(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- What you eat could determine whether or not you
develop type 2 diabetes. Three new studies looked specifically at fruit juices,
fruits and vegetables and the amount of fat in a person’s diet.
In the first study, researchers from Boston University assessed the consumption
of sugar-sweetened soft drinks and fruit drinks in nearly 44,000
African-American women over a ten-year period. Women who drank two or more soft
drinks a day had a 24 percent increased risk of diabetes. Women who consumed two
or more fruit drinks had a 31 percent greater risk. The soft drink-diabetes link
lessened after taking body mass index into account, but the link to fruit drinks
remained strong.
The second study, which was conducted among nearly 22,000 people in England,
examined vitamin C blood levels to see how fruits and vegetables impacted the
diabetes risk. Investigators from Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge found
people with the highest vitamin C blood levels were 62 percent less likely to
develop the condition compared to those with the lowest vitamin C blood levels.
The third study came from investigators at the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research
Center. It assessed the role of fat in the development of diabetes. Researchers
randomly assigned nearly 49,000 women to either their usual diet or a diet
consisting of 20 percent of calories from fat. About seven percent of both
groups ended up with type 2 diabetes by the end of the eight-year study,
suggesting lowering fat content may not lower the risk for the condition.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, published online July 28, 2008
