Eating lots of fruits and vegetables could help lower the risk of developing diabetes, a new study shows.
   
Diabetes is at epidemic proportions, not only in the U.S. but globally as well. Around the world, nearly 350 million people suffer from this deadly condition and, each year, about a 1.5 million people die from complications of the disease, statistics say.
   
Researchers in the U.K. analyzed over 1,500 adults who participate in an annual dietary survey, focusing on two blood biomarkers – serum C-reactive protein to assess inflammation, and plasma carotenoid to evaluate oxidative stress.
   
Using these biomarkers, they derived a dietary pattern that was linked to lower inflammation and higher anti-oxidant status, which in turn related to lower prevalence of type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 percent of all cases.

Eating a diet rich in vegetables and fruit helped to reduce these biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress, which are known risk factors for type 2 diabetes. The diet was also low in chips, sugar, and white bread, they say.
   
This study was especially important because, although much is known about the effect of foods separately, this research looked at them in combination, the researchers say of their study, which appears in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition.