their stead, as it is not a gluten-containing product. Buckwheat is a good flour to use for lots of purposes because it is difficult to refine, so to my knowledge they don’t bother.
“As an aside, for those who are trying to go ‘gluten-free,’ oat seems to not bother gluten-sensitive people that much, though it’s in the BROW group. Personally, I’ve seen lots of people allergic to wheat but able to tolerate both barley and oat. Unprocessed forms are better, of course.”
A search on the Internet will quickly turn up several sources that sell buckwheat. And many of those web sites also provide buckwheat recipes that go beyond pancakes, waffles, and noodles; the three food items that buckwheat is most well known for. But if you do whip up some buckwheat waffles, you might try sweetening them with buckwheat honey, which happens to have much higher antioxidant levels than typical lighter honeys.
It seems you just can’t go wrong when you go with the buckwheat.
To Your Good Health
Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute
Sources:
“Buckwheat Concentrate Reduces Serum Glucose in
Streptozotocin-Diabetic Rats” Journal of Agricultural and
Food Chemistry, vol. 51, no. 25, 12/3/03, pubs.acs.org
“Buckwheat May Help Manage Diabetes” NutraIngredients.com, 11/19/03, nutraingredients.com
“Buckwheat May Be Beneficial For Managing Diabetes” American Chemical Society News Release, 11/18/03, sciencedaily.com
“Role of Buckwheat Diet on Rats as Prebiotic and Healthy
Food” Nutrition Research, Volume 23, Issue 6, June 2003, pp 803-814, sciencedirect.com
