‘Misinformation fuelling complications among patients with diabetes’
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Chijioke Iremeka
Experts in the management of diabetes have identified misinformation as a major contributor to complications and poor treatment outcomes among patients living with diabetes in the country.
The specialists said it was wrong for people to advise diabetes patients not to consume traditional foods like eba, rice, and yam and replace them with wheat-based alternatives.
According to them, such advice could impact their health, emphasising that local foods such as eba with enough vegetables were healthy for patients with diabetes but must be consumed in moderation.
The diabetologists noted that a healthy diet helps to manage blood sugar levels, stressing that vegetables and fruits provide fiber, vitamins, and minerals that help stabilise blood sugar and promote overall health.
The World Health Organisation emphasises that increased access to the right diabetes education among the populace is critical to the prevention and management of the disease.
The global health body says a large majority of people living with the disease in Nigeria have little or no knowledge of diabetes and its complications, and this has been increasing the risk of developing the disease and its mortality.
The WHO estimates the prevalence of diabetes in Nigeria to be 4.3 percent and it is largely attributed to the lifestyle changes caused by urbanisation and its results: industries producing unhealthy diets including sugar-sweetened drinks, lack of exercise, and harmful use of alcohol.
Speaking exclusively with PUNCH Healthwise in different interviews, the diabetologists said misinformation concerning what to eat and what not was affecting the treatment and management of diabetes.
They said by focusing on balanced meals and portion control, diabetics can enjoy their traditional meals without compromising their health, saying that a holistic approach, rather than drastic diet changes, is key to managing diabetes effectively.
A Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Idi-Araba, Olufemi Fasanmade, said that diabetes patients were free to eat any food of their choice with the prescription of their physicians.
He said, “People should stop telling diabetics to avoid eating eba, rice, and yam and start eating wheat. This kind of information is causing problems for us. They should eat all these foods with vegetables or fruits.
“We hear people telling diabetic patients not to eat rice, eba, and even yam, advising people wrongly. In some write-ups, you will see all kinds of advice, giving one counsel or the other that is affecting the management of diabetes.
“Everybody that has diabetes must eat fruits or vegetables every day, at least three to five servings of fruits or vegetables per day. This means that every meal must have either fruits or vegetables as well as in-between meals.
“We advise diabetics to avoid simple or refined sugars. Rice, yam, amala, and eba among others, which contain complex sugars, do not necessarily worsen or increase the risk for diabetics.”
Regarding the controversial sugar content of these foods, he said, “Diabetes is not caused by sugar; it is caused by an unhealthy lifestyle, so these classes of foods are good because they are still complex carbohydrates.
“When we talk about sugar, there is simple and complex sugar. The sugar we ask you to avoid is the simple sugar, refined sugar. Someone who has diabetes or who does not want to have diabetes can eat yam and cassava. These are starchy foods, but they are complex sugars.
“So the problem is not the sugar, it is the type of the sugar. That is why those people in the village will eat their fufu and yam and will not develop diabetes as much as you think despite that they eat fufu and eba every day.
“This is because they are eating complex carbohydrates. So eba is good, yam is good. People should stop telling diabetics to stop eating eba and start eating wheat. This kind of information is causing problems for us. They should eat all these foods with vegetables or fruits.
“Simple or refined sugars are like cake and soft drinks. Those are the things we tell people to avoid because they contain fructose and sucrose. There is nothing wrong with carbohydrates.
“They can eat eba, amala, fufu, starch, potatoes, and yams because they are all complex carbohydrates. There is nothing wrong with them, and they are complex carbohydrates and should be eaten with fruits or vegetables.”
Corroborating his statement, a consultant paediatric endocrinologist at the University College Hospital in Ibadan, Oyo State, Dr Oluwakemi Ashubu, noted that the right information was crucial in managing diabetes patients to achieve better treatment outcomes.
She noted that misinformation in medical practice could lead to several adverse outcomes, saying that too much insulin or other diabetes medications may cause blood sugar levels to drop significantly, causing hypoglycemia.
According to her, hypoglycemia, which means low blood sugar, could be avoided by the consumption of the right quantity of carbohydrates.
Patients living with diabetes could eat carbohydrate food in moderation and ensure there are enough vegetables, saying that hypoglycemia could also occur if one eats less than usual after taking a regular dose of diabetes medication or exercise more than one typically does.
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