A PIONEERING new study has shown that eating more flavonoids can potentially reduce the risk of heart disease for women with diabetes.

The study, led by the University of East Anglia (UEA), investigated the impact of the natural compound on postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes and found that eating certain foods seemed to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

A total of 93 women took part in the project to look particularly at the impact of flavonoids – a naturally occurring compound that occurs in foods and drinks including many fruits and vegetables, tea, red wine and dark chocolate.

Previous studies have seen that flavonoids reduce the risk of heart disease in healthy people, but this project, funded by Diabetes UK, was the first long-term study on a group labelled as very high risk to heart disease.

For a period of 12 months, the women, aged from 51 to 74, were given either a flavonoid-enriched chocolate or a normal sugar-free chocolate bar twice a day they believed would help. They were also required to regular their other flavonoid intake, for example by peeling apples before eating them.

Those eating the adapted bar saw their risk of suffering a heart attack in the next decade fall by 3.4pc, while their insulin resistance and cholesterol levels were significantly reduced.

Lead researcher Prof Aedin Cassidy, from the UEA, said: “These results are significant from a public health perspective because they provide further concrete evidence that diet has a beneficial clinical effect over and above conventional drug treatment.”

However, she said that she was not advocating eating more commercially available chocolate because many commercial chocolates do not contain high levels of the beneficial flavonoids.

Dr Ketan Dhatariya, one of the researchers and a consultant in diabetes at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, added: “This is an important result. We are not saying that people with diabetes should be eating lots of chocolate, but that foods that are rich in flavonoids can potentially reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes, which sadly remain the leading causes of premature death in this group of women.”

The findings have been printed in the journal Diabetes Care and further research is now planned to examine the impact on other patient groups.

CASE STUDY:

One of the women taking part in the study was Cindy Greenway, 64, of Denton, near Harleston in Norfolk.

Mrs Greenway was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the age of 41, and after dealing with it for more than 20 years, she is a firm believer that ‘food is medicine’.

She said she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after feeling tired and lethargic over a period of months, but was keen to go on without insulin.

Mrs Greenway, a grandmother, said: “I really did become very interested in food and the fact that food has such an important part of gaining a good control of one’s diabetic condition.

“I did not want to go on to insulin and I explored and researched different aspects of food and the impact on the body, and with guidance I did embark on a very healthy regime of exercise and diet.”

Mrs Greenway spent between 30 minutes and an hour a day either walking, swimming and cycling, and started to eat 70pc raw food, giving up sweets, chocolates, biscuits and cake.

Although she does now take four insulin injections a day, she continues to go without the sweets many people enjoy but says she doesn’t miss them at all and as a result is very healthy.

She added that her ultimate decision to take insulin was not taken lightly and was an important one.

She said: “If diabetes is not controlled it can be serious and it can lead to heart conditions and is the biggest cause of blindness and circulation problems.

“So I think it is in my interest to try to control the situation as much as I can, and I do find the more control I have the more energy I have, which is very important to living a normal life.”

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/health/new_uea_diabetes_study_into_women_