Drug companies are hoping to capitalize on the fact that the consumption of certain plants

appears to lower the risk of diabetes by isolating the active components for use and sale as pharmacological agents.

Though not as profitable, why not just eat the plants?

One plant in particular that's now been tested is flax.

We've known for 20 years that having ground flaxseeds in your stomach can blunt the blood sugar spike from a meal,

but it's never been tested in diabetics until now.

"An open-label study on the effect of flax seed powder supplementation in the management of diabetes".

A tablespoon of ground flaxseeds every day for a month

and compared to the control group, a significant drop in fasting blood sugars,

triglycerides, and cholesterol, as well as the most important thing:

a drop in A1c level, and this was just after a month.

Though if one's sugars are already well-controlled, there may be no additional benefit.

No weight gain was reported in people adding a quarter cup of ground flax a day to their diets for 3 months.

In fact, the flax group ended up with a slimmer waist than the flaxseed oil or control group.

Even up to nearly a half cup a day (more than I'd recommend), still no significant weight gain,

though this was only after month.

How does flax help control diabetes?

Flaxseed consumption may improve insulin sensitivity in people with glucose intolerance.

About after 12 weeks of flax there was a small but significant drop in insulin resistance --

perhaps related to the drop in oxidant stress, given the antioxidant qualities of flaxseed phytonutrients.

Now this was a small unblinded study -- it's hard to come up with a convincing fake flaxseed placebo--

so if this was some drug they were testing, I'd never prescribe it based on this one study. But it isn't a drug!

It's just flaxseeds. There's just good side-effects!

So even if this study was a fluke or fraud, flaxseeds have other benefits.

So even in the worst case scenario, I'd still end up benefiting my patients not quite ready or able

to reverse their diabetes completely with a completely plant-based diet.