Type 2 diabetes researchers find specific diet 'lowers risk' despite genetics

Sometimes in life, the best advice is the simplest. This is often true when it comes to a wide variety of mental and physical ailments, where a 5km walk or a healthy diet, can often be the easiest ways to avoid everything from the onset of dementia to cancer and type 2 diabetes.

Researchers exploring the diets of around 1600 Finnish men found, to no doctor's surprise, that living a healthy lifestyle while following certain diets can drastically lower your chances of developing the condition, which causes your body to cease properly regulating your blood sugar levels. Both your lifestyle and genetics can influence your chances of developing type 2, but the large study found what could be the most important risk factor.

Even if you have a family history of developing this later-in-life form of diabetes, the biggest impact on your chances of developing the often difficult to manage condition is simply what you eat. After combing through the diets and genetics of these 1600 men, clinicians were able to identify the common foodstuffs

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The foods linked to those who were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes in the trial were: fried potatoes, processed meats, baked sweets and candy, refined grains, high fat and sweetened dairy products, as well as ready-made meals. These products are closely associated with causing obesity, a major risk factor in those who develop diabetes later in life.

However, scientists were also able to identify the sorts of foods that those who did not develop type 2 ate. These included, unsurprisingly: vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry, whole grains, unsweetened and low fat yoghurt, and potatoes - all of which have long been seen as important components in a healthy balanced diet.

Through comparing the patients with any one of the 76 key genetic risk factors for the condition with those who lived on a high fat, carbohydrate, and sugar diet, researchers were able to conclude that it is in fact what you eat, rather than who you are, that is the largest risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes.

Eating a healthy diet was found to lower your risk of getting the blood sugar problem whether you have these genes or not. This could be a ray of hope for parents worried about passing the genetic risk factors for the issue onto their children, as living with a healthy diet could help to break this familial cycle.

Dr Sebnem Unluisler, a senior genetic engineer at the London Regenerative Institute, spoke to Medical News Today to explain these findings further. He said: “This implies that if parents with a high genetic risk maintain a healthy diet and pass these habits to their children, the children could have a lower risk of developing diabetes than their parents.”

However, with the study examining just the diets of 1600 Finnish men, the data might not be reflective of the global population. Unluisler said. “However, the study might have limitations if it did not include a diverse range of ethnicities, income levels, or geographic locations, as these factors can influence dietary habits and genetic risks.”