Less sugar, more fiber, less diabetes risk

LOS ANGELES, April 7 (UPI) -- Reducing sugar by one can of soda and increasing fiber by one-half cup of beans per day may protect Latino teens from type 2 diabetes, U.S. researchers say.

Emily Ventura of the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles and colleagues conducted a 16-week study to examine if reductions in added sugar intake or increases in fiber intake would affect risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes in 54 overweight Latino adolescents -- average age 15.5.

Fifty-five percent of participants decreased their sugar intake equal to the sugar in one can of soda and 59 percent increased their fiber intake by an average of 5 grams per day, or one-half cup of beans across all intervention groups, including controls.

The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, finds that participants who decreased their sugar intake had an average 33 percent decrease in insulin secretion and those who increased their fiber intake had an average 10 percent reduction in visceral adipose tissue volume.

"A reduction in visceral fat indicates a reduction in risk for type 2 diabetes, considering that to a greater degree than total body fat, visceral fat -- fat surrounding the internal organs -- has been shown to be negatively associated with insulin sensitivity," the authors says in a statement.