Just three weeks of a high-fibre, low-fat diet and moderate exercise could slow key changes in the body crucial to the development of diabetes, a new study suggests. The new study, along with previous work on the so-called Pritkin diet and exercise programme, found that just three weeks of the programme reversed the clinical diagnosis of type 2 diabetes – or its precursor, called metabolic syndrome. The programme worked in half of the overweight patients following it. “The study shows, contrary to common belief, that type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome can be reversed solely through lifestyle changes, says Christian Roberts at the University of California, Los Angeles, US, who led the study. The prevailing view is that such an improvement could take place only in months or years rather than weeks, Roberts told New Scientist. “The effect can be very dramatic given that, of the vast majority of people who go through the programme, at least 50% are no longer clinically defined as diabetic after three weeks, which suggests this disease is reversible. “Many people have the impression that once they have this disease that there’s not really anything they can do barring using drugs […]