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Vegetables Help Lower Diabetes Risk
USAgNet - 03/06/2008

A new study suggests that eating lots of vegetables, but not fruits may help cut risk of developing type 2 diabetes. It remains unknown though why eating vegetables was linked to lower risk of the disease that affects tens of millions of Americans. The study of 64,191 Chinese women aged 40 to 70 showed that high intake of vegetables including cruciferous vegetables, green leafy vegetables, yellow vegetables, allium vegetables, tomatoes, and other vegetables was associated with a 30 percent lower risk of diabetes compared to those who ate the lowest amounts.

The results were published in the recent issue of the Journal of Nutrition.

For the study, researchers from the Shanghai Cancer Institute and the Diabetes Research, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center and Training Center in Nashville surveyed the participants' dietary habits using a food frequency questionnaire at the beginning and the end of the study.

The participants were followed up for 4.6 years during which 1,608 were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Those who consumed the highest amounts of vegetables (428 grams per day) were 28 percent less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who ate the lower amount (121 grams per day).

Fruits, individually or in total, were not associated with reduced risk of diabetes.

Early studies found vitamin E and C and beta-carotene may have an impact on the risk of diabetes, according to the background information in the study report.

But the researchers found even after considering these individual factors including fibers and magnesium, the inverse correlation still held, meaning there may be something else responsible for the protective effect.