3 food studies: Type 2 Diabetes

It’s fairly commonplace now for people to know that what they eat can either increase or decrease their chances of developing type 2 diabetes. A high fat diet, obesity and a sedentary lifestyle are well known to increase type 2 diabetes. Three new studies take a look at different aspects of diet and type 2 diabetes.

Drink water, not syrup!

The first study was done by Boston University and concluded that women who drink fruit drinks have a higher risk for type 2 diabetes than those who drink soft drinks. They studied nearly 44,000 African-American women over ten years. Their findings suggested that the women who drank 2 or more fruit juices a day had a 31 percent increased risk of diabetes, while the women who drank the same amount of soda only had a 24 percent increased risk. No mention was given to the type of soft drinks or the type of fruit juice drinks that were used. The only information that was given about the drinks was that they were not 100 percent juice and were sweetened with sugar. Most likely, they were sweetened with sugar, fructose and high fructose corn syrup.

Eat your fruits and veggies!

The second study was done by Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, England. They studied the vitamin C blood levels of 22,000 people to find out how vegetables and fruit influence diabetes. They concluded, after a 12 year follow-up, that those with the highest amounts of vitamin C blood levels were 62 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, compared to the subjects with low amounts of vitamin C.

Must you cut fat?

The third study was conducted by the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center and involved around 49,000 women. Some women ate their regular diet and other women were restricted to eating a diet with 20 percent of the calories being fat calories. The study lasted for eight years and in the end, nearly 7 percent of both groups had the condition. While this makes it appear that fat content and diet do not affect the disease, it makes one wonder what the ‘regular diet’ was.
Even though studies can be somewhat confusing and the medical community is constantly changing their opinions, it still holds true that eating a low-fat diet rich in natural, whole foods is the healthiest choice.


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