Prediabetes and diabetes are increasing rapidly worldwide, representing a major public health challenge in the 21st century.
Among the strategies to better manage them, nutritional interventions play an essential role, and ongoing nutrition education is needed.
Increasing dietary fiber in the diet is an area of intensive research.
Dietary fiber is recognized for its ability to modulate the intestinal flora or microbiota, promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacterium.
These bacteria contribute to the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which play a key role in blood sugar regulation.
Indeed, the SCFAs produced by the fermentation of dietary fibers play a central role in blood sugar regulation by improving insulin sensitivity, modulating intestinal hormones, reducing inflammation and strengthening the intestinal barrier.
These synergistic effects make dietary fiber an essential component in diabetes management, underscoring the importance of a fiber-rich diet for metabolic health.
In fact, studies have shown that fiber-rich diets improve control of glycated hemoglobin, an essential indicator of diabetes control.
Dietary fiber is found in :
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Sources:
Diabète et alimentation au quotidien : les fondamentaux
https://www.ameli.fr/assure/sante/themes/diabete/diabete-vivre-quotidien/equilibre-alimentaire/diabete-alimentation-fondamentaux
Recent Advances in Nutrition and Diabetes.
Ojo O.
Nutrients. 2021 May 8;13(5):1573. doi: 10.3390/nu13051573.
Glycemic control and awareness among diabetic patients of nutrition recommendations in diabetes.
Ruszkiewicz K, Jagielski P, Traczyk I.
Rocz Panstw Zakl Hig. 2020;71(2):191-196. doi: 10.32394/rpzh.2020.0116.
Nowadays, and as shown in FMCG Gurus consumer studies, consumers expect more from their sports nutrition products than merely gaining muscle mass: immune health or gut health among others, are additional expected benefits.
The beneficial effects of lactoferrin on anemia and immunity
have now been proven.
Discover in the replay of our webinar the benefits of Proferrin® for athletes!
We probably met during a trade show or a webinar, but to learn more about us in less than 2 minutes, we invite you to discover this new video which presents the products, strengths and values of Ingredia Health!
Over the past few years, there has been a strong awareness around women's health. Women’s life is marked by hormonal changes throughout their lives; menstrual cycles, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and menopause, leading to specific needs and, consequently, tailored nutrition.
According to a recent survey, two-thirds of women believe themselves to be in good health, which is comparable to the trends of the last two years. However, they feel their health is impacted by stress and bad eating habits. Many of them are committed to well-being diets as they wish to stay fit and active as much as possible, which drives demand for products that facilitate it.1
As society continues to age, emotional wellness is considered just as important as physical health in facilitating healthy aging. Proportion of women concerned by menopause continues to grow, meaning that they represent an important demographic for the health and wellness market. Especially as they suffer from various symptoms that impact their quality of life, more needs to be done to raise awareness among women on how they can manage the symptoms and how dietary supplements can help.
For several years now, there has been a growing interest in the consumption of dietary supplements. Women are the main consumers with 63.8% of use vs men (50.8%).2 Dietary supplement use increases with age and is higher among women aged 60 and over. This shows that there is scope for innovation within the market, developing new products and educating women who are either perimenopausal, menopausal, or post-menopausal.
Feeling of stress, anxiety and low mood are on the rise amongst women overall, and this is even more pronounced in women after menopause. Mood swings and other mental health-related problems are commonly experienced symptoms. Indeed, 61% of global post-menopausal women say they suffer from mood swings and 62% of global women would like to improve their stress levels over the next twelve months.1 Many women seek solutions to alleviate these unpleasant consequences of menopause.
Lactium® precisely meets this need. Indeed, it helps cope with occasional and everyday stress. It is already used by millions of consumers all over the world who deal with chronic stress symptoms (sleep disorders, pressure…), face very stressful periods of life (exams, tobacco withdrawal…) or want to optimize their general well-being (immunity increase, energy and balance, …)
Lactium® has already 9 clinical studies and one consumer satisfaction study. More specifically on women, a clinical study carried out to measure the psychological response to chronic stress, showed that Lactium® at 150 mg/day significantly reduced perceived stress after 30 days.
Reproductive hormones in women of childbearing age affect blood sugar levels. Since these hormone levels fluctuate throughout the menstrual cycle, blood sugar levels can also vary throughout the month. Although the impact is usually minor, some women may experience changes in blood sugar levels due to dietary changes or reduced physical activity during the menstrual or premenstrual period.
Pregnant women may suffer from gestational diabetes, a high blood sugar level that can affect their pregnancy and baby's health. Generally, blood sugar returns to its usual level soon after delivery. The 2021 National Perinatal Survey reports an increase in the incidence of gestational diabetes in pregnant women, from 10.8% in 2016 to 16.4% in 2021.3 This rise is partly due to improved detection methods and the increasing prevalence of risk factors in mothers, such as age and overweight. Gestational diabetes also increases the mother's risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
Later in life, prediabetes affects women more frequently than men before age 45, even if this trend reverses after age 45. This is due to the decrease in progesterone and estrogen levels. Indeed, these hormones influence how cells respond to insulin, which in turn leads to blood sugar variations.4
Some women are hit even harder by these blood sugar fluctuations. PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome) a condition characterized by insulin resistance with significant clinical consequences, affects between 8% and 13% of women of childbearing age.5 Pregnant women with PCOS are at greater risk of developing gestational diabetes. In menopausal women with PCOS, the risk of developing glucose intolerance is higher than in women without PCOS. 6
This is why it's important for women to monitor their blood sugar, and Pep2dia® can help them maintain healthy blood sugar levels and reduce glycemia spikes.
Indeed, according to a clinical study made on 21 subjects, Pep2Dia® significantly decreases the HbA1c level after 6 weeks of supplementation.
In women of childbearing age, heavy periods can lead to iron deficiency, which is the main cause of anemia. Iron is an essential element that performs important functions such as oxygen transport, DNA synthesis, and muscle metabolism. This nutritional deficiency is the most widespread in the world, affecting 33% of non-pregnant women and 40% of pregnant women.7
To prevent this, women need sufficient iron intake. Proferrin®, a glycoprotein naturally present in cow's milk, exhibits multiple biological effects. Able to capture iron, it also has antioxidant and antimicrobial properties, stimulating the immune system.
Women supplementing themselves with Proferrin® can improve their immune system, enhance gut health or prevent iron deficiency.
In addition to menopause, aging and increased life expectancy also poses public health challenges. Osteoporosis, a deterioration of bone tissue, affects many women as they age.
According to the International osteoporosis foundation, 9 million fractures occur every year in the world. This disease impacts about one in ten women at age 60 and one in five women at age 70.8
One existing solution to limit these consequences is to use Osteum™, casein phosphopeptides (CPP) which bind minerals such as calcium. Osteum™ CPP acts as a carrier of soluble calcium and improves its bioavailability. A study on rats has demonstrated a significant improvement in bone mineral density for the ovariectomized rats supplemented with CPP+calcium, in comparison with rats supplemented only with calcium.
Numerous studies clearly show that women are more likely to suffer from various gastrointestinal disorders than men, including gallstones, irritable bowel syndrome, dyspepsia and celiac disease, among others.
Many scientific studies have shown the positive action of colostrum on digestive health. Indeed, bovine colostrum contains growth factors that can help stimulate the growth of healthy bacteria in the gut. Expanding the resistance to digestive infections thanks to reinforcement of the immune system, Colostrum can aid in improving digestion, reducing bloating, and preventing constipation.
With women tending to take a proactive approach to health & wellness, and to focus on prevention over cure, their need for effective and safe dietary supplements is bound to grow. Our role is to help them achieve their goals and improve their quality of life by providing them our best science-backed ingredients.
Sources:
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects between 3.1% and 15.7% of women after childbirth. Around 1 in 10 women experience symptoms of PTSD within 4 to 6 weeks of birth. This disorder can be triggered by traumatic deliveries, whether medically complex (such as emergency caesarean sections or haemorrhage) or perceived as psychologically difficult. Postpartum PTSD is often linked to depression.
Symptoms include: reliving, avoidance, emotional numbing, hypervigilance and negative mood swings. This affects mothers' quality of life and can impact the child's development (physical, emotional, social).
Early psychological interventions can prevent and treat post-delivery PTSD, but their effectiveness varies.
Early psychological support: Low-intensity sessions (1-2 sessions led by a midwife or clinician within 72 hours of a traumatic birth) effectively reduce PTSD symptoms at 4-6 weeks, with an effect that can last up to 12 weeks.
Specialized therapies: Therapies such as trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) are also proving effective in treating trauma symptoms.
C-sections and premature births: Results for more intensive interventions remain uncertain, as does their effect on postpartum depression, often associated with PTSD. Further research is needed.
Learn more about Lactium for stress management!
Sources:
Early psychological interventions for prevention and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and post-traumatic stress symptoms in post-partum women: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Taylor Miller PG, Sinclair M, Gillen P, McCullough JEM, Miller PW, Farrell DP, Slater PF, Shapiro E, Klaus P.
PLoS One. 2021 Nov 24;16(11):e0258170. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258170. eCollection 2021.
To maintain stable blood sugar levels during exercise, the body implements a number of complex mechanisms, notably in the nervous and endocrine systems. Glucose is an essential source of energy, particularly during prolonged exercise, and the body must constantly adjust its production and use to meet the needs of the muscles without upsetting blood sugar balance.
During exercise, muscles use more glucose, leading to an increase in its absorption.
Two main elements facilitate this phenomenon: insulin release and muscle contractions. Together, they activate a protein, GLUT4, which transports glucose into muscle cells.
In addition, the body increases blood supply to the muscles to ensure better glucose availability.
Blood glucose levels are kept stable in several ways:
- Hepatic degradation of glycogen: the liver releases glucose stored in glycogen to fuel the muscles.
- Gluconeogenesis: when exercise is prolonged and glycogen stores are depleted, the liver manufactures glucose from other compounds (such as amino acids or lactate).
- Using fat: the body can also draw on fat as an energy source, reducing dependence on glucose.
Blood glucose control relies on two types of mechanism:
- Feedforward: at the start of exercise or during intense workouts, the body anticipates glucose requirements and increases its production, sometimes in excess, which may even raise blood glucose levels slightly.
- Feedback: if blood glucose levels fall during prolonged exercise, corrective mechanisms are activated to stabilize them.
In short, the body adapts dynamically to balance blood glucose levels during exercise,
mobilizing different energy sources and regulatory systems in turn.
Learn more about Pep2Dia to maintain a healthy glycemia!
Sources:
Regulation of blood glucose homeostasis during prolonged exercise.
Suh SH, Paik IY, Jacobs K.
Mol Cells. 2007 Jun 30;23(3):272-9.
PMID: 17646701
Physical and psychosocial stressors can interact in complex ways to increase a person's stress.
Carrying a heavy physical load and encountering an aggressive individual amplifies stress beyond what each stressor causes individually.
The results indicate that:
This interaction suggests that physical load can exacerbate the impact of aggressive behavior, significantly increasing stress.
For professionals such as police officers and military personnel, who regularly face stressful social interactions, unmodified working conditions could lead to an increase in chronic illness and violence.
It is important to take into account these interactions between physical loads and aggressive behavior to improve working conditions and reduce negative health effects.
Learn more about Lactium for stress management!
Sources:
The Interaction Between Physical and Psychosocial Stressors.
Abdelall ES, Eagle Z, Finseth T, Mumani AA, Wang Z, Dorneich MC, Stone RT.
Front Behav Neurosci. 2020 May 14;14:63. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2020.00063.
To reduce the risk of prediabetes and therefore type 2 diabetes, it's important to pay attention not only to what you eat, but also to when you eat.
Here are some simple tips based on researchers' findings:
Eat more in the late morning: Eating more calories and foods with a low glycemic load (which don't raise blood sugar levels much) in the late morning can reduce the risk of diabetes.
Replace calories from other times of the day: Try shifting some of the calories you consume in the early morning, afternoon or evening to the late morning. For example, if you eat a big breakfast or a hearty dinner, reduce them slightly and eat more in the late morning.
Choose foods that keep blood sugar levels stable: In the late morning, focus on foods like whole grains, vegetables, fruit and lean proteins that help keep blood sugar levels stable.
By following these simple tips, you can better manage your blood sugar and reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Learn more about Pep2Dia to maintain a healthy glycemia!
Sources:
🎥 Diabetalk S1 E2 Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes
Prediabetes, under-diagnosed, is nevertheless an essential step in the prevention of Type 2 Diabetes.
Energy Intake and Dietary Glycemic Load in Late Morning and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes: The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos, a Multicenter Prospective Cohort Study.
Dai J, Nianogo R, Wong ND, Moin T, McClain AC, Alver S, Cordero C, Daviglus ML, Qi Q, Sotres-Alvarez D, Chen L.
Diabetes Care. 2024 Jul 23:dc240564. doi: 10.2337/dc24-0564.
Self-compassion is defined as the ability to treat oneself with kindness and understanding, as one would a dear friend in trouble. It involves being forgiving of one's own mistakes, recognizing that challenges are part of the human experience, and remaining aware of one's emotions without judgment.
This attitude plays an important role in reducing stress and improving emotional regulation. Indeed, recent research indicates that self-compassion can reduce stress symptoms by promoting a gentler response to setbacks and facilitating a more balanced management of negative emotions.
A study using structural equation models, a sophisticated method for analyzing relationships between different variables, shows that self-compassion indirectly influences stress by improving emotional regulation.
Emotion regulation and stress management, while connected, differ in their approaches: emotion regulation focuses on the internal management of positive and negative feelings, while stress management deals with coping with external problems. These processes use common brain structures, such as the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, whose functioning can vary with age and life experiences.
Emotion regulation and stress management abilities are also influenced by genetic factors, such as genes associated with serotonin, as well as environmental factors, such as family support and stressful experiences. Neurobiological research and longitudinal studies show how these abilities evolve over time.
By combining self-compassion with an in-depth understanding of neural mechanisms and genetic and environmental influences, it is possible to enhance emotional regulation and stress management, leading to an overall improvement in psychological well-being. This suggests that interventions incorporating self-compassion could offer particularly effective solutions for improving emotional regulation and managing stress more effectively.
Learn more about Lactium for stress management!
Sources:
The fear-defense system, emotions, and oxidative stress.
Ghaemi Kerahrodi J, Michal M.Redox Biol. 2020 Oct;37:101588. doi: 10.1016/j.redox.2020.101588.
Individual differences in emotion regulation and cardiovascular responding to stress.
Griffin SM, Howard S.Emotion. 2022 Mar;22(2):331-345. doi: 10.1037/emo0001037.
Emotion regulation, parental stress and family functioning: Families of children with disabilities vs normative families.
Priego-Ojeda M, Rusu PP.Res Dev Disabil. 2023 Aug;139:104548. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2023.104548.
Self-Compassion and Responses to Trauma: The Role of Emotion Regulation.
Scoglio AAJ, Rudat DA, Garvert D, Jarmolowski M, Jackson C, Herman JL.J Interpers Violence. 2018 Jul;33(13):2016-2036. doi: 10.1177/0886260515622296.
Examining a brief self-compassion intervention for emotion regulation in individuals with exposure to trauma.
Himmerich SJ, Orcutt HK.Psychol Trauma. 2021 Nov;13(8):907-910. doi: 10.1037/tra0001110.
Self-Compassion, Emotion Regulation and Stress among Australian Psychologists: Testing an Emotion Regulation Model of Self-Compassion Using Structural Equation Modeling.
Finlay-Jones AL, Rees CS, Kane RT.PLoS One. 2015 Jul 24;10(7):e0133481. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0133481.
Women with a waist circumference greater than 89 cm or 35 inches and men with a waist circumference greater than 102 cm or 40 inches tend to have a higher risk of obesity-related diseases, including prediabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Body fat, particularly abdominal fat that is predominantly “visceral”, surrounding the internal organs, contributes to increased inches more than any other factor.
Excess body fat is linked to many health problems, including pre-diabetes, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis and certain cancers. This excess increases the risk of high cholesterol, hyperglycemia, high triglycerides, hypertension and heart disease. Weight loss can improve blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and overall health.
Abdominal exercises can strengthen the muscles of the abdominal wall, improving posture and waistline, even without abdominal fat loss.
However, for those who are significantly overweight, better results will be achieved with a broader diet and exercise program.
Many experts believe that too many people focus on diet rather than exercise.
A kilogram of fat contains around 7,700 calories, and the amount of calories needed to lose a kilogram varies between individuals and their lifestyles. Generally speaking, it's considered necessary to burn just over 3,500 calories to lose 500 grams of fat.
A pound of fat stores 3,500 calories. So the amount of calories to burn 1 lb of fat is generally thought to be 3500.
To maintain weight loss over the long term, you should lose no more than 1 kg per week. Losing more weight per week is often temporary.
Men have more lean muscle mass and a higher resting metabolic rate, which facilitates weight loss.
Women store fat differently, particularly in the thighs, buttocks and hips, where it's harder to lose.
Female hormones encourage the storage of calories in the form of fat, which takes up more space than muscle.
Lifestyle habits are crucial. Some people have more body fat because of their genes or their microbiota (intestinal flora) and its metabolites. Whatever their lifestyle choices, they may never be as slim as others.
The significantly overweight and most inactive people can achieve the most impressive results and benefit most from a weight loss program.
Whatever your weight, good nutrition and regular exercise are important for your overall health.
Learn more about Pep2Dia to maintain a healthy glycemia!
