Research

Mixed

The association between fish/seafood consumption and diabetes risk is modified by geography and BMI: it may lower risk in Asian populations with lower BMI, but increase risk in North American/European populations with higher BMI.

If you are in Asia or have a lower BMI, eating fish might slightly lower your diabetes risk. If you are in North America or Europe and have a higher BMI, high fish consumption was associated with a higher risk in this study, though causality is not proven. Do not change your fish intake based solely on this, but be aware that context matters.

ModerateQualifiesMEDIUM confidence
Lower risk was seen in studies with lower mean BMI (<24·5 kg/m2), and in studies from Asia... and higher risk in studies from North America/Europe, with higher mean BMI (≥ 24·5 kg/m2)... For example, fish/seafood was associated with lower DM risk in Asia cohorts (RR per 100 g/d = 0·89, 95 % CI = 0·81, 0·98), and higher risk in North America/Europe cohorts (RR per 100 g/d = 1·38, 95 % CI = 1·13, 1·70)
Jason Wu et al. · British Journal Of Nutrition · 2012

Why this rating

Based on meta-regression of observational studies; high collinearity between BMI, location, and follow-up duration limits causal inference.

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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