Eating fruits and vegetables helps prevent diabetes: a high consumption of these healthy foods, in fact, reduces the risk of getting type 2 diabetes by 50%, and for just every 66 grams of fruit and vegetables more per day (an amount really small, no more than half an apple for example) the risk drops by 25%.
The same preventive effect was found for whole grains: eating them on a daily basis reduces the risk by 29% on average.
This is what emerges from two studies both published in the British Medical Journal.
The first (on fruit and vegetable consumption) carried out as part of the European Research Project European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) -InterAct, shows that out of a sample of 22,833 adult participants, 9,754 develop type 2 diabetes and 13,662 do not they develop the disease over a 10-year observation period.
According to the study, led by Ju-Sheng Zheng and Nita Forouhi, of the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, diabetes is less common among those with higher levels of vitamin C and carroteinoids in their blood, a sign of higher fruit consumption. and vegetables.
The innovative aspect of this study, in fact, is precisely that the researchers used an 'objective' measure of fruit and vegetable consumption, the blood concentration of vitamins, rather than food questionnaires completed by the participants, which can provide consumption data. less reliable.
The second study, by Yang Hu and Qi Sun of Harvard TH
Chan School of Public Health in Boston, which involved a population of 158,259 women and 36,525 healthy men whose health was monitored for 24 years, shows that in participants with the highest consumption of whole grains, the risk of diabetes is reduced. 29%.
This protective effect is also observed when evaluating the consumption of a single whole food such as the consumption of breakfast cereals or wholemeal bread and other products.
Both studies show a 'dose-dependent' protective factor, whereby the more fruits and vegetables or whole grains are consumed, the lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Furthermore, among those who are not used to eating these foods, it is sufficient to increase their consumption even slightly to significantly reduce the risk of disease.
"These results - says in a comment to ANSA Rosalba Giacco of the Italian Society of Diabetology and researcher the Institute of Food Science of the CNR of Avellino and coordinator of the SID-ADI-AMD Intercompany Study Group 'Diabetes and Nutrition' - they also suggest that the greatest health benefits are obtained by consuming natural foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains, rather than by taking supplements in the form of supplements ".