Heart-healthy diet may help ward off diabetes

Sticking to the so-called DASH diet may protect adults from developing type 2 diabetes, new research shows.

DASH is short for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. The DASH diet is high in fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, and whole grains, resulting in high potassium, magnesium, calcium, and fiber consumption. It is also moderately high in protein consumption, and low in total and saturated fat consumption.

It's been shown that the DASH can reduce blood pressure, but less is known about the potential influence of this dietary pattern on diabetes development.

To investigate, Dr. Angela D. Liese, of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, and colleagues studied 862 adults participating in a clinical trial. About one in six of them developed type 2 diabetes over the five years of study follow-up.

Among white patients, but not among black or Hispanic subjects, sticking to the DASH diet was found to offer some protection against the development of type 2 diabetes, the researchers found.

"The composition of the DASH diet pattern with its emphasis on vegetables, fruit, low-fat dairy products, nuts, seeds, and whole grains and its limits on meat, poultry, eggs, fats, and oils certainly makes this a likely candidate for diabetes prevention," Liese and colleagues conclude in the journal Diabetes Care.

The findings, they add, are consistent with other studies "suggesting a beneficial effect of increased dairy, whole grain, and nuts on diabetic risk."

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, August 2009.