How sugarcane could help to treat diabetes sufferers

Trials of a new treatment are showing remarkable promise for diabetes sufferers – and it’s because of an unlikely source – sugarcane.

As the disease continues to widen its grip on Australians with more than 250 people diagnosed every day, there’s still no cure.

However, new trials of an Australian product that boosts intestinal health is seeing positive effects in the treatment of diabetes.

If poorly managed, diabetes can wreak havoc on your health, making you more likely to have a heart attack or stroke, suffer kidney damage, need an amputation or lose vision.

Fit, slim and with no family history of the condition, Simon De Crespingy was an unlikely candidate for Type 2 diabetes.

But in 2011, a routine blood test revealed he was on the verge of developing it.

“ I don't think I understood the full ramifications when it was given to me,” he told Seven News.

“I get pretty emotional about it because it's a pretty bad disease”.

But taking health drink NutriKane D daily did had a remarkable effect on Simon with clinical trials suggesting it helps to stabilise blood sugar levels.

Early research has indicated adding sugarcane to the tonic lowered the Glycaemic Index of food, helping to stabilise blood sugar levels.

Simon went from 12.3 (low range diabetes 2), down to 6.8.

Sugarcane may seem like and unlikely ingredient in the fight against high blood glucose levels, but Australian researchers have found that this natural product is full with hard to digest fibre, which encourages the growth of good intestinal bacteria.

However Diabetes NSW CEO Stuart Eastwood warned not to ditch the exercise and healthy eating just yet.

“This is in its initial stages of testing, I think it's far too early to say whether this is indeed a treatment option,” he said.