Food consumption and the incidence of type II diabetes mellitus

Abstract

The consumption of different foods was studied for their ability to predict type II diabetes mellitus. The study design was a cohort study, based on the Finnish Mobile Clinic Health Examination Survey. A total of 30 communities from different parts of Finland. A total of 4304 men and women, 40-69 y of age and free of diabetes at baseline in 1967-1972 and followed up for incidence of diabetes medication during 23 y (383 incident cases). Higher intakes of green vegetables, fruit and berries, oil and margarine, and poultry were found to predict a reduced risk of type II diabetes. The relative risks of developing type II diabetes between the extreme quartiles of the intakes were 0.69 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.50-0.93; P for trend (P) = 0.02) for green vegetables, 0.69 (CI = 0.51-0.92; P = 0.03) for fruit and berries, 0.71 (CI = 0.52-0.98; P = 0.01) for margarine and oil, and 0.71 (CI = 0.54-0.94; P = 0.01) for poultry. The results suggest that prevention of type II diabetes might be aided by consumption of certain foods that are rich in nutrients with hypothesized health benefits.