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Plant-based diets effective for prevention of type 2 diabetes
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Adherence to a plant-based dietary pattern reduced the risk for type 2 diabetes, suggesting it may play a role in primary prevention, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
“Plant-based dietary patterns, which emphasize foods derived from plant sources and include lower consumption of or exclusion of animal products, have gained significant attention in recent years for their potential to prevent or manage several major chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer,” Frank Qian, MPH, of the department of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues wrote. “While meta-analyses of clinical trials demonstrated beneficial effects of plant-based or vegan dietary patterns on body weight, glycemic control, and cardiovascular risk factors in patients with type 2 diabetes, whether plant-based diets have a role in the primary prevention of type 2 diabetes remains unclear.”
To assess the association between plant-based dietary patterns and the risk for type 2 diabetes, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of nine prospective observational studies that focused on level of adherence to plant-based diets and the incidence of type 2 diabetes (totaling 307,099 participants and 23,544 cases of type 2 diabetes).
Plant-based diets were defined as having a higher consumption of plant-based foods and lower consumption or exclusion of animal-based foods. Researchers also accounted for differences in the ways various studies classified adherence to plant-based diets (eg, if they considered only healthful plant-based diets, including high consumption of fruits/vegetables and whole grains, or those that included less healthful plant foods, such as refined grains or starches).
Researchers observed a significant inverse association between higher adherence to a plant-based dietary pattern and risk for type 2 diabetes (RR = 0.77; 95% CI, 0.71-0.84) when compared with poorer adherence.
This finding was consistent across various subgroups of different population characteristics, such as age, sex, BMI or global region.
Researchers also found that, although the association remained regardless of how the plant-based diet was defined, the association was greater when the diet included more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts.
“The present study provides the most comprehensive evidence on the association between plant-based dietary patterns and incidence of type 2 diabetes,” the researchers wrote. “Moreover, our findings for plant-based dietary patterns are broadly consistent with the protective associations against type 2 diabetes found for several other dietary patterns that also emphasize plant-based foods but do not completely exclude animal foods, including the Mediterranean dietary pattern, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) pattern, and the Alternative Healthy Eating Index. Overall, the totality of current evidence supports health benefits for increasing plant-based food consumption in lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes and, potentially, other cardiometabolic diseases.” – by Melissa J. Webb
Disclosures: Qian reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the study for all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.