A Meat Rich Diet Leads to Higher Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Women

A new study found that women were more prone to developing type 2 diabetes if they ate a meat-based diet which contains high levels of acid.

The study published in Diabetologia, the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), and is by Dr Guy Fagherazzi and Dr Françoise Clavel-Chapelon, Center for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, INSERM in France.

Researchers, who studied a group of 66,485 women, pointed that typically acidic foods consist of animal products, but fruits and vegetables helped to neutralise acidity, according to the report.

Chronic acidosis, which is a condition caused by increased acidity in the blood and body tissues, reduces insulin sensitivity.

The researchers reported 1,372 new cases of type 2 diabetes over a period of 14 years and found that women whose potential renal acid load (Pral) scores were in the top 25 percent were at 56 per cent greater risk of developing diabetes than those in the bottom 25 percent.

"A diet rich in animal protein may favor net acid intake, while most fruits and vegetables form alkaline precursors that neutralize the acidity. Contrary to what is generally believed, most fruits such as peaches, apples, pears, bananas and even lemons and oranges actually reduce dietary acid load once the body has processed them. In our study, the fact that the association between both PRAL and NEAP scores and the risk of incident type 2 diabetes persisted after adjustment for dietary patterns, meat consumption and intake of fruit, vegetables, coffee and sweetened beverages suggests that dietary acids may play a specific role in promoting the development of type 2 diabetes, irrespective of the foods or drinks that provide the acidic or alkaline components," the authors wrote.

"We have demonstrated for the first time in a large prospective study that dietary acid load was positively associated with type 2 diabetes risk, independently of other known risk factors for diabetes. Our results need to be validated in other populations, and may lead to promotion of diets with a low acid load for the prevention of diabetes. Further research is required on the underlying mechanisms," they added.