Eating more fresh fruit reduces the risk of diabetes and complications

A new study, "
," published April 11 in PLoS Medicine, shows that people who regularly eat fresh fruit have a significantly lower risk of developing diabetes and diabetic vascular complications than those who rarely eat fresh fruit. The report's data comes from a large-scale prospective cohort study of 500,000 people in China, conducted by researchers from Oxford University and Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.
While the health benefits of a diet rich in fresh fruits and vegetables have been widely recognized, the global evidence for the effects of fruits on the occurrence and prognosmation of diabetes is very limited, according to Professor Li Liming of Peking University School of Public Health, who is responsible for the project. Fresh fruit is rich in trace elements (such as potassium), dietary fiber, antioxidants and a variety of other active substances that are beneficial to the body, and contains little or no sodium or fat and calories. But the sweet sugars contained in fruits raise concerns that fruit intake may have some harm to diabetes (such as making blood sugar control more difficult). This concern is particularly acute in China, where diabetes rates have risen sharply, and in many other Asian countries.
it is reported that researchers recruited more than 500,000 adults aged 35-74 from 10 different regions of China, collected a large amount of data using questionnaires and physical examinations, and learned about the health status of the subjects through routine death reporting systems and hospital records. After seven years of follow-up, nearly 10,000 new cases of diabetes were observed in the study. In addition, more than 10,000 cases of various types of vascular complications and 3,400 deaths were observed among the more than 30,000 subjects who had diabetes at the time of the study. The researchers analyzed in detail the association between the risk of these diseases and fresh fruit intake levels.
baseline survey, about 20 percent of the subjects ate fresh fruit (mainly apples, oranges, etc.) every day. In addition, about 6% of people never or rarely eat fresh fruit. The proportion of people with diabetes who do not eat fruit is three times that of those without diabetes (19 percent to 6 percent). Compared to those who never or rarely ate fresh fruit, those who ate fresh fruit daily had a 12 percent lower risk of developing new diabetes during the seven-year follow-up period. Among people with diabetes at baseline, fresh fruit intake also showed significant health benefits, with 100 grams of fresh fruit per day reducing overall mortality among diabetics by 17 percent, isnemic heart disease and stroke by 13 percent, and diabetic nephropathy and diabetic eye disease by 28 percent.
Responding to the study's findings, lead author Dr David Du, from the University of Oxford, said: "This is the world's first large-scale prospective cohort study that confirms the protective link between fresh fruit intake and the development of diabetes, and adjusts and controls the potential impact of a range of other factors on the results." Lead author Professor Chen Yuming, from the University of Oxford, said: "Our findings will provide a strong scientific basis for advocating for higher intake of fresh fruit in existing dietary guidelines, including for people with diabetes. If these protective effects represent causation, this will play a positive role in further improving the prevention and management of diabetes in China and other regions. Li Liming said: "Most Chinese adults only eat fresh fruit, while in western developed countries people eat more processed fruit or fruit juice." This may partly explain why our study yields clearer and clearer results about the protective effects of fruit. (Source: Science Network Cui Xueqin Fu Donghong)