The Role of Indigenous Diets in Altering Insulin Resistance and Metabolic Disorders

Abstract

The globalization of cuisine due to human migration along with the
availability of agricultural produce, dairy, poultry and meat on the
e-market, has made every food, seasonal and otherwise, available
ubiquitously, perennially, posing a greater risk for the development
of metabolic diseases like diabetes. As the beginning points for the
pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes is rooted in lifestyle, it is only natural to
expect correction to happen at that end as much of these lifestyle ailments
were probably nonexistent in the pre-globalization era. However, to what
extent one needs to go back in time, is a question that remains with
various people recommending various diets for prevention and some for
remission of diabetes. In this internet era with information abundance,
sifting fact from myth is no easier than finding needle in a haystack.
More so, it is like finding for the right needle in a needle stack. We
hypothesise that adopting “indigenous diets” which are basically foods
consumed by our ancestors, before the agricultural revolution may be
the key to stopping the journey along this slippery slope of metabolic
diseases at the farther end of which lies diabetes. Below is a literature
review of the past 5 years on this subject of indigenous diets and the
benefits thereof followed by the author’s comments on the subject.