Dr Kirsten Coppell, senior research fellow at the university's Edgar National Centre for Diabetes, was addressing a national diabetes conference in Dunedin, sharing the findings from the Lifestyle Over and Above Drugs in Diabetes study.
About 250 New Zealand health professionals were at the New Zealand Society for the Study of Diabetes conference, at the St David Lecture Theatre.
The study, which started two years ago, divided 87 high-risk diabetics from the Dunedin area into two groups - an intervention group and a control group - and monitored them for six months, lead investigator Dr Coppell said.
Both received optimised medical care, but patients in the intervention group also received one-on-one dietary advice from a dietitian.
At the end of the study, measures of glycaemic control in the intervention group had improved, which was "a crucial goal in managing diabetes".
"It can prevent long-term complications, such as kidney failure, heart disease, amputations and blindness," she said.
The intervention group was encouraged to eat smaller meals, and more fruit and vegetables.
Their average weight loss was 2kg, and 3cm around their waists.
Dr Coppell told the Otago Daily Times that before the introduction of anti-diabetic drugs, the focus in diabetics care was on diet and lifestyle.
"Our research indicates that while this earlier approach has tended to be forgotten in this modern age of a `pill for every ill', it still very much has a place in diabetics management."
A participant in the study, and member of the intervention group, Pat Tillard, said since she started to eat less more often, her health had improved.
"Before I started, I was having six insulin injections a day, and now I may have one a day."
Mrs Tillard had also "just tightened [her] belt again".
She had gone from a size 36 to a size 18 or 20, and had much more energy.
"If it wasn't for the study I'd still be on a lot of insulin and I'd still be the size I was."
- Cerisse Denhardt
