A study carried out by researchers from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) on more than 60,000 women showed that a diet that is too acidic, regardless of the foods that make up this diet, increases the risk of type 2 diabetes.
” The western diet is very rich in animal products (meat, cheese) and other acidogenic foods (fried foods). It can induce an acid load which is not sufficiently compensated by the intake of fruits and vegetables, alkalizing foods. This diet can cause chronic metabolic acidosis and lead to complications, ”explains Dr Guy Fagherazzi from Inserm. “Indeed, an acidifying diet would lead to an increased risk of insulin resistance, that is to say the inability of the body to secrete insulin when it needs it to regulate blood sugar”.
A diet that is too acidic increases the risk of diabetes
The 66,485 women in this study were followed for more than 14 years during which 1,372 of them developed type 2 diabetes. The researchers analyzed the acid load in their diet. They found that the 25% of women who had the most acidifying diet had a 56% increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes compared to the 25% of women with the most alkalizing diet.
“The risk even increased by 96% in women of normal build and eating foods with a high acid load, while the increase was significantly lower (+ 28%) in obese or overweight women, so in these women already risks, the effect of food would be less “, notes Dr Fagherazzi.
The researchers conclude “having demonstrated for the first time in a large prospective study that dietary acid load was positively associated with a risk of type 2 diabetes, independent of other known risk factors for diabetes. “They point out that” these results must be validated on other populations, and must lead to the promotion of a diet with a low acid load for the prevention of diabetes. Further research is needed to explain the mechanisms underlying this link ”.
This study, led by Dr Guy Fagherazzi and Dr Françoise Clavel-Chapelon from Inserm’s Epidemiology and Population Health Research Center, was published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes ( EASD).
