Research
Mixed
Excess intake of harmful dietary factors (refined grains, processed meats, SSBs, potatoes, fruit juice) contributes a larger proportion (60.8%) of diet-attributable T2D burden than insufficient intake of protective factors (whole grains, yogurt, fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds) (39.2%).
Prioritize cutting back on refined grains, processed meats, and sugary drinks. While eating more fruits and vegetables is beneficial, the biggest reduction in diabetes risk comes from reducing these specific harmful categories.
StrongQualifiesHIGH confidence
Excess intake of six harmful dietary factors jointly (refined rice and wheat, processed meats, unprocessed red meat, SSBs, potatoes, fruit juice) contributed a larger proportion of the total global diet-attributable burden (60.8%) than insufficient intake of five protective dietary factors (whole grains, yogurt, fruits, non-starchy vegetables, nuts and seeds) (39.2%)
Why this rating
Based on robust global modeling.
Source
Incident type 2 diabetes attributable to suboptimal diet in 184 countries
Meghan O’Hearn et al. · Nature Medicine · 2023
DOI 10.1038/s41591-023-02278-8
unknownCited 180×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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- Suboptimal dietary intake is responsible for 70.3% of global incident type 2 diabetes cases, with the largest burdens driven by insufficient whole-grain intake, excess refined rice and wheat, and excess processed meat.Strong
- The proportion of T2D attributable to diet is inversely correlated with age, being highest in younger adults (83.5% for ages 20-25) and lowest in older adults (27.7% for ages 95+).Strong
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