Stocking up on fruits and vegetables, limiting sugary drinks and saturated fat would reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 20%.
Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPS) performed a large medical study of 148,484 subjects without diabetes. They assessed their diet using an index, the “Alternate Healthy Eating Index 2010” and their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.
Changing your diet to reduce your risk of diabetes
Individuals who improved the quality of their diet even by 10% for 4 years reduced the likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes by 20%.
According to this study, the modification of the diet would play a more important role of prevention than the reduction in the calorie intake or the practice of physical activities.
“We found that diet was indeed associated with diabetesregardless of weight loss and physical activity, ”says study director Sylvia Ley of the Harvard School of Public Health. “If you also improve other healthy lifestyle factors, you further reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes, but improving the quality of your diet in itself has significant benefits.”
“This is important because people often find it difficult to comply with a food reduced in calories over long periods of time. We want them to know that if they can improve the overall quality of what they eat, by consuming less red meat and sugary or sweetened drinks and more fruits, vegetables and whole grains, they will improve their health and reduce their consumption. risk of diabetes ”.
In Europe, 1 in 12 people suffers from type 2 diabetes and in 2013, 271,300 Europeans over the age of 20 died from an illness linked to this disease. Half of people with diabetes die from cardiovascular disease. Between 10 and 20% of patients die from kidney failure, 10% develop severe visual impairment and 50% suffer from diabetic neuropathy.
