Consuming products from organic farming would reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by more than a third. .
- The biggest organic consumers have a 35% lower risk of contracting type 2 diabetes compared to non-consumers.
- The absence, or at least the presence in much lower proportions, of synthetic pesticide residues in organic food would explain the link between organic food and reduced risk of diabetes.
- Dropping 2 to 3 kilos would almost halve the risk of diabetes for people with pre-diabetes.
The consumption of organic products continues to prove its virtues for health. Data from the NutriNet-Santé cohort, one of the largest in the world with 170,000 volunteers, suggests that the biggest consumers of products from organic farming, labeled “AB”, are at risk of getting diabetes. type 2 decreased by 35% compared to those who consume the least. The results of this work carried out by a Franco-American team were published on November 9 in theInternational Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
A greater effect in women
The researchers conducted their study over four years and followed 33,256 people who answered a very detailed questionnaire about their diet. “This allowed us to have a very fine estimate of the quantity of each type of product consumed: plant products, animals, organic or not, etc.”, specified the epidemiologist Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot, principal author of the study. The participants were divided into five groups according to the proportion of organic food consumed.
The results showed that the heaviest organic consumers have a 35% lower risk of contracting type 2 diabetes compared to non-consumers. In total, just under 300 cases of diabetes occurred over the four years of the study. Within the cohort, the increase of 5 percentage points of organic products in the proportion of total food consumed reduced the risk of diabetes by 3%. “However, this figure conceals strong disparities.precise Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot. We see a particularly marked effect in women, with a 65% reduction in risk among the biggest consumers of organic products, but no statistically significant effect in men, who represent 24% of the cohort.” The researchers explain this difference by the effect of the endocrine disrupting properties of certain pesticides, which persist in greater quantities in conventional plant products.
Residues of synthetic pesticides in question
The absence, or at least the presence in much lower proportions, of synthetic pesticide residues in organic food is, according to the authors, the main explanation for the link between organic food and reduced risk of diabetes. “We have ‘stratified’ our analysis, looking at the importance of the effect of the consumption of organic products on heavy consumers of plant products, compared to those who consume the least.says the epidemiologist. We find a much more marked association between diabetes and consumption of organic products among heavy consumers of plant products, which weighs in favor of an explanation linked to residues of phytosanitary products.“To better understand this phenomenon, the researchers have announced that they want to test the effects of pesticide residues to which the population is exposed through their diet. “It is possible to establish exposure profiles, which allow us to have the composition of the cocktails of phytosanitary products most representative of human exposurecontinues toxicologist Laurence Payrastre, researcher (Inrae) at the Toxalim unit and co-author of the study. We are going to use this information to test, in animal models, the effect of these cocktails of residues on metabolism.”
Small life changes with big effects
To help reduce the risk of diabetes, another recently published study points to weight loss of just a few pounds. Dropping 2 to 3 kilos would almost halve the risk of diabetes for people with pre-diabetes. This discovery results from a large-scale study carried out by the Norfolk Diabetes Prevention Study (NDPS), in England. The results were presented on November 2 in the international journal JAMA Internal Medicine.
This research highlights the importance of making changes, even modest ones, in one’s lifestyle to improve one’s health. It lasted more than eight years and involved more than 1,000 people with pre-diabetes at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes is the largest diabetes prevention study in the world in the past 30 years. The loss of 2 to 3 kilos coupled with increased physical activity over two years reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes by 40 to 47% in those most at risk of developing it, i.e. those pre – diabetics.
“We are thrilled with the results of this trial because until now, no one really knew if an actual lifestyle program prevented type 2 diabetes in the pre-diabetes population.said Professor Mike Sampson, principal investigator at the NDPS. We have shown a significant effect in preventing type 2 diabetes, and we can be very optimistic that even modest weight loss and increased physical activity have a large effect on the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This is important to know, as the clinical methods of diagnosing diabetes and pre-diabetes have changed a lot in recent years..”