Consuming high-quality plant foods such as whole grains, fruits,
vegetables, nuts and legumes may substantially lower risk of developing
Type 2 diabetes, researchers including one of Indian-origin have
claimed.
“This study highlights that even moderate dietary changes in the
direction of a healthful plant-based diet can play a significant role in
the prevention of Type 2 diabetes,” said Ambika Satija from Harvard TH
Chan School of Public Health in the US.
“These findings provide further evidence to support current
dietary recommendations for chronic disease prevention,” she said. While
previous studies have found links between vegetarian diets and improved
health outcomes, including reduced risk of Type 2 diabetes, this new
study is the first to make distinctions between healthy plant-based
diets and less healthy ones that include things like sweetened foods and
beverages, which may be detrimental for health.
The study also considered the effect of including some animal foods
in the diet. Researchers followed more than 200,000 male and female
health professionals in the US for more than 20 years who had regularly
filled out questionnaires on their diet, lifestyle, medical history and
new disease diagnoses as part of three large long-term studies. They
evaluated participants’ diets using a plant-based diet index in which
they assigned plant-derived foods higher scores and animal-derived foods
lower scores.
The study found that high adherence to a plant-based diet that was
low in animal foods was associated with a 20 per cent reduced risk of
Type 2 diabetes compared with low adherence to such a diet, researchers
said.
Eating a healthy version of a plant-based diet was linked with a 34
per cent lower diabetes risk, while a less healthy version – including
foods such as refined grains, potatoes, and sugar-sweetened beverages –
was linked with a 16 per cent increased risk, they said. Even modestly
lowering animal food consumption – for example, from five to six
servings per day to about four servings per day – was linked with lower
diabetes incidence, the study found.
“A shift to a dietary pattern higher in healthful plant-based foods,
such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and
lower in animal-based foods, especially red and processed meats, can
confer substantial health benefits in reducing risk of Type 2 diabetes,”
said Frank Hu from Harvard Chan School.
Researchers suggest that healthful plant-based diets could be
lowering Type 2 diabetes risk because such diets are high in fibre,
antioxidants, unsaturated fatty acids, and micro nutrients such as
magnesium, and are low in saturated fat. Healthy plant foods may also be
contributing to a healthy gut micrometer, they said.
The findings were published in the journal PLOS Medicine.
