CHICAGO - A DIET rich in nuts, beans and lentils beat a high cereal-fibre diet in controlling symptoms of diabetes and heart disease, Canadian researchers said on Tuesday.

They said the study was aimed at settling the question of which diet could help diabetics gain better control over their disease, but it could be helpful for others as well.

'In an age when many of us are overweight and we have insulin resistance, it may actually have relevance to a much wider portion of the population,' said Dr David Jenkins of St Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Dr Jenkins said many popular diets such as the South Beach Diet and the Zone Diet already focus on low-glycemic index foods - foods that produce only small changes in blood glucose and insulin levels.

'A lot of the popular diet books actually are even ahead of the scientists in using it,' he said in a telephone interview.

Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of diabetes, is closely linked with obesity. Diabetics, whose blood sugar levels are too high, are more likely to develop heart disease, stroke, kidney damage and blindness.

Dr Jenkins and colleagues studied 210 people with type 2 diabetes randomly selected to try one of two diets for six months. All were also treated with medications to control their blood sugar and had monthly blood tests.

People on the low-glycemic index diet ate an abundance of beans, peas, lentils, nuts and pasta.

They were also allowed low-glycemic index breads such as pumpernickel, quinoa and flaxseed and breakfast cereals that included large flake oatmeal and oat bran.

People in the high fibre group ate a largely 'brown' diet: whole grain breads and cereals, brown rice, potatoes with skins and whole wheat bread, crackers and cereals.

People in both groups were also encouraged to eat three servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables daily.

At the end of the six months, people on the low-glycemic diet lost slightly more weight, had significantly better control of their blood sugar and had higher levels of high density lipoprotein or HDL, the so-called good cholesterol.

Dr Jenkins said the diet should be one of many options considered by people with diabetes, and others.

'A lot of the traditional foods like beans, pasta - these sorts of foods that were eaten perhaps by our grandparents - can usefully be brought back into the diet,' he said.

And he said the food industry has an opportunity to produce modern foods with low-glycemic properties that 'can fit palatably into the diet'. -- REUTERS