Walnuts for type 1 and type 2 diabetes
Last reviewed: 01.05.2024
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It is believed that various fruits have a particularly beneficial effect on the organ to which they are similar. Our native nuts, historically called walnuts, clearly resemble brain gyrus. And it is really proved that nuts improve intellectual activity, memory, relieve headaches. In what context are walnuts mentioned in diabetes, let's try to figure it out together.
Can I eat walnuts for diabetes?
Eating walnuts for diabetes is an effective way to stabilize sugar levels. Other nuts are also useful in this regard, including exotic ones: cashews, hazelnuts, pistachios, pecans, macadamia, chestnuts, and peanuts. But the walnuts are the best. Eating walnuts reduces the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 47%. [1]
Prospective studies involving 58,063 women aged 52-77 years from 1998 to 2008 and 79,893 women aged 35-52 years from 1999 to 2009 without diabetes, cardiovascular disease or cancer showed that consumption 1-3 servings per month of walnuts (1 serving = 28 g) significantly reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes in women. [2], [3]
The inclusion of 30 g of walnuts per day in a low-fat diet improves the lipid profile and the ratio of HDL cholesterol to total cholesterol in patients with type 2 diabetes. [4], [5]
- Useful for diabetics are not only peeled kernels, but almost all the components of nuts.
Alternative medicine recommends treating diabetes with teas, tinctures, and alcohol tinctures. [6] They are prepared from fresh or dry leaves, green peels, hard shells, thin internal partitions. Herbalists recommend even shell ash to be used for good purposes - medicinal and cosmetic.
It is useful for diabetics to mix different nuts among themselves, add them to cereals, salads, unsweetened desserts.
Indications
Metabolic disorders are often accompanied by obesity. Diet in this condition should take into account the correct ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
They are an excellent source of protein (approximately 25% energy) and often have a high L-arginine content. [7] Since this amino acid is a precursor to endogenous vasodilator, nitric oxide (NO), [8] eating nuts can help improve vascular reactivity.
Indications for the appointment of various nuts arise due to the usefulness of these products, but with the condition not to overdo it and not harm the body. That is, walnuts for diabetes are allowed in a limited amount: 50–70 g per day. More is not always better, but in this case is unnecessary.
- Nuts are recommended for vitamins, especially in autumn and spring, for the prevention of anemia, improve potency, stimulate health and mental activity.
They positively affect the state of intestinal microflora, cholesterol level, pressure, [9]stabilize sugar, improve vision, and relieve insomnia. Prevention of coronary heart disease, heart attacks, [10]atherosclerosis, strokes. Polyphenolic antioxidants, by binding to lipoproteins, can inhibit oxidative processes that lead to atherosclerosis in vivo. [11]
It has been proven that walnuts reduce the oxidative and inflammatory burden on brain cells, improve interneuronal signal transmission, increase neurogenesis and enhance sequestration of insoluble toxic protein aggregates, and [12] can have a hypophageal and nootropic effect by enhancing 5-HT metabolism in the brain. [13]
The product diversifies the diet, motivates to cook new dishes and follow a balanced diet, without the risk of gaining extra pounds.
The norm for adults is up to 7 pieces, for children - up to 4. Nuts for pregnant and lactating mothers are very useful, whose milk becomes tastier and richer with useful components.
- True, there are limitations: this is the presence of psoriasis, allergies, neurodermatitis, individual intolerance to the components.
Tinctures, oils, decoctions of various parts of walnut trees find their application in many health disorders: from local application to the skin - to douching of female organs.
Type 2 diabetes walnut
The use of walnuts in type 2 diabetes is due to their unique composition. They contain more proteins and minerals, and slightly less fat than in other fruits. Iodine, iron, cobalt, copper, zinc, plant antibiotics with anti-cancer effects, alkaloids, essential oils, fiber, vitamins (e.g. Folic acid, niacin, tocopherols and vitamin B6), minerals (e.g. Calcium, magnesium, potassium) [14] and many other biologically active components, such as phytosterols [15] and phenolic compounds. [16] Fats in nuts are unsaturated compounds that are beneficial to the body.
- In diabetes, walnuts are not able to sharply, but gradually raise sugar, which makes them an appropriate snack or supplement to the main meal. The best time is lunch or lunch.
Eating only 3-4 nucleoli for 2 months reduces the risk of metabolic syndrome, lowers blood pressure, cholesterol and body weight, stabilizes glucose levels, and regulates carbohydrate and lipid metabolism.
- Walnut fruits stimulate tone and performance, the functioning of the brain, provide the prevention of hypovitaminosis and anemia, normalize the microflora of the gastrointestinal tract, and act as an aphrodisiac.
It’s good if nuts grow in your garden. This guarantees their quality, in particular, environmental. If you have to buy, then it is safer to take whole fruits, rather than peeled nucleoli. Nuts not only “click” in their pure form, but also put in salads, cottage cheese, baked apples, low-fat desserts. They are combined with almost all types of products, including chicken, vegetables, herbs.
With excess weight, you should count calories, and do not use other fats with nuts, either vegetable or animal, with nuts.
Benefits
Different types of nuts are very beneficial for diabetics. They are rich in useful fatty acids, proteins, minerals, essential amino acids, biologically active components.
In walnuts, polyunsaturated fatty acids PUFA (47% of the total mass) prevail, such as linoleic acid (38%) and α-linolenic acid (ALA) (9%), omega-3 fatty acids. [17]
In addition to essential fatty acids, walnuts contain many other biologically active compounds, such as vitamin E and polyphenols. Walnuts are one of the most important sources of polyphenols, so their effect on human health is noteworthy. The main polyphenol in walnuts is pedunculagin, ellagitannin. After consumption, ellagitannins are hydrolyzed with the release of ellagic acid, which is converted by intestinal microflora into urolitin A and other derivatives, such as urolitin B, C and D. Ellagitannins have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory biological activity. Several studies have evaluated the potential role of ellagitanins in preventing the development and progression of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. [18]
Diabetic walnuts have a positive effect on glucose levels, and this is a key indicator of a diabetic’s health status. Useful properties are as follows:
- A low glycemic index makes the fruits appropriate for both types of diabetes.
- Fiber activates digestion. Thanks to various mechanisms, dietary fiber slows down gastric emptying and intestinal transit, reduces the rate of absorption of carbohydrates in the intestines and increases the excretion of bile acids with feces. Consuming certain types of soluble fiber can improve satiety, lower blood cholesterol, and the glucose response after meals. [19]
- Vegetable fats reduce cholesterol and blood pressure, cleanse blood vessels, prevent strokes and heart attacks.
- Magnesium protects the nervous system from stress and stress.
- Iron increases hemoglobin.
It is better to eat the kernels fresh, although fried tastier. The fact is that heat treatment leads to oxidation and loss of valuable components.
Minus nuts - high calorie content, but a small portion does not have a significant effect on body weight. In order to avoid overdose, the patient should control the amount of nuts consumed.
Walnut Leaf for Diabetes
10 compounds were identified and quantified in walnut leaves: 3- and 5-caffeoylquinic acids, 3- and 4-p-coumaroylquinic acids, p-coumaric acid, quercetin-3-galactoside, quercetin-3-derivative of pentoside, quercetin 3- arabinoside, quercetin 3-xyloside and quercetin 3-rhamnoside. They have antimicrobial ability against gram-positive (Bacillus cereus, B. Subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus) and gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae) and fungi (Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans), also have high antioxidant activity. [20]
The results of the 2012 studies show that the chloroform fraction of various extracts of walnut leaves may contain effective compounds that can be used as a chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of cancer. [21]
Some studies have shown that walnut leaves have the ability to increase fertility and have a beneficial effect on spermatogenesis and sperm parameters.[22]
Hypertension, atherosclerosis, high cholesterol, arthrosis - all these difficult pathologies, alternative medicine treats with the help of walnut leaves. It is proved that walnut leaves have a hypoglycemic effect, are able to regenerate islet or beta cells of the pancreas. [23], [24]
- Walnut leaf treatment for diabetes requires prior approval from your doctor.
Leaves of walnut for diabetes are used in dried or fresh form. They are steamed and left for several hours. A serving of 2 glasses is divided into three doses. The course of treatment with such a drink is 1 month.
Tea or broth prepared according to this recipe helps women get rid of menstrual pain. The infusion is a little stronger taken in violation of the monthly cycle, it also has a slight diuretic effect.
- The scope of walnut leaves is not limited to diabetes.
Known for the effectiveness of walnut baths to eliminate skin rashes: eczema, lichen, blackheads, urticaria, skin tuberculosis. Leaves are also used for pulmonary tuberculosis. Gynecological problems, inflammatory processes, oncology prophylaxis, restoration of the strength of an exhausted organism - all are within the power of magical leaves with a sharp aroma, which has long been known to alternative healers.
Walnut products are used both internally and externally: for rinsing, douching, drinking, bathing. Fresh juice - as drops in inflammatory processes of the middle ear.
- Maximum healing properties are contained in leaves collected in late spring or early June.
This is a very young, still growing green. Tear off 3–5 extreme leaves, then cut off all the petioles. Dry in the sun, in a thin layer, periodically turning each leaf. Raw materials should not blacken, otherwise it loses its medicinal properties.
According to other sources, to dry nut leaves, like another potion, should be in the air, but under a canopy, in the shade. And ideally, it is better to use fresh rather than dried raw materials.
Partitions, casements of walnuts for diabetes
For therapeutic purposes, also use partitions, walnut leaflets for diabetes. They have a hypoglycemic property, and also prevent diabetic complications. Informed people do not throw out shells, but prepare diabetic drinks from decoction of walnuts for diabetes - decoctions, infusions, tinctures.
- We offer recipes:
For a decoction, 40 partitions are required; they are kept in a water bath for 1 hour, filled with boiling water. The filtered drink is drunk on an empty stomach (1 tsp, twice a day).
Another product is prepared in a proportion of 50 g of raw materials per bottle of vodka. Withstand 2 weeks without access to light. The drug is taken 3p. 3 ml per day, diluted with water.
Broths douching with cervical erosion, I use vodka infusions as an expectorant, in the treatment of cysts, mastopathy, hypertension, and the thyroid gland. Even shell ash is used: it treats ulcers and cleanses the digestive tract from radiation.
The same ash was once used by women to remove unwanted vegetation. And they did not know what allergy, irritation, rashes, which modern cosmetics often provoke, are. A finely chopped shell was used as a scrub. The cream was prepared according to the recipe: at 2 tbsp. Tablespoons of shells - the same amount of grated radish, half a cup of thick sour cream, 3 tablespoons of chamomile tea. Cool the mixture for 5 minutes, apply for 10 minutes. And rinse with water.
Diabetes Green Walnuts
Everyone knows how healthy ripe nuts are, but not everyone knows that green walnuts are even more effective for diabetes. It's about the stage when they are easy to pierce with a needle or cut with a knife. The green shell is still juicy, and the core looks like a gelatinous mass. Such fruits are usually harvested in early summer.
The green husks of walnuts contain essential oils, glucose and organic substances such as citric acid, malic acid, phosphate and calcium oxalate. Juglone and phenolic compounds are the most important compounds found in the leaves and green husks of walnuts. [25], [26], Juglone (5-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone) is a naphthoquinone compound, which is contained in the green leaves and fruits of walnut husk.
Juglone, as a toxic compound, is found only in fresh and green walnuts.
- In young fruits, there is a maximum of ascorbic acid, many trace elements, carotenoids, quinines, phytoncides, and easily digestible proteins.
Medical and vitamin tinctures, preserves and even alcoholic beverages such as liquor are prepared from them. The properties of walnuts in type 2 diabetes are manifested by the use of alcohol or vodka tinctures. Sweet extracts are also prepared - on sugar, on honey.
Healing elixirs are prepared from the shell, pulp and leaves. Washed raw materials are cut, placed in a glass dish (three quarters of the volume) and poured with alcohol. Maintain a closed container in a cool place for 24 days.
- Treatment agreed with the doctor is carried out in a course of 3-6 months. Dose - 1 tbsp. Spoon three times a day, for 20 minutes before meals.
Green walnut also has contraindications, because it has allergens and can even cause anaphylactic shock. Such tinctures are not recommended for people with ulcers, psoriasis, and vascular problems. Pregnant and lactating women should also refrain from using the drug.
Walnut tincture for diabetes
Unripe nuts insist on honey, alcohol or water. Depending on this, a walnut remedy is used for diabetes, tuberculosis, worms, hypertension, infertility, depression, exhaustion, cancer or other diseases. External use is recommended for radiculitis, osteochondrosis, diseased joints, heel spurs. Jam made from green nuts also has healing properties: it serves to support the thyroid gland, has a positive effect on inflamed kidneys and is recommended for women who are diagnosed with fibromyoma.
Walnut tincture with diabetes, as with thyroid pathologies, is taken for at least a month. Dosage - 30-40 drops 4 times a day, for 20 minutes. Before eating. Prepare it on vodka in the following way:
- Chop 100g nuts with peel, put into a bottle;
- pour alcohol and clog;
- to withstand a month in a darkened cool place;
- strain and drink according to dosage;
- after a month - a week break.
The suitability of green raw materials for tinctures is determined using a knife. In the period of milk ripeness, the nut is easily cut with a knife, the soft peel does not pose an obstacle, since it has not yet become numb.
You can store the finished medicine for a long time. So that it does not undergo oxidation, the dishes should be filled to the top. If you notice the darkening of the product, then this indicates a loss of its healing power.
Diabetes Walnut Shell
It would seem, what is the significance of the walnut shell for diabetes, however, and for any other disease? A place for her in the bin - and nowhere else, say our contemporaries.
- However, this was not always the case. Our smart ancestors, not spoiled by pharmacists, did not throw things in the trash before maximizing their nutritional and healing potential.
It was the observant people who discovered the manifold benefits of walnuts for diabetes. Thanks to old recipes, everyone can use this wisdom.
For tinctures useful for diabetics, you need to take the shell of only five fruits in a full bottle of vodka. Alcohol is not suitable, because it easily disappears with a leaky corking, and it is not recommended to drink it undiluted. The shell is pre-washed with non-hot water and crushed into small pieces in order to push the bottles through the neck.
- Preserved partitions increase the quality of tinctures.
After a week spent in a dark, dry place, the drink is ready. In order to avoid harm to the mucous membrane, the medicine is clearly dosed: 15 drops per dose are diluted with a spoon of water. Drink twice a day, half an hour before meals.
Improves the condition of a diabetic and a decoction of shells, bean pods and white mulberry leaves. The wooden shells are boiled for half an hour, then the remaining ingredients are added for another 10 minutes. The cooled liquid is filtered, poured and stored in the cold, preferably in dark bottles. (The product does not tolerate light and noise.) Use a glass daily at night.
Walnut Oil for Diabetes
To prepare walnut oil, with diabetes successfully used by healers, they take ordinary vegetable oil and unripened fruits. 100 g of walnuts are crushed in half a liter of oil. The ingredients are transferred to a container for a month in a warm, darkened place. The finished product is filtered and consumed according to the recommendations - inside or out. It retains the beneficial properties of the nuts themselves, and it can be consumed locally, that is, in cases where whole fruits are not used.
- Walnut oil lubricates dilated veins, skin for various diseases, frostbite, hair loss.
It has a laxative and anthelmintic effect, is effective in pathologies of the nervous system and kidneys. Diabetic nephropathy and diabetic angiopathy are indications for the use of this drug. The usual dose is Art. Spoon in 30 minutes before meals.
- Walnut oil in diabetes lowers glucose without the use of medicinal drugs, improves blood circulation in the smallest vessels.
An oil remedy restores the body that has suffered injuries or operations, rejuvenates cells, activates the hematopoietic process. It not only lowers existing cholesterol, but also removes the likelihood of its increase in the future.
What can and what can not?
The diabetic menu is designed to regulate sugar levels and contribute to the healing process. With a correctly designed diet, additional inclusion of vitamin-mineral preparations is not required. The goal of walnuts for diabetes is to balance and diversify the diet. Despite the calorie content, they must be included in the diet, because the nutritional benefits of the product significantly prevail, and the fatty acids in them are useful, and not those that are deposited in fat depots and increase body weight.
- Nuts have a wonderful effect on brain activity, reduce the amount of cholesterol, and most importantly - blood sugar. The regular use of nuts serves to prevent diabetes, and it is important to know about this for people with a genetic predisposition to this pathology.
What else can you eat besides nuts so as not to experience jumps in glucose and related troubles? Low and medium glycemic index foods are preferred for the patient. This is a key term in diabetic nutrition.
We will name a few products that are not yet very popular, but their inclusion in the diet will serve well: both balance and diversify.
- Fresh berries are a great alternative to forbidden sweets.
- Olive oil - reduces the risk of pathologies of the heart and blood vessels.
- Cinnamon - lowers sugar.
- Cabbage - fortifies, stabilizes glucose.
- Plantain - pharmacy granules regulate sugar.
- Quinoa, or Peruvian rice, is rich in fiber and protein.
- Sweet potato is one of the most useful vegetables for diabetes.
- Beans - maintains low sugar levels.
The basic principles of nutrition for diabetes are based on achieving a reduction in glycemia. The diet answers two questions: what is needed and what cannot be eaten? It is known that it is necessary to eat often, at the same time, healthy and fresh diet food, with gentle culinary processing.
- But you can’t eat what many consider delicious, and nutritionists - harmful, and not only with diabetes.
First of all, these are finished products of industrial production, which have been lying on the shelves of supermarkets for months without losing their presentation and imaginary freshness - smoked, dried, salted, pickled products, processed foods, and canned goods.
When cooking homemade food, you should avoid frying, breading, smoking, marinating, fatty sauces and meat, white bread and pastries. On the table of the responsible diabetic there is no sugar and any food containing sweet ingredients, alcohol, fatty dairy products, honey, cigarettes. Salt is limited to 2 g per day, black coffee: a portion per day is allowed, preferably with milk.
- Bans and restrictions are not a sentence. Despite them, the menu can be designed so that the nutrition of the diabetic is healthy, varied and tasty.
Almonds and walnuts for diabetes are very appropriate foods. Green apples, citruses, kiwi, pears, seaweed, berries, and jelly based on them also belong to the most useful ones. With their dosed use, the need for medications decreases.
Contraindications
Acceptance of any walnut-based remedy for diabetes should be agreed with an endocrinologist or phytotherapist.
The standard contraindication is the individual immunity of the components, or at least one of them. Diabetics with increased weight can eat no more than one serving of nuts per day (30g).
- Contraindications apply to people with skin diseases. Although some are treated with peanut butter.
You can not take nut products for thrombophlebitis, increased blood coagulation. Alcohol drugs are not given to small patients, people with gastritis.
Possible risks
When nuts are included in the diet of a diabetic, dietary risks arise from an overdose. The manifestation of side effects is also possible - with the improper use of walnuts in diabetes , the patient has contraindications.
- Official medicine does not see the positive effect of the product on the body of people with type 1 diabetes. But on SD2 it looks different.
Since nuts and alternative recipes based on them have a beneficial effect on metabolism, their use is advisable, but after the mandatory approval of a treating specialist.
If you do not follow a diet, you have to take more drugs that stimulate the production of insulin. Complications may develop, even degenerative processes.
Complications
Among the possible complications, those that arise as a result of overeating nuclei are dangerous. So, the strong vasodilating effect of the components that make up the walnut fruit provokes headaches. An overdose (over 100g) negatively affects the throat: it can cause a sore throat or swelling.
Walnuts for diabetes in the form of external preparations (tinctures, decoctions, extracts, scrubs) are not recommended for people suffering from psoriasis or neurodermatitis, allergies, hypersensitivity. They exacerbate the typical symptoms of these diseases.
Detailed menu for every day
When a nutritionist paints a detailed menu for every day, then there are necessarily herbal products in sufficient quantities - raw or properly processed. “Correct” means: not fried, not smoked, not salted, not pickled. Dishes for diabetics are cooked, stewed, steamed, baked. Salads, soups, stewed stews, pastes, caviar are prepared from vegetables.
- An important point is the regularity of nutrition. The regimen is designed so that food enters the body at least 5-6 times a day. This frequency stimulates the functioning of the pancreas and the timely generation of insulin.
Diabetic walnuts are optional but desirable. They can be replaced with other nuts, or better yet, combine the fruits in various combinations. In sample menus, they usually stand at lunch or afternoon. By the way, nutty snack is useful not only for diabetics, but also for any adherent of a healthy diet.
- Menus for the day at 5 meals are approximately as follows.
- Boiled egg with a salad of seaweed and carrots with brown oil, green tea.
- Fruit (apple) or a handful of nuts.
- Chicken breast soup, breast and vegetable stew, fruit drink or compote.
- Berry mousse, jelly.
- Cottage cheese casserole, tea.
Lunch and afternoon tea are easy to swap. Before dinner, you can arrange another snack.
Dish recipes
Diet is an integral part of diabetes therapy. You need to eat often, up to six times, with breaks no longer than 3 hours. The day should be organized in such a way as to eat at the same hours, and if hunger is felt between them, then it cannot be ignored: at least something should be eaten immediately.
- A good snack is walnuts for diabetes. A snack can be at any time of the day, including evening, so as not to suffer from insomnia caused by hunger.
Nutritionists argue that people following a healthy diet suffer less from comorbidities and live much longer. Diabetic recipes include healthy ingredients in the right proportions. They are conditionally divided as follows: half of the dish is occupied by vegetables, a quarter is fish or meat, the rest is products with starch. In this situation, food is well absorbed without increasing blood sugar.
Food is prepared from healthy products: chicken and turkey meat, cereals, vegetables, olive oil, mushrooms, low-fat cottage cheese, eggs. With normal weight, a full-fledged diet is offered in the range of 2500–2900 kcal, with increased weight it is energy-reduced: 1200, 1400, 1600 kcal. Calories are regulated by the volume of servings.
Sugar-compatible products are excluded from the diet: canned food, tomato paste, semi-finished products, sweet soda and juice, honey, confectionery products, including diabetic. Instead of sugar, substitutes are used, preferably natural ones, for example, stevia.
Reviews
Most reviews relate to the use of various home-made nut preparations. Women are especially fond of: nut tinctures, decoctions traditionally treat everything - from fibroma to depression with menopause.
Especially a lot of positive comments about the alcohol product based on partitions. About diabetes walnuts, users are still silent.
Results
The use of walnuts for diabetes and drugs based on them contributes to the positive dynamics of the process. The release of glucose from food is slowed down, its level decreases and excretion from the body is observed. Alkaloids normalize the functioning of the pancreas, prevent the absorption of sugar in the intestinal gastrointestinal tract.
Positive results are observed after three months: with regular use of nuts, insulin levels improve, which confirms the improvement in the patient's condition.
In some peoples, the nut is considered a symbol of prosperity, and the leaves of the tree endow with seductive properties. This indirectly confirms its great benefit, because it is unlikely that such a useless plant would be called a useless plant. The benefits of walnuts in diabetes are invaluable, especially in the early stages of T2DM. However, no one was able to defeat this serious disease with exclusively alternative means, but only in combination with qualified medical care. With this approach, diabetes recedes, and the patient continues a full life.