Sticking to the Mediterranean diet — rich in olive oil, grains, fruits, nuts, vegetables and legumes, and low in meats and dairy — may lower the risk for diabetes.
Scientists followed 13,380 healthy Spanish university graduates for an average of four and a half years, tracking their dietary habits and confirming new cases of diabetes through medical records. The study was published online May 29 in The British Medical Journal.
The researchers ranked the strictness of adherence to the diet on a 10-point scale, and found that those with the highest scores reduced their relative risk of diabetes by 83 percent compared with those with the lowest.
The authors acknowledge that the number of cases of diabetes they found was small, which limits the statistical power of the finding, and that the nutritional information is based on self-reporting, which is not always reliable.
Still, the large sample and the finding of a dose-response relationship between stricter adherence to the diet and lowered risk of diabetes give the study strength.
“There are good fats, like those in olive oil, nuts and avocados, that are quite healthful,” said Miguel A. Martínez-González, the lead author and a professor of epidemiology at the University of Navarra. “We have to change this belief that a low-fat diet is the key to good health.”
Scientists followed 13,380 healthy Spanish university graduates for an average of four and a half years, tracking their dietary habits and confirming new cases of diabetes through medical records. The study was published online May 29 in The British Medical Journal.
The researchers ranked the strictness of adherence to the diet on a 10-point scale, and found that those with the highest scores reduced their relative risk of diabetes by 83 percent compared with those with the lowest.
The authors acknowledge that the number of cases of diabetes they found was small, which limits the statistical power of the finding, and that the nutritional information is based on self-reporting, which is not always reliable.
Still, the large sample and the finding of a dose-response relationship between stricter adherence to the diet and lowered risk of diabetes give the study strength.
“There are good fats, like those in olive oil, nuts and avocados, that are quite healthful,” said Miguel A. Martínez-González, the lead author and a professor of epidemiology at the University of Navarra. “We have to change this belief that a low-fat diet is the key to good health.”
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