Researchers Uncovering a Growing Diabetes Prevention List

If you are one of millions of Americans facing an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, eat your broccoli and drink your orange juice.

As researchers are learning, drinking orange juice and eating broccoli and other fruits and vegetable products high in vitamin C are part of a growing list of things people can do to reduce their risk of diabetes , in addition to losing weight and staying physically fit.

And the sooner Americans start following this list, the better off they likely will be, according to Dr. Robert Keith, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System nutrition and health specialist and Auburn University professor of nutrition and food science.

Keith cites data showing that some 7 percent of the U.S. population now suffers from diabetes, mostly type 2 diabetes — a percentage that is expected to increase to 12 in the next 20 years.

“It’s a huge problem that is costing — and will cost us — a lot of money in terms of medical care, in addition to the extreme discomfort it will cause many sufferers,” Keith says.

The American Diabetes Association estimates that medical expenditures associated with diabetes totaled $116 billion in 2007. This includes $27 billion for diabetes care, $58 billion for chronic diabetes-related complications and $31 billion for excess general medical costs.

The biggest factor associated with diabetes remains obesity, particularly the type of obesity associated with abdominal fat — better known as metabolic syndrome — which correlates more directly than any other factor with type 2 diabetes.

“The best thing you can do to prevent diabetes is not to become overweight — not to be sedentary and to become more physically active,” Keith says.
Even so, researchers have uncovered additional factors in recent years that also apparently contribute to increased risk of type 2 diabetes. And for his part, Keith finds these discoveries encouraging because they provide those at risk of developing the disease with more options.

For starters, avoid drinking sugar-sweetened beverages — colas and even fruit-flavored drinks, typically the products sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup.

“What they’re finding is that people who drink more colas or more of these sweetened fruit drinks have a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes over a period of years,” Keith says.
Researchers are not sure why these beverages contribute to an increased risk. It could be the role that they play in promoting weight gain and ultimately metabolic syndrome or some other undetermined cause.

Whatever the case, Keith says the link between sugared drinks and obesity is well known, and one of the first things overweight people should consider in reducing their caloric intake is how many sweetened beverages they drink daily.

“That certainly is something that anyone with a type 2 diabetes risk should consider — just how many of these sugared beverages they are consuming each day?” Keith says, adding that this may even include energy drinks, which tend to be loaded with calories.

Two fruit juices that do not appear to increase this risk are orange juice and grape fruit juice. In fact, researches are discovering that one of these beverages in particular — orange juice — may have entirely the opposite effect by reducing one’s overall risks. These foods also include other vitamin C-rich fruits and vegetables, such as broccoli.

Cambridge University researchers discovered that people with the highest blood levels of vitamin C faced a 62 percent reduction in their risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

“They tracked that back to the widely held view among researchers, physicians and nutritionists that the people least prone to developing type 2 diabetes are eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking more orange juice,” Keith says, adding that this should provide encouragement to people who are struggling with other risk factors.

“It’s another option for people who are struggling to lose weight or to exercise to reduce their diabetes risk,” he says. “They can eat more fruits and vegetables, particularly those rich in vitamin C, which increases their blood levels of this vitamin and reduces their risk.”

Posted by Jim Langcuster at August 6, 2008 03:29 PM