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People who stick most closely to plant-based diets have a 23% lower risk of type 2 diabetes, and when those diets are built on healthy plant foods the figure rises to 30%, a Harvard meta-analysis has found.
Frank Qian and Qi Sun of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health pooled nine studies with 307,099 participants and 23,544 cases of type 2 diabetes. The study is published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The results were consistent across groups, and the more plant-based the diet, the lower the risk. Healthy diets in this sense emphasize fruit, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and legumes.
Senior author Qi Sun said in the Harvard release:
Overall, these data highlighted the importance of adhering to plant-based diets to achieve or maintain good health, and people should choose fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, tofu, and other healthy plant foods as the cornerstone of such diets.
That's a shopping list anyone can follow.
It confirms what single studies have been showing, from the Taiwanese research linking switching to a vegetarian diet to a 53% lower diabetes risk to the Rotterdam Study linking more plant-based eating to lower diabetes risk. Trials also show vegetarian diets improve blood sugar in people with diabetes.
The evidence for plants keeps growing!