Do not combine salt and sugar if you want to escape from diabetes

The simple gesture of separating salt from sugar can be key in the fight against type 2 diabetes.

Until now it was believed that sugar was one of the great causes of type 2 diabetes. Now, a team of French researchers discovered that combining sugar and salt in food is even worse.

A team from the French Institute of Health and Research (INSERM) realized that gastric bypass surgery (reduce surgically stomach size) in diabetic volunteer patients reduced blood sugar absorption aftermeals

The absorption of sugar was limited with this operation to the lower part of the intestine and on contact with bile.

The researchers later studied the effects of this surgery on miniature pigs, which are omnivorous mammals with a digestive anatomy and physiology very similar to ours.

By adding salt to the food of the pigs operated, they discovered that the absorption of sugar in the upper intestine was restored, causing an increase in blood sugar levels.

Therefore, salt would be playing a fundamental role in the absorption of glucose or sugar in the intestine that in turn has a direct influence on type 2 diabetes. This type of diabetes, after all, is a metabolic disorder that is characterizedFor hyperglycemia, a high level of blood sugar.

This disease mostly affects adults, about 300 million worldwide."One of the first symptoms of type 2 diabetes in healthy people is that the level of glucose increases after food," François Pattou, one of the authors of the investigation, told BBC.

“Therefore, it is very important to be careful not to consume too much sugar, combined with salt, at meals.This is true both for people suffering from type 2 diabetes, but especially for those who are healthy, ”he added.

Reducing salt and sugar is especially important in healthy people, according to researchers.

Pattou warned that people in general consume three times more salt than they should, in addition to much more sugar than advised.He added that limiting the simultaneous consumption of sugar and salt, avoiding products such as salty sweets, is something relatively simple to do and that would greatly reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.