And salt – not just sugar – plays a role in diabetes, according to French researchers who came to this conclusion by dealing with obesity surgery.
In their study, published in the American medical journal Cell Metabolism, they estimate that the discovery could lead to the design of new preventive measures, reports AFP.
“Simple dietary measures, such as reducing the simultaneous consumption of salt and sugar, could prevent or treat type 2 diabetes (most commonly),” say the researchers, noting the possibility of developing new drugs.
They came to this conclusion by studying dwarf pigs that had undergone bypass surgery, consisting of altering the food circuit by short-circuiting part of the stomach and intestines.
How many people die from excess salt
In France, more than 200,000 severely obese patients have been operated on in recent years, with spectacular results sometimes in terms of weight loss, given diabetes, a disease often associated with obesity.
“We wondered why bypass so dramatically improves diabetes, with a very rapid drop in blood sugar (blood sugar levels), just before any weight loss,” Professor Francois Pattou, lead author of the study, told AFP.
Research on dwarf pigs – whose diet is similar to that of humans – showed that glucose absorption by the body was lower when done only in the lower intestine, as in the case of operated pigs, and not in the upper part, as in the unoperated. Salt is necessary for glucose absorption.
By postponing the operation, the moment when the bile, with a high salt content, meets the food bowl, “glucose absorption is reduced”, explains Professor Pattou, surgeon and researcher at Inserm in Lille.
To confirm the role of salt, the researchers then gave large amounts to dwarf pigs, observing an increase in blood sugar after the meal. Professor Pattou believes that these results confirm the influence of dietary salt on blood sugar levels, a fact already suggested by an Israeli study published a few months ago.
In that study, the salt content was the fourth element that influenced the increase in blood sugar, according to the sugar content of the food, the diabetic disease and the time of meals during the day (the glycemia increasing more after dinner), concludes AFP.
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