The primary focus on most diabetic diets has been on the relative amounts and types of carbohydrates and fat to include in their diet. Both the type and amount of protein in the diet has largely been ignored. Today's AJCN has a strong study supporting the use of increased protein relative to carbohydrate as it provided a 40 percent reduction in blood sugars and a reduction in glycosylated hemeglobin.
The major problem with this study, and nearly all traditional nutritional studies, is that they do not account for nutritional typing differences. For the most part though it is a no-brainier that nearly all type 2 diabetics need to swap out their grains for other foods, as I discuss in the No-Grain Diet. However, some will benefit from using protein for the substitution, while others will benefit from using more vegetable-only carbohydrate. I hope to facilitate some basic science research in this area next year so more of the medical community will wake up and recognize the incredible value nutritional typing has to improve one's health.
American Journal Clinical Nutrition October 2003;78: 671-672