JAMA Netw Open: Stick to a Mediterranean diet and reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 30%

In recent years, the Mediterranean diet, as one of the globally recognized healthy dietary structures, has attracted much attention.
more evidence that sticking to a Mediterranean diet can reduce the risk of diabetes, metabolic syndrome and Alzheimer's disease.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA), the American Heart Association (AHA) and others include it in guidelines for the prevention and treatment of chronic metabolic diseases such as diabetes and obesity.
a PREDIMED study in Spain showed that the Mediterranean diet (a mixture of olive oil and nuts) reduced the risk of diabetes by 53% over four years compared to the control group.
, however, there have been no randomized trials of Mediterranean dietary interventions for clinical endpoints such as type 2 diabetes in the United States.
Recently, researchers from Harvard Medical School included 25,317 women from the Women's Health Study (WHS) with an average age of 52.9 years, and by collecting detailed personal health data and food frequency questionnaires (FFQs), they explored ways to analyze the relationship between the Mediterranean diet's intake and diabetes risk, and more importantly, to understand the changes in the Mediterranean diet associated with diabetes risk.
Mediterranean dietary intake assessment is based on adherence to nine dietary components, with a Mediterranean diet score of 0-3, 4-5 and 6-9 on three levels, with a maximum rating of 6-9.
If the intake of this particular dietary component is greater than the number of studies in which fruits, vegetables (excluding potatoes), whole grains, legumes, nuts, fish, and monounsaturated fatty acids were compared to saturated fatty acids, the score was 1 point.
For alcohol intake, 1 point is given if the intake is between 5 and 15 g / d, and 1 point is given for red and processed meat intake if the dietary intake is lower than the study number.
results showed that after an average follow-up of 19.8 years, the Mediterranean diet had a 30 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes on a 6-9 scale than a 0-3 score.
biomarkers of insulin resistance contributed the most to reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, followed by BMI, HDL measurement and inflammation, branch chain amino acids, LDL indicators and blood pressure.
it is worth noting that there is a strong correlation between high BMI and diabetes.
groups of participants based on BMI value reduction were divided into two groups: BMI-lt;25kg/m2 and BMI≥kg/m2225.
among BMI≥25 participants, the higher the Mediterranean dietary intake score, the lower the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and the biomarker-mediated association between the Mediterranean diet and type 2 diabetes was similar to the overall results.
, the results of the cohort study suggest that part of the reduced risk of diabetes associated with the Mediterranean diet may be mediated by insulin resistance, BMI, lipoprotein metabolism and inflammation.
same time, among women ≥ BMI of 25, the Mediterranean diet was negatively associated with a negative risk of type 2 diabetes.