Harvard Study: Plant-Based Diet Might Help Prevent Type 2 Diabetes

(CNN) — Sticking to a plant-based diet could help lower your risk of type 2 diabetes, a new paper suggests.
That link between plant-based eating habits and type 2 diabetes is even more beneficial when only healthy plant-based foods — such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts — are included in your daily diet, as opposed to refined grains, starches and sugars, according to the study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday.
“We found that eating plant-based diets was associated with, on average, 23% reduction in diabetes risk,” said Dr. Qi Sun, an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston and senior author of the paper.
“We further showed that individuals who consumed a healthy version of the plant-based diet by emphasizing the intake of fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes, and minimizing intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and refined carbohydrates, had a further 30% reduction in their risk of developing type 2 diabetes,” he said. “I would describe these risk reductions as being quite significant.”
Doctors have long known that a healthy diet — along with regular exercise, maintaining a healthy body weight and not smoking — are among the ways to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes.
“Indeed, a vegetarian or other plant-based diets that are high in free sugars and refined carb...

Source: WBZ-TV - Breaking News, Weather and Sports for Boston, Worcester and New Hampshire - July 22, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Health – CBS Boston Tags: Boston News Health CNN Harvard University Type 2 Diabetes Source Type: news