Plant-Based Dietary Patterns and Incidence of Type 2 Diabetes in US Men and Women: Results from Three Prospective Cohort Studies

Abstract

Background

Plant-based diets have been recommended to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, not all plant foods are necessarily beneficial. We examined the association of an overall plant-based diet and hypothesized healthful and unhealthful versions of a plant-based diet with T2D incidence in three prospective cohort studies in the US.

Methods and Findings

We included 69,949 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (1984–2012), 90,239 women from the Nurses’ Health Study 2 (1991–2011), and 40,539 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study (1986–2010), free of chronic diseases at baseline. Dietary data were collected every 2–4 y using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Using these data, we created an overall plant-based diet index (PDI), where plant foods received positive scores, while animal foods (animal fats, dairy, eggs, fish/seafood, poultry/red meat, miscellaneous animal-based foods) received reverse scores. We also created a healthful plant-based diet index (hPDI), where healthy plant foods (whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, vegetable oils, tea/coffee) received positive scores, while less healthy plant foods (fruit juices, sweetened beverages, refined grains, potatoes, sweets/desserts) and animal foods received reverse scores. Lastly, we created an unhealthful plant-based diet index (uPDI) by assigning positive scores to less healthy plant foods and reverse scores to healthy plant foods and animal foods.

We documented 16,162 incident T2D cases during 4,102,369 person-years of follow-up. In pooled multivariable-adjusted analysis, both PDI and hPDI were inversely associated with T2D (PDI: hazard ratio [HR] for extreme deciles 0.51, 95% CI 0.47–0.55, p trend < 0.001; hPDI: HR for extreme deciles 0.55, 95% CI 0.51–0.59, p trend < 0.001). The association of T2D with PDI was considerably attenuated when we additionally adjusted for body mass index (BMI) categories (HR 0.80, 95% CI 0.74–0.87, p trend < 0.001), while that with hPDI remained largely unchanged (HR 0.66, 95% CI 0.61–0.72, p trend < 0.001). uPDI was positively associated with T2D even after BMI adjustment (HR for extreme deciles 1.16, 95% CI 1.08–1.25, p trend < 0.001). Limitations of the study include self-reported diet assessment, with the possibility of measurement error, and the potential for residual or unmeasured confounding given the observational nature of the study design.

Conclusions

Our study suggests that plant-based diets, especially when rich in high-quality plant foods, are associated with substantially lower risk of developing T2D. This supports current recommendations to shift to diets rich in healthy plant foods, with lower intake of less healthy plant and animal foods.

Abstract

Ambika Satija and colleagues study associations between plant-based diet indices and type 2 diabetes incidence in large prospective cohorts.

Author Summary

Why Was This Study Done?

• Plant-based diets, mainly defined as “vegetarian” diets, have been associated with improved health outcomes, including reduced risk of diabetes.

• However, vegetarian diets can include less healthy plant foods, such as sweetened foods and beverages, which are detrimental for health. Also, as it would be difficult for many individuals to completely give up some or all animal foods to become vegetarian, it is important to understand how gradually increasing plant foods, while decreasing animal foods, affects diabetes risk.

• Thus, in this study, we aimed to understand how gradations of adherence to different types of plant-based diets (healthful and unhealthful) are associated with diabetes risk.

What Did the Researchers Do and Find?

• We analyzed data from three studies that followed more than 200,000 male and female health professionals across the US for more than 20 y, regularly collecting information on their diet, lifestyle, medical history, and new disease diagnoses.

• We found that having a diet that emphasized plant foods and was low in animal foods was associated with a reduction of about 20% in the risk of diabetes.

• Consumption of a plant-based diet that emphasized specifically healthy plant foods was associated with a larger decrease (34%) in diabetes risk, while consumption of a plant-based diet high in less healthy plant foods was associated with a 16% increased diabetes risk.

What Do These Findings Mean?

• Increasing intake of healthy plant foods while moderately reducing intake of some animal foods, especially red and processed meats, may be beneficial for diabetes prevention.

• These findings support the newly released 2015–2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.