Dietary Antioxidant Intake and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract

OBJECTIVE -The intake of antioxidants was studied for its ability to predict type 2 diabetes.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -A cohort of 2,285 men and 2,019 women 40 -69 years of age and free of diabetes at baseline (1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971)(1972) was studied. Food consumption during the previous year was estimated using a dietary history interview. The intake of vitamin C, four tocopherols, four tocotrienols, and six carotenoids was calculated. During a 23-year follow-up, a total of 164 male and 219 female incident cases occurred.RESULTS -Vitamin E intake was significantly associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. The relative risk (RR) of type 2 diabetes between the extreme quartiles of the intake was 0.69 (95% CI 0.51-0.94, P for trend ϭ 0.003). Intakes of ␣-tocopherol, ␥-tocopherol, ␦-tocopherol, and ␤-tocotrienol were inversely related to a risk of type 2 diabetes. Among single carotenoids, ␤-cryptoxanthin intake was significantly associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes (RR 0.58, 95% CI 0.44 -0.78, P Ͻ 0.001). No association was evident between intake of vitamin C and type 2 diabetes risk.CONCLUSIONS -This study supports the hypothesis that development of type 2 diabetes may be reduced by the intake of antioxidants in the diet. Diabetes Care 27:362-366, 2004A lthough obesity and physical inactivity are known to be major risk factors for type 2 diabetes, recent evidence suggests that oxidative stress may contribute to the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes by increasing insulin resistance or impairing insulin secretion (1). Dietary antioxidants have been hypothesized to have a protective effect against the development of diabetes by inhibiting peroxidation chain reactions (2). It seems plausible that a sufficient intake of antioxidants plays an important role in protection against type 2 diabetes. However, little epidemiological evidence is available on the role of dietary antioxidant intake in prevention of type 2 diabetes.In one prospective cohort study, vitamin C intake was significantly lower among incident cases of type 2 diabetes (3). In three prospective observational studies, serum ␣-tocopherol levels were associated with lower risk of type 1 or type 2 diabetes (4 -6). Serum ␤-carotene and ␣-tocopherol concentrations were nonsignificantly associated with a reduced risk in a cohort of Finns (7). In some case-control and cross-sectional studies, significantly lower serum levels of ␣-tocopherol, carotene, or vitamin C have been observed in individuals with diabetes than in control subjects (8 -13). In one American study, ␣-tocopherol concentrations were even higher in diabetic patients than in control subjects (14). Some prospective studies have shown that higher vegetable and fruit consumption may lower the risk of developing diabetes, suggesting that antioxidants in the diet may have a synergistic effect (3,15,16).Dietary vitamin E, four tocopherols, four tocotrienols, vitamin C, and six carotenoids were investigated for their ability to predict type 2 diabetes in a large prospective...

Coffee and tea consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes

“…This relation is still controversial, as studies examining dietary and serum antioxidants with type 2 diabetes show inconsistent results ranging from no relation to an inverse relation for certain antioxidants [41,42]. A recent randomised crossover trial, however, showed that chlorogenic acid and trigonelline significantly lower glucose and insulin [37].…”

Food consumption and the incidence of type II diabetes mellitus

“…Carotenoids, vitamin C, and vitamin E may have a protective effect against development of diabetes by relieving oxidative stress that interferes with the glucose uptake by cells (Halliwell & Gutteridge, 1989;Gordon, 1996). In several epidemiological studies, intakes or serum levels of vitamin C, vitamin E, or carotenoids have been inversely associated with diabetes (Chatterjee & Banerjee, 1979;Sinclair et al, 1994;Feskens et al, 1995;Salonen et al, 1995;Abahusain et al, 1999;Ford et al, 1999;Knekt et al, 1999;Will et al, 1999;Polidori et al, 2000;Montonen et al, 2004b). However, the findings on the relation between antioxidants and glucose metabolism are not consistent (Sanchez-Lugo et al, 1997;Reunanen et al, 1998;Liu et al, 1999).…”

Reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species and antioxidants in etiopathogenesis of diabetes mellitus type-2

“…A long drawn study of 23 yr follow up in a cohort in Finland consisting of 2285 men and 2019 women for 4 tocopherols, 4 tocotrienols, 6 carotenoids and ascorbic acid showed that dietary intake of these of antioxidants reduced the risk of DMT-2 (126). The flaw of this study is that it took only these antioxidants from the diet into consideration whereas the diet contains a large number of other ingredients which might be exerting beneficial effects, such as variability of the diet appears to be a telling confounding factor in this study.…”