Research

Hormonal

Dietary carbohydrate intake between 45% and 65% of total calories is not associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, with the lowest risk observed at 50% intake.

You do not need to eliminate carbohydrates to prevent type 2 diabetes. Aim for 45-65% of your daily calories from carbs, with 50% being the sweet spot for lowest risk. Focus on the quality of carbs (e.g., avoiding excessive refined grains like white rice in Asian populations) rather than just quantity.

ModerateQualifiesLOW confidence
Carbohydrate intake within the recommended 45–65% of calorie intake was not associated with an increased risk of T2D... Dose–response analysis indicated a J shaped association, with the lowest risk at 50% carbohydrate intake (HR50%: 0.95, 95%CI: 0.90, 0.99)
Fatemeh Hosseini et al. · Scientific Reports · 2022

Why this rating

GRADE rating was 'low certainty' due to imprecision and inconsistency (high heterogeneity).

Source

Dietary carbohydrate and the risk of type 2 diabetes: an updated systematic review and dose–response meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies

Fatemeh Hosseini et al. · Scientific Reports · 2022

DOI 10.1038/s41598-022-06212-9

Meta-analysis · 18 studiesCited 43×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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