Healthy Diet Key in Preventing Type 2 Diabetes

Two recently published studies connect diet to type 2 diabetes. Both studies indicate that the disease, affecting millions of American adults, could be prevented by simply making healthy lifestyle choices.

What is Type 2 Diabetes?

Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder resulting from the body's inability to make enough, or to properly use, insulin. Without adequate production or utilization of insulin, the body cannot move blood sugar into the cells.

Diabetes is a chronic disease with no known cure that is linked to a number of health repercussions including heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney failure, blindness, and limb amputation.

Largest Type 2 Diabetes Study of its Kind

The first study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, is the largest type 2 diabetes study of its kind with more than three thousand participants from sites across the country.

The adults involved in the study were those that were considered at high risk for the disease due to their high weight and blood sugar levels.

The participants were randomly placed in one of three groups, which were assigned one of the following:

• a "lifestyle modification program" involving weight loss and exercise
  
  
• a twice daily dose of 850 milligrams of the medication metformin, a drug that helps the body properly use insulin
  
  
• a placebo drug

The group of participants following the "lifestyle modification program" underwent an individualized 16-lesson healthy lifestyle curriculum with a weight loss goal of at least seven percent of their total body weight.

In addition to the weight loss program, the participants were also instructed to exercise for 150 minutes each week. The average weight loss of this group was 15 pounds.

Diet and Exercise Most Effective Way to Prevent Diabetes

The researchers then tracked the participants' health over the next two years discovering at the study's conclusion that the group who followed the individualized weight loss program was the most successful in delaying the onset of diabetes.

The group taking the medication, metformin, also had positive results in preventing the disease, however, the most dramatic results still were found among those who lost weight and exercised.

• The incidence of diabetes was 58 percent lower among the group of participants who were involved in the lifestyle-intervention program than the placebo group.
  
  
• The incidence of diabetes was 31 percent lower among the group of participants taking metformin compared to the placebo group.
  

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