Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) is a major cause of disease and mortality worldwide, with substantial economic and social effects. Between 1980 and 2020-2021, the number of adults with diabetes climbed from 108 million to 537 million, with obesity increasing from 100 million to 764 million.

According to research published in Nature Medicine, poor diets account for most newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes cases globally.

Experts studied food consumption in 184 countries from 1990 to 2018 using Global Food Database data. They also looked at demographic data from various sources, estimates of type 2 diabetes incidence worldwide, and food-choice data from previous studies, including the influence of 11 dietary components.

They found that poor eating caused 8.6 million more occurrences of type 2 diabetes in 2018 than it did in 1990. Regionally, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia had the highest number of diet-related type 2 diabetes cases, notably in Poland and Russia, where diets are high in red meat, processed meat, and potatoes.  Food or poor nutrition showed the minimum effect in developing type 2 diabetes cases in the South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The study further showed that except in high-income nations, Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, where burdens were higher among rural residents and lower-educated persons, diet-attributable type 2 diabetes was typically greater among urban vs rural inhabitants and higher versus lower-educated individuals. Women, in particular, had lower proportions of diet-associated type 2 diabetes than males, and these proportions were inversely related to age.

Excess consumption of detrimental dietary variables (60.8%) contributed more to the worldwide burden of type 2 diabetes than insufficient intake of beneficial dietary factors (39.2%).

Experts concluded that these new data highlight crucial areas for a national and global effort to enhance nutrition and minimize the catastrophic costs of diabetes. Future studies need to be carried out to study whether more complex diet-type 2 diabetes dose-response interactions exist or not. 

(Source:  https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/990949#vp_1)