Research

Hormonal

High intake of total and animal protein is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, whereas vegetable protein intake shows no such association.

If you are consuming high amounts of protein, particularly from animal sources like meat and dairy, be aware that long-term intake is linked to a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This risk appears to be driven by body fat levels (adiposity) and is less pronounced or non-existent for vegetable proteins. Focus on balancing your protein sources and maintaining a healthy body weight.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Diabetes risk increased significantly over the quartiles of total protein intake... For animal protein, we observed similar results. Vegetable protein intake was not related to diabetes.
Ivonne Sluijs et al. · Diabetes Care · 2009

Why this rating

Large prospective cohort (EPIC-NL, n=38,094) with long follow-up (mean 10 years) and verified outcomes.

Source

Dietary Intake of Total, Animal, and Vegetable Protein and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-NL Study

Ivonne Sluijs et al. · Diabetes Care · 2009

DOI 10.2337/dc09-1321

cohort · n=38094Cited 346×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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