COIMBATORE: As country's diabetes rates soars, an American expert on Tuesday said that type II diabetes can be dramatically kept under control by avoiding "western" food.

"The westernisation of the diet has led to a health crisis and what we need is an easternisation of dietary practices worldwide," Dr Neal Barnard, a noted nutrition researcher with US-based National Institute of Health, said.

Diet proved to be three times more powerful than oral medicines to help control the disease, particularly type II diabetes, Barnard, who is scheduled to address a seminar at a city hospital on January 17, said in a statement.

Proper diet also significantly lowered cholesterol and high blood pressure, he added.

Quoting World Health Organisation projections, he said that diabetes rates in India were set to double in coming years, afflicting nearly 80 million people by 2030.

According to a study conducted in Washington, even people with longstanding diabetes and weight problems linked to the disease have their conditions partially reversed by switching over to low-fat vegetarian diet that also excludes dairy products, he said.

"We have high hopes that due to historical and religious influences in India, it will be easier for patients to adapt a non-meat, non-dairy diet than for Americans, although the research team was surprised to note how positively people beset with physical problems and facing a lifetime of medication embraced the diet in the US," Barnard said.