Apples and Pears and Oranges, oh my!
If you have a family history of diabetes, are overweight, or have any number of risk factors that could lead to your developing diabetes on your own - AND if you’re smarter then I have been, you’ll be taking steps to reduce that risk. Instead of wrapping everything in bacon. What? (grin)
Anyway, there’s a new study that was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine recently, that concentrated on how fruits and vegetables can alter the risk of developing diabetes.
—anyone else start singing the song from Barney the Dinosaur? “I like to eat, eat, eat, apples and bananas…”? Just me? Ok, moving on. —
So, what they did was create a study using questionnaires of folks ages 40-75, measuring their baseline plasma vitamin C level, and habitual eating of fruits and vegetables. After 12 years of followup, they concluded the following:
Higher plasma vitamin C level and, to a lesser degree, fruit and vegetable intake were associated with a substantially decreased risk of diabetes. Their findings highlight a potentially important public health message on the benefits of a diet rich in fruit and vegetables for prevention of diabetes.
They did, however, include a word of caution - don’t go out and buy a whole bunch of vitamin C supplements, as they don’t have the same effect. They figure that beyond the Vitamin C, there are properties in the fruits and veges that help patients to reduce their risk to develop diabetes. The reduction of risk can be as high as 62%, which is great for those that love fruits and veges, or at least force them down on a regular daily basis.
Turns out that ‘apple a day keeps the doctor away’ might have something to it, after all!
April 14th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
it may not be the most thrilling submit ever, but it surely is an important one