1195Dietary lipophilic index and dietary lipophilic load and the risk of type 2 diabetes

Abstract

Background: The fluidity of fatty acids and the affinity between fatty acid molecules could play a role in the development of type 2 diabetes. The lipophilic index (LI) has been created as a measure of average fat fluidity. Additionally, the Lipophilic load (LL) represents a combination of overall fluidity and absolute intake of dietary fatty acids. Purpose: We investigated whether diets with lower overall fat fluidity (reflected by a higher LI and LL) associated with a higher risk of type 2 diabetes. Methods: A prospective cohort study was conducted in 37.846 participants aged 20-70 years of the EPIC-NL study. Dietary intake was obtained from a food frequency questionnaire. Dietary LI and LL were calculated from individual dietary fatty acid intakes and their respective melting points. Incident diabetes cases (n=915) identified during 10 years follow-up were mainly self-reported and verified by their general practitioner or pharmacist. Results: Mean dietary LI was 34.5 (SD: 2.9), mean dietary LL was 2011.7 (SD: 363.4). LI was inversely associated with diabetes risk (HR highest vs. lowest quartile: 0.72 [95% CI 0.59, 0.89], p-trend 0.01) after multivariable adjustment for age, sex, nutrition factors, diabetes risk factors, BMI and waist circumference. This association was independent of intakes of dairy products, butter, meat, and fish. Overall, LL did not relate to diabetes risk. However, LL was related to a higher diabetes risk in men (HR highest vs. lowest quartile: 1.79 [95% CI 1.06, 3.03], p-trend 0.03), and a lower risk in women (HR highest vs. lowest quartile: 0.75 [95% CI 0.58, 0.96], p-trend 0.03). This seemed to be explained by differences in consumption of meat and dairy products between men and women. Additional adjustment for intake of these foods attenuated the associations of LL and diabetes to non-significant in both men and women. Conclusions: In this Dutch population, a high dietary LI was associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes. The relation of dietary LL with diabetes may not be independent of the underlying food sources that are consumed.