Tag Archives: type 2 diabetes

Metabolism and Metabolic Disease

Effect of Diet on Type 2 Diabetes Risk Varies Between Ethnicities

There has been a lot of research on the effect of diet on risk of Type 2 diabetes in adults, a topic not unknown to us at The French Paradox (click here for some research we’ve covered). However, to

Photo by Flickr user candyfields29 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/25517428@N05/)
Photo by Flickr user candyfields29 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/25517428@N05/)

date, there has been very little examining possible ethnic differences in terms of adherence to the Mediterranean diet (or similar diets) and risk of Type 2 diabetes development.

As a result of this lack of information, a recent research study aimed to compare different ethnicities in terms of their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes after consuming various diets (including the Mediterranean diet).

Dietary adherence and Type 2 diabetes prevalence was measured for white, Japanese-American, and Native Hawaiian adults.

A total of 89,185 adults were recruited for this study, with 11,217 of them reported to have Type 2 diabetes.

Dietary patterns were assessed via several self-reported questionnaires.

Important Findings:

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Metabolism and Metabolic Disease

Eating a Mediterranean Diet Associated with Lower Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes

A recent review performed a meta-analysis on studies within the last year to determine if consuming a Mediterranean-style diet had any influence on type 2 diabetes or not.

The 17 studies included in the review varied in nature in terms of their experimental protocols: 1 was a clinical trial, 9 were prospective studies,

Photo By Tomwsulcer (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
Photo By Tomwsulcer (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
and 7 were cross-sectional studies. Comparing studies with different experimental designs can be somewhat problematic, but there are ways to compare on a more broad scale.

Primary finding:

  • Sticking to a Mediterranean diet led to a 23% decrease in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
    • Even when controlling for region, general health status, and several other potentially confounding factors, this decrease in risk of developing type 2 diabetes was still seen.

While not a be-all end-all “cure” for type 2 diabetes, according to this meta-analysis, eating and maintaining a Mediterranean-style diet could provide some nutritional benefit to those wishing to prevent development of the disease.

 

Source:

Koloverou, E., Esposito, K., Giugliano, D., and Panagiotakos, D. 2014. The effects of Mediterranean diet on the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus: A meta-analysis of 10 prospective studies and 136,846 participants. Metabolism 63: 903-911.