Research

Mixed

Consumption of fish and seafood is not significantly associated with the incidence of type 2 diabetes in the general population, though risk varies by geographic location and BMI.

You do not need to eat fish or take fish oil specifically to prevent type 2 diabetes, as current evidence shows no significant overall benefit for diabetes risk. However, fish remains important for heart health. Focus on overall dietary patterns and weight management rather than expecting fish to act as a diabetes shield.

GoodRefutesHIGH confidence
Consumption of fish and/or seafood was not significantly associated with DM (n = 13 studies; RR per 100 g/d = 1·12, 95 % CI = 0·94, 1·34)... The overall pooled findings do not support either major harms or benefits of fish/seafood or EPA+DHA on development of DM.
Jason Wu et al. · British Journal Of Nutrition · 2012

Why this rating

Systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohorts with large sample sizes, though heterogeneity was high.

Source

Omega-3 fatty acids and incident type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Jason Wu et al. · British Journal Of Nutrition · 2012

DOI 10.1017/s0007114512001602

Meta-analysis · 16 studiesCited 340×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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