A study has revealed that poor diet has contributed to over 14.1 million cases of type 2 diabetes in 2018, representing over 70 per cent of new diagnoses globally.
According to a report by news agency PTI, of the 30 most populated countries studied, India, Nigeria, and Ethiopia had the fewest case of type 2 diabetes related to unhealthy eating, the researchers said.
The analysis, published in the journal Nature Medicine, looked at data from 1990 and 2018, providing valuable insight into which dietary factors are driving the disease burden by world region.
The researchers found that Of the 11 dietary factors considered, three had an outsized contribution to the rising global incidence of type 2 diabetes: Insufficient intake of whole grains, excesses of refined rice and wheat, and the overconsumption of processed meat.
Factors such as drinking too much fruit juice and not eating enough non-starchy vegetables, nuts, or seeds, had less of an impact on new cases of the disease, they said.
“Our study suggests poor carbohydrate quality is a leading driver of diet-attributable type 2 diabetes globally, and with important variation by nation and over time,” said study senior author Dariush Mozaffarian, from Tufts University in the US. “These new findings reveal critical areas for national and global focus to improve nutrition and reduce devastating burdens of diabetes,” Mozaffarian said as quoted by PTI.
Type 2 diabetes is characterised by the resistance of the body’s cells to insulin, a hormone created by pancreas that controls the amount of glucose in the bloodstream at any given moment.
Of the 184 countries included in the study, all saw an increase in type 2 diabetes cases between 1990 and 2018, representing a growing burden on individuals, families, and health care systems.
