A New Approach for Type-2 Diabetes: SmarterNaturally Soup

Could a new soup be a game-changer for the seven million patients at risk of developing type-2 diabetes?

The Burden of Diabetes

World Diabetes Day (14th November) is all about recognising the importance of diabetes as a chronic health condition.

Type 2 diabetes makes up 90% of all diabetes, has a massive impact on people’s lives and costs the NHS nearly £10 billion a year. A diagnosis of prediabetes gives patients a window to take action… but 20% of prediabetics go on to develop diabetes within 5 years. Often patients are told to change their diet and exercise more - but compliance is generally low, and many fail to bring their blood sugar levels back under control.^[1]

A New Hope?

Thankfully, scientists may have found a new solution; a chemical called glucoraphanin, found in broccoli in small amounts, which seems to help bring blood sugar down to healthier levels – a key step in helping people avoid going on to develop type-2 diabetes.

Scientists believe that glucoraphanin can have a natural ‘anti-aging’ effect on our metabolism, and evidence suggests that eating more glucoraphanin can have a range of knock-on effects - on blood sugar levels, but also on cholesterol, heart health, neurodegenerative conditions, and even cancer. With decades of research and over 3,000 papers published on glucoraphanin, there’s good reason to be hopeful about the potential of this health-boosting molecule.

How SmarterNaturally Can Help

Broccoli has long been considered a ‘superfood’, in part because it contains glucoraphanin – though only in small amounts. That’s why we created SmarterNaturally Soup – it’s made with our unique “super-strain” of broccoli (‘GRextra'), which contains up to 5x more glucoraphanin than a standard broccoli.

Our soup offers people a powerful, easy and affordable way to boost the amount of glucoraphanin in their diet. In fact, a published clinical trial suggests that eating just one bowl of glucoraphanin-rich soup a week for several months can meaningfully contribute to bringing elevated blood sugar down to healthier levels[2] - a key step in both preventing and controlling type-2 diabetes.

This new approach could help support the millions pre-diabetics at risk of a full diabetes diagnosis to make healthy lifestyle changes - all while helping the NHS to cut down on the 10-billion-pound cost that type 2 diabetes puts on the health service each year.²

In support of the diabetic patient community and World Diabetes Day, we’re also giving £1 to Diabetes UK for every new trial of SmarterNaturally Soup sold (between 14-27 November 2022) in an effort to do our part to give both our customers and diabetic people everywhere a chance at a healthier future.

About SmarterNaturally

Here at SmarterNaturally, we’re science-led, research-backed and patient-focused. We’re a spin-out from the Quadram Institute - one of the UK’s leading food & health research institutions. Our GRextra broccoli was developed through years of research at Quadram and elsewhere, and we created our glucoraphanin-rich soup because of the 3,000+ published research papers exploring the potential health benefits of glucoraphanin.

SmarterNaturally Soup is available online via: https://www.smarternaturally.com/

At £25 for a 4 week trial, and then £65.00 for a 12-week subscription.

A scientific spokesperson and is available on request for interviews.

We can also arrange interviews with SmarterNaturally customers on our citizen science programme who’ve seen measurable positive changes in their diabetic health since eating the soup regularly.

For further information please contact aran@smarternaturally.com

Anthony (a SmarterNaturally customer) says:

“After 4-5 months of eating a bowl of this soup every week, my HbA1c was down to 39 mmol/l. I couldn’t believe it - I was inside the normal range, and no longer pre-diabetic! I’m really delighted to have gained control of my blood sugar levels. While I’m sure it was a combination of things that helped, I do believe that eating the soup has played an important part in bringing down my HbA1c level and improving my diabetic health.”

“I’ve seen other benefits too: my muscles feel good and I’ve got a bit more energy; my cholesterol has gone down slightly; and the level of triglycerides in my blood when I was last tested was super low! But the biggest impact has actually been on my mental health. I was very worried about the potential side effects of becoming diabetic, but starting on this soup felt like taking a positive step to protect my health, which was a great comfort – and now that my blood sugar levels are back under control, I have much less anxiety around it.”

“I’ve eaten the soup religiously every week for months now, and to me it’s a no brainer to keep going. It’s nice to eat, it’s only once a week, it’s easy to make, and I’m convinced it’s playing a key role in reducing my blood glucose levels – so it seems sensible to stick with it. I would definitely recommend it – I think it’s worth trying and seeing if it works for you! There’s not much to lose… you don’t have to take a huge number of drugs with all those horrible side effects, and I think it’s quite reasonably priced considering the benefits I’ve seen to my health!”

*Read Anthony’s full story and more case studies at: https://smarternaturally.com/case-studies

Professor Richard Mithen (Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Auckland, and Lead Scientist at SmarterNaturally) says:

“SmarterNaturally Soup could provide health benefits to those at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. It’s a low impact, natural intervention that is simple to stick to.”

“Broccoli’s long been considered to be a superfood by many - but not all broccoli varieties are the same. SmarterNaturally uses a unique variety that contains significantly higher amounts of a naturally occurring compound, glucoraphanin, than standard broccoli. Research suggests that the soup made with this broccoli could help lower high blood glucose, a key risk factor for those at risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes, by returning elevated blood glucose to normal levels and maintaining it.”

“Getting this soup to market to help in the global fight against diabetes is the first step. But there’s also published research that suggests that glucoraphanin may also help to lower cholesterol and could have a positive impact on various types of cancer including prostate and breast cancer, so we’re really excited about the possibilities this could unlock.”

Dr Karen Irvine (GP) says:

“Type 2 diabetes is an enormous global public health issue. In the UK it puts a huge strain on the NHS, costing it nearly 10 billion a year. Most pre-diabetics are simply told to change their diet and take more exercise, but figures show that compliance is low and that 20% go on to develop diabetes within 5 years. So, if we can use a simple food product that tastes good and needs to be eaten just once per week to reduce the risk of populations developing Type 2 diabetes, we can have a hugely positive impact on society worldwide.”

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[1] https://www.diabetes.org.uk/professionals/position-statements-reports/statistics

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6462431/#sup1