Women wanting to ward off type 2 diabetes should load their plates with green leafy vegetables and whole fruits, but perhaps stay away from fruit juice, new research suggests. (File Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, July 14 -- Women wanting to ward off type 2 diabetes should load their plates with green leafy vegetables and whole fruits, but perhaps stay away from fruit juice, new research suggests.

    Eating an additional three servings of whole fruit daily, or one more serving of spinach, kale or similar leafy green vegetable was tied to a lower risk of developing diabetes over an 18-year period among 71,346 women enrolled in the Nurses' Health Study.

    "It was a modest decrease," said Doctor Lydia A. Bazzano of Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans. "This is not going to ... prevent it if you have many, many risk factors and you're overweight ... it's a tool in the prevention strategy."

    Bazzano and colleagues analyzed data on the diets of Nurses' Health Study participants - 4,529 of whom developed type 2 diabetes while they were being followed. They divided women into five groups based on fruit and vegetable intake, and also grouped them based on fruit juice consumption.

    They found that an increase of three servings a day of whole fruit was associated with an 18 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes, while a single additional serving of leafy green vegetables cut the risk by 9 percent. However, an additional daily serving of fruit juice increased the likelihood of developing diabetes by 18 percent.

    While the findings must be replicated, Bazzano said, there are plausible mechanisms by which fruit juice could increase risk. "It's a big sugar load and it comes in a liquid form which is absorbed rapidly," she noted.

    The findings, the study team concludes, suggest that "caution should be observed in replacing some beverages with fruit juices in an effort to provide healthier options. The same caution applies to the recommendation that 100 percent fruit juice be considered a serving of fruit as it is in the present national dietary guidelines."

    Young patients

    The current pattern of type 2 diabetes in young adults and trends in childhood obesity rates point to a dramatic impact on the future health of adults in the United States, concludes the writer of a report published last Monday.

    The bulging of kids' waistlines, Doctor Joyce Lee warns, is apt to lead to a large number of younger adults with type 2 diabetes, the serious complications related to the disease, and ultimately, shorter life spans.

    "Recent studies suggest that there have been dramatic increases in type 2 diabetes among individuals in their 20s and 30s, whereas it used to be that individuals developed type 2 diabetes in their late 50s or 60s," said Lee, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of Michigan C. S. Mott Children's Hospital.

    (Source: China Daily/Agencies)