People who eat two cheap tins of food a week 'can stop diabetes'

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Tucking into a tin of sardines every day could have a remarkable impact on our health, a new study from Spain has suggested. Older adults who ate two cans of the oily fish in olive oil per week were found to be less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

Researchers led by Dr Ramon Gomis discovered that sardines had a protective effect against the condition in patients over 65 with pre-diabetes. The findings, published by the Centre of Biomedical Investigation, have led experts to recommend incorporating sardines into our diets - thanks to their affordability, accessibility and impressive nutritional profile.

Packed with unsaturated fats, the fish is already known to help regulate cholesterol and ward off cardiovascular disease. According to Prof Diana Díaz Rizzolo, from IDIBAPS and the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), "Sardines are not only affordable and easy to find, but they are also safe and preventative for type 2 diabetes. This is a great scientific discovery. They are easy to recommend for medical consultation and affordable for the general population."

Researchers from IDIBAPS, IMIM, the Fatty Acid Research Institute (USA), the University of Barcelona and the Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona have all contributed to a new study.

The findings, published in the Clinical Nutrition journal, involved 152 patients aged 65 or older with prediabetes. These individuals were part of a nutritional programme designed to reduce their risk of developing the disease.

However, only the intervention group added two cans of sardines in olive oil to their weekly diet. To encourage consumption, participants received a recipe book featuring canned sardines.

They were advised to eat the sardines whole, including the skeleton, which is rich in calcium and vitamin D. The group that did not include sardines in their diet began with 27% of people at very high risk of diabetes, and after one year, 22% remained in that category. In contrast, the group that ate sardines started with 37% at high risk, but after a year, only 8% were still at very high risk.

Furthermore, the study found that other crucial biochemical parameters improved, such as a decrease in insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR), an increase in good cholesterol (HDL) and hormones that enhance glucose metabolism (adiponectin), along with a reduction in triglycerides and blood pressure, among other factors. The research was conducted on individuals aged 65 and over due to the higher incidence of the disease in this age group.

"With increasing age, restrictive diets (in calories or food groups) can play a protective role against diabetes, but the cost-benefit is not always positive, as we have explained in other studies," explains Rizzolo. However, "the results make us think that we could achieve an equally interesting preventive effect in younger people."

Professor Rizzolo emphasised that simply taking supplements for the nutrients found in sardines - taurine, omega 3, calcium and vitamin D - is not equivalent to consuming the fish itself: "Nutrients can play an essential role in the protection and treatment of many pathologies, but their effect is usually caused by the synergistic action between them and the food matrix that contains them. Thus, sardines will have a protective element because they are rich in the nutrients mentioned, but nutrients taken in isolation in the form of supplements will not be as protective."

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