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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An abundance of vitamin C in
the diet may help lower a person's risk of developing type 2
diabetes, new research suggests.
In a study of middle-aged and older men and women, those
with the highest blood levels of vitamin C were significantly
less likely to develop diabetes over 12 years than those with
the lowest levels, researchers found.
Fruits and vegetables are the main source of vitamin C in
Western diets, and blood levels of vitamin C are good markers
of fruit and vegetable intake, Dr. Nita G. Forouhi, at the
Institute of Metabolic Science at Addenbrooke's Hospital,
Cambridge, England, and colleagues note.
The current findings "re-endorse the public health message
of the beneficial effect of increasing total fruit and
vegetable intake," the investigators wrote in Archives of
Internal Medicine.
Forouhi's team followed 21,831 healthy men and women who
were 40 to 75 years old for the development of type 2 diabetes.
At study entry, all participants provided detailed health and
lifestyle information, as well as blood samples, which
investigators used to determine vitamin C levels.
Over the course of the study, 423 men and 312 women
developed type 2 diabetes, an overall rate of 3.2 percent.
According to the investigators, the likelihood of
developing diabetes was 62 percent lower in men and women with
the highest circulating vitamin C levels, relative to men and
women with the lowest vitamin C levels.
Factoring out other characteristics associated with
diabetes risk, such as older age, gender, family history,
alcohol intake, physical activity, smoking status and body
weight did not significantly alter these associations.
These data offer "persuasive evidence of a beneficial
effect of vitamin C and fruit and vegetable intake on diabetes
risk," Forouhi and colleagues conclude.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, July 28, 2008
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