Nut Intake and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in the Adventist Health Study‐2

Abstract

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the potential link between nut intake and risk of type 2 diabetes in a North American cohort. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS 58,594 participants (64.7% female) from the Adventist Health Study 2 (AHS-2), a cohort study relating several lifestyle features with health outcomes, with an average age of 58years was longitudinally analyzed. This cohort included 2118 incident case of type 2 diabetes. Subjects' total nut intake (tree nuts plus peanuts) was derived from the baseline food frequency questionnaire (validity correlation for nuts= 0.57). Logistic regression analysis was performed controlling for various relevant demographic and biological confounders. RESULTS Comparing high versus low intake of nuts (3rd tertile versus 1st tertile) in the multivariable adjusted model, participants with high nut intake had reduced risk of type 2 diabetes (OR 0.74, 95% CI 0.65, 0.85, p < 0.0001). Further adjustment for BMI attenuated this link and turned it non-significant. On stratification analysis by BMI, the nut intake-type 2 diabetes relation was significant among overweight/obese (BMI >= 25 kg/m2) but not in lean subjects. CONCLUSION The present analysis suggests that long term high nut intake lowers type 2 diabetes risk, particularly among individuals with high BMI. These findings are consistent with those of other cohort and long term intervention studies.