Vegetarian diets are known to be generally healthy. However, not all plant-based diets are equal. New research compares their impact on diabetes risk.

By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Patients whose diabetes improves after weight-loss surgery may also be less likely to suffer complications like eye and nerve damage, a U.S. study suggests. Patients in the study had what’s known as type 2 diabetes, in which sugar levels in the blood rise too high because the body can’t use or make enough of the hormone insulin to convert food into energy. After the weight-loss operations, some patients saw their diabetes go into remission, which can occur when blood sugar falls back to a healthy level.

By Katy Migiro NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – With more money in their pockets, Africans are eating more fast food and adopting more sedentary lifestyles, leading to a surge in obesity and associated diseases like diabetes and cancer, experts said on Tuesday. Rates of obesity and overweight are rising in nearly every country in the world, the Global Nutrition Report said, describing malnutrition as the “new normal”. One in three people worldwide are experiencing malnutrition, it said, with 44 percent of countries facing serious levels of both undernutrition and obesity.