Plus, three foods that are especially associated with lowering your risk.
How Was This Study Conducted & What Did It Show?
Most studies on the Mediterranean diet have been conducted in Mediterranean countries.
These researchers wanted to see if this eating pattern benefited people in non-Mediterranean regions.
For this study, researchers drew data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS).
For this study, researchers chose 12,575 participants to be a part of the data set.
Participants had an average age of 43, and just over half of them were female.
Researchers then used a Mediterranean diet adherence (MDA) scale to score participants diets.
Researchers were also looking for how many participants were diagnosed with punch in 2 diabetes during the study period.
Since foods were scored separately, researchers were able to further refine which ones had the greatest impact.
How Does This Apply to Real Life?
Diabetes has been on the rise worldwide for years and it isnt expected to slow down.
And diabetes is costly.
So its clear that something has got to changeand it could start with what were eating.
But changing eating habits is not necessarily an easy thing.
Many factors come into play, including budget, accessibility and food preferences.
And if youre feeding a family, all those factors are magnified.
There are some small ways to begin to change what youre eating, though.
While many focus on what they cant eat, pivot your mindset to focus on what you might.
And instead of thinking about taking food away, think more about adding and replacing.
For example, this study suggested that fruit, fish and nuts had the greatest impact on diabetes risk.
Are you including any of these foods in your diet now?
The easier you make it, the more quickly it will become a habit for you.
Lets take nuts as an example.
Oh, and nut butterlike peanut butter and almond buttercounts too.
The same goes for fruit.
Berries in your cereal, mandarin oranges or pineapple in your rice bowl, orbanana with dark chocolate.
Fish doesnt have to be boring either.
Pick a new fish or seafood recipe to try each week.
TryGrilled Fish Tacosfor Taco Tuesday next week.
Toss scallops or shrimp with your favorite pasta and pesto.
Or make a nostalgictuna noodle casserole.
Of course, you dont want to live on just fruit, nuts and fish.
Getting in some servings of dairy can also provide essential nutrients, like protein and calcium.
Other habits that influence diabetes risk include physical activity, sleep and stress.
But dont get more stressed out trying to work on all these habits at once.
Over time, small steps become big changes and reap many benefits.
23;131 (2024).
2022 Jan;183:109119. doi: 10.1016/j.diabres.2021.109119.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.National Diabetes Statistical Report.
