Research
Mixed
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+).
Start eating well early in life. The proportion of diabetes cases driven by diet is highest in young adults, meaning early dietary habits have a massive impact on lifetime risk.
StrongQualifiesHIGH confidence
Proportional burdens were higher in younger adults (aged 20–25 years, 83.5% (81.4–85.5%)) versus older adults (aged 95+ years, 27.7% (26.1–30.6%))
Why this rating
Global modeling data.
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
- 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%).Strong
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