Prevent Diabetes Naturally

The Amino Acid That Beats Popular Diabetes Drugs

In All Health Watch, Diabetes, Featured Article

If you have type 2 diabetes—or you’re trying to avoid it—researchers have some very good news for you.

The welcome discovery concerns a certain natural substance. You can find it in many healthy Paleo-diet-friendly foods. It’s great at helping your body regulate blood sugar. How great, exactly? Well, it works just as well as several popular diabetes drugs.1 

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen recently put this amino acid to the test. They measured how well it metabolized glucose (sugar) from the blood. It passed with flying colors.

And it goes without saying that it didn’t have any of the nasty side effects of diabetes drugs.

So what’s this amazing nutrient that should have a central place in your diabetes-fighting diet?

The ‘diabetes-beater’ in question is the amino acid arginine.

Arginine excels at helping the body metabolize glucose.2 It does this by stimulating a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1. This hormone is the target of many diabetes drugs on the market. And arginine works just as well as those drugs.

In fact, arginine improves glucose metabolism by as much as 40 percent.

Of course, the end goal for the researchers is to develop yet more drugs for treatment. But the main point of their findings is clear.

Increasing arginine in your diet can help you manage your blood sugar levels. And there’s no doubt it can improve your health.

Arginine can also help if  you want to lower your risk of developing diabetes. Keeping your blood sugar in check now will help you prevent diabetes later.

A Paleo-like diet will give you many ways to get arginine in your diet. Salmon, red meat, tuna, eggs, spinach and nuts like almonds and walnuts are all rich in the arginine.  The amino acid is also available in supplement form. But getting it from these food sources is your best choice.

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References:
1 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130909121954.htm
2 http://endo.endojournals.org/content/early/2013/08/16/en.2013-1529.full.pdf+html