30 Aug Type 2 Diabetes: Fruit and Fruit Juice Consumption

Posted at 11:42h in BMJ, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, General Medicine, Medical Research Centers by

Qi Sun, MD ScD Assistant Professor of Medicine Channing Division of Network Medicine Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115MEDICALRESEARCH.COM: INTERVIEW WITH:
Qi Sun, MD ScD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Channing Division of Network Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Assistant Professor
Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health
665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115

MEDICALRESEARCH.COM: What are the main findings of the study?

Response: We have three major findings.

  • First, we found that total fruit consumption was consistently associated with lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes in these large scale studies among U.S. men and women.
  • Second, we found that different individual fruits were differentially associated with diabetes risk. For example, higher intakes of blueberries, grapes or raisins, apples or pears are particularly associated with a lower diabetes risk.
  • Last, we found that fruit juice was associated with a higher diabetes risk, and replacing fruit juices with whole fruits will likely lead to reduced diabetes risk.

MEDICALRESEARCH.COM: Were any of the findings unexpected?

QS: One of the study hypotheses is that fruits with high glycemic index or glycemic load are less beneficial than fruits with lower values of these indices. However, our data do not suggest that the glycemic properties of fruits play an important role in the associations with diabetes.

MEDICALRESEARCH.COM: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

QS: Our findings endorse the recommendation on increasing whole fruits consumption, rather than fruit juices, in diabetes prevention. However, whether patients of diabetes should also maintain or increase fruit consumption was not addressed in this study.

MEDICALRESEARCH.COM: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

QS: Future studies are needed to shed light on the mechanisms underlying our findings that consumption of certain fruits is particularly beneficial on lowering diabetes risk. For example, it is interesting to understand whether the polyphenol contents of a specific fruit determine its association with diabetes risk. In addition, it is important to extend this research to other populations, such as diabetes patients, and to other diseases, such as heart disease and cancer.

Citation:

Fruit consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: results from three prospective longitudinal cohort studies 

Isao Muraki research fellow , Fumiaki Imamura investigator scientist , JoAnn E Manson professor of medicine , Frank B Hu professor of nutrition and epidemiology , Walter C Willett professor of epidemiology and nutrition , Rob M van Dam associate professor ,
Qi Sun assistant professor

BMJ 2013;347:f5001 doi: 10.1136/bmj.f5001

Last Updated on March 19, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD

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