Fri Jan 17, 2003

By Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer – Results from the large Nurses Health Study indicated that regular consumption of nuts and peanut butter decreases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

“Nuts are high in unsaturated (polyunsaturated and monounsaturated) fat and other nutrients that may improve glucose and insulin homeostasis,” theorized Rui Jiang and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Jiang and associates analyzed data on diet obtained from 83,818 healthy women, 34 to 59 years old at baseline, who participated in the Nurses’ Health Study, and related it to the incidence of type 2 diabetes in the women over 16 years (Nut and peanut butter consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes in women. Journal of the American Medical Association, 2002;288(20):2554-2560).

Type 2 diabetes developed in 3206 of the study participants. Women who ate nuts were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes, and the risk of diabetes decreased with the number of weekly nut servings.

Compared with women who never ate nuts, diabetes risk decreased by 8% for women who ate nuts less than once week, by 16% for 1-4 servings/week, and by 27% for at least 5 servings/week (p<0.001 for trend).

“Further adjustment for intakes of dietary fats, cereal fiber, and other dietary factors did not appreciably change the results,” reported the researchers.

In comparison with women who never ate peanut butter, those who consumed peanut butter five or more times weekly (greater than or equal to140 g of peanuts/week) were 21% less likely to develop diabetes (p<0.001 for trend).

“Our findings suggest potential benefits of higher nut and peanut butter consumption in lowering risk of type 2 diabetes in women,” concluded Jiang and associates. “To avoid increasing caloric intake, regular nut consumption can be recommended as a replacement for consumption of refined grain products or red or processed meats.”

The corresponding author for this study is Rui Jiang, Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition, 665 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA. E-mail: rjiang@hsph.harvard.edu.

A search at www.NewsRx.net using the search term “type 2 diabetes risk factor” yielded 191 articles in 27 specialized reports.

Key points reported in this study include:

* The risk of developing type 2 diabetes was 8% lower in women who ate nuts at least once a week compared with women who never ate nuts, even after adjusting for intakes of dietary fats and cereal fiber

* The risk of developing type 2 diabetes was 27% lower in women who ate at least five servings of nuts each week compared with women who never ate nuts, even after adjusting for intakes of dietary fats and cereal fiber

* The risk of developing type 2 diabetes was 21% lower in women who ate peanut butter at least five times each week compared with women who never ate peanut butter This article was prepared by Diabetes Week editors from staff and other reports.