EATING an ultra low-calorie diet can cure Type 2 diabetes in just eight weeks, dramatic new research has shown.

Even people who have suffered from the condition for years found the drastic diet could jump-start their body’s production of insulin.

The breakthrough is good news for the nearly 2.5million people in Britain who have this type of diabetes, which is caused by the pancreas not producing enough insulin to break down glucose in the blood.

It could revolutionise the treatment of what has always been seen as a lifelong problem.

Professor Roy Taylor, of Newcastle Univ­ersity, who led the research, said: “To have people free of diabetes after years with the condition is remarkable – and all because of an eight-week diet. For many years it has been assumed that Type 2 diabetes is a life sentence. It’s chronic, it’s progressive, people need more and more tablets, and eventually they need insulin. It’s a downhill slope. However, we have been able to show that it is in fact reversible.

“We have been able to put diabetes into reverse by a very low-calorie diet over a short period of time.

“What is really important and very new is the changes in the body that go along with this. Specifically, the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas have gone to sleep in Type 2 diabetes, they are not really doing very much.

“As the level of fat in the pancreas has reduced, we have seen these ­insulin-producing cells come ­com­- p­letely back to normal, and that is truly remarkable.”

He added: “This represents a radical change in our understanding of the condition. Insulin cells, if they are exposed to fat, don’t work. If they are protected from the fat they perform normally. It is quite possible that we may be able to devise medicines that block the effect of fat and allow normal function.”

He warned patients, however, not to try the new wonder cure without close medical supervision.

Patients in the clinical trial had their food intake cut to just 600 calories a day for two months.

Professor Taylor said: “People ought to think about cutting down what they eat by perhaps a half. On average, someone with a Body Mass Index of 30 will get diabetes. If they got down to a BMI of 19-25, which is the healthy range, it would dramatically improve or even reverse their diabetes.

“A diet of 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day would achieve weight loss in most people.”

Dr Iain Frame, director of research at Diabetes UK, also urged caution. “We welcome the results of this research because it shows that Type 2 diabetes can be reversed, on a par with successful surgery without the side-effects,” he said.

“However, this diet is not an easy fix and Diabetes UK strongly recommends that such a drastic diet should only be undertaken under medical supervision.”

Type 2 diabetes, which can cause strokes, heart attacks and blindness, normally develops during middle age as a result of obesity or an unhealthy lifestyle. The Type 1 version is genetic.

In the trial, 11 patients ate a “meal-replacement” milkshake of 150 calories three times a day.

This was supplemented with three portions of non-starchy vegetables including cabbage, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce.

After just one week, their pre-breakfast blood sugar levels had returned to normal and an MRI scan revealed that the fat levels in the pancreas were also normal, down from around eight per cent to six per cent.

The pancreas also regained the normal ability to make insulin and as a result, blood sugar levels after meals steadily improved.

The volunteers returned to eating normally but received advice on portion size and healthy eating. Three months later, seven remained free of diabetes.

The research, published in the journal Diabetologia, suggests a dramatic drop in calories has a direct effect on reducing fat accumulated in the pancreas, which in turn prompts insulin cells to “wake up”.

The findings are consistent with the belief that a lack of insulin secretion, which is vital for blood sugar control, is due to accumulation of fat in the liver and pancreas.

It has long been known that people who restrict their calorie intake and remain slim live longer than those who eat freely.

A low-calorie diet is also thought to slash the risk of developing cancer, heart disease and stroke, while staving off age-related degeneration of the brain and nervous system.