Could A High-Fiber Diet Reduce Diabetes Risk?

A diet rich in fiber decreases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 18%, according to a new study.

“Intake of dietary fiber has been associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, but few European studies have been published on this,” explained the study’s authors.
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“We evaluated the association between intake of dietary fiber and type 2 diabetes in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-InterAct study and in a meta-analysis of prospective studies,” they wrote.

For their study, researchers identified 11,559 patients with type 2 diabetes and selected a control group of 15,258 participants for their study.

Participants were categorized based on fiber intake—lowest (<19g/day) to highest (> 26g/day)—and researchers adjusted for lifestyle factors and calculated hazard ratios through Cox proportional hazard models.

The study showed that individuals with the highest fiber intake were 18% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes compared to those with the lowest fiber intake (Hazard Ratio 0.82).

The investigators discovered that cereal fiber and vegetable fiber had the highest impact on type 2 diabetes reductions while fruit fiber did not display any similar associations.

However, once researchers adjusted for body mass index, the associations were no longer statistically significant.

The complete study was published in the April issue of Diabetologia.

-Michelle Canales Butcher

Reference:

Iyenger R, Maceda C, Beebe H, et al. Dietary fibre and incidence of type 2 diabetes in eight European countries: the EPIC-Inter Act Study and meta-analysis of prospective studies. Diabetologia. 2014 April [epub ahead of print] doi: 10.1007/s00125-015-3585-9. .