Eating more fruits, vegetables can cut diabetes risk by 25%

Eating more fruits, vegetables and whole grain foods could lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, two new studies suggest.

In one study, researchers looked at more than 9,700 people who developed type 2 diabetes and over 13,600 who didn't. Participants were from eight European countries and part of a long-term cancer and nutrition study.

After adjusting for lifestyle, and social and dietary risk factors for diabetes, people with the highest levels of fruit and vegetable consumption were 50 percent less likely to develop diabetes than those with the lowest levels, the researchers found.

Every 66 grams a day -- 2.3 ounces -- increase in total fruit and vegetable intake was associated with a 25 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, Nita Forouhi, of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and colleagues calculated.

The other study included more than 158,000 U.S. women and over 36,000 U.S. men.

After adjusting for lifestyle and dietary risk factors for diabetes, people with the highest levels of whole grain consumption had a 29 percent lower rate of type 2 diabetes than those with the lowest levels, the findings showed.

In terms of specific whole grain foods, one or more servings a day of whole grain cold breakfast cereal or dark bread was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes -- 19 percent and 21 percent -- compared with less than one serving a month.

Two or more servings a week compared with less than one serving a month was associated with a 21 percent lower risk for oatmeal, a 15 percent lower risk for added bran, and a 12 percent lower risk for brown rice and wheat germ.

The reductions in diabetes risk appeared to plateau at around two servings a day for total whole grain intake, and at around half a serving a day for whole grain cereal and dark bread, according to Qi Sun, an associate professor of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues.

The studies can't prove cause and effect. Still, both research teams said their results back up recommendations to increase fruit, vegetable and whole grain consumption as part of a healthy diet to prevent type 2 diabetes.

The studies were published July 8 in the BMJ.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more on preventing diabetes.