Plant-based diet can prolong life with type 2 diabetes
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It is well known that a plant-based diet is healthy and can increase life expectancy. But does this also apply to people with type 2 diabetes? The answer is yes. Researchers from the German diabetes Center (DDZ), Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) have now confirmed this in a large cohort study. However, simply avoiding meat and dairy products is not enough - the quality of plant-based foods is crucial. People with higher HbA1c levels, a larger waist circumference or an early diagnosis of diabetes benefit in particular. The results were published in the journal Diabetes Care.
People with type 2 diabetes have a significantly increased risk of secondary diseases such as cardiovascular disease and die earlier on average than people without diabetes. Diet plays a decisive role in the course of the disease. Until now, it was unclear whether a plant-based diet with a focus on vegetables, fruit, wholegrain products, pulses, nuts and seeds also offers a clear survival advantage for people with type 2 diabetes. Although nutritionists encourage a vegetarian or plant-based diet, much of the evidence comes from the general population and not specifically from diabetes studies.
A research team from the DDZ in Düsseldorf has investigated this question and examined the data of 4,829 participants with type 2 diabetes from the UK Biobank - one of the largest health studies worldwide. The health of the participants was tracked for more than 11 years. The results showed that people with a diet high in plant-based foods had a 21 percent lower risk of death than those who ate less plant-based foods. In contrast, an unhealthy plant-based diet - characterized by refined cereal products, sugary drinks and fried foods - was associated with a 24 percent higher risk of death.
"Our study shows that people with type 2 diabetes can benefit from a plant-based diet - provided that the diet is of high quality," emphasizes Prof. Michael Roden, Scientific Director and Spokesman of the Board of Directors of the DDZ and Director of the Clinic for Endocrinology and Diabetology at Düsseldorf University Hospital. "Plant-based does not automatically mean healthier. The important thing is to consciously focus on nutrient-rich foods."
For whom the benefits are particularly great
The researchers also looked at whether the correlations differ in certain diabetes subtypes. Such subgroups are important because people with type 2 diabetes are affected very differently - for example in terms of the time of diagnosis, blood glucose control or abdominal circumference. The benefits of a plant-based diet were particularly clear in people with higher long-term glucose levels (HbA1c value), larger abdominal circumference, early age of onset or longer duration of the disease. "This indicates that plant-based diets are particularly effective for people with unfavourable metabolic values or increased risk and can make an important contribution to personalized nutritional medicine for people with type 2 diabetes," explains Dr. Sabrina Schlesinger, Deputy Director of the Institute of Biometry and Epidemiology at the DDZ and senior author of the study.
"So far, there have mainly been general dietary recommendations for people with diabetes - personalized recommendations would therefore be a new and promising approach," adds Edyta Schaefer, first author of the study. Further studies are needed to derive specific dietary recommendations for different diabetes subtypes.
Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.
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