Diet Key to Diabetes Risk

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July 28 (HealthDay News) -- Packing on the pounds by drinking too many sugary drinks and not eating enough fruits and veggies appears to be associated with increased risk for type 2 diabetes, while a low-fat diet doesn't alter your risk of developing the blood sugar disease.

That's the conclusion of three studies published in the July 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. Obesity is one of the strongest risk factors for developing diabetes. By 2030, 11.2 percent of the adult population in the United States is expected to suffer from type 2 diabetes, according to the journal report.

In one study, Julie R. Palmer, a professor of epidemiology at the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University, and her colleagues looked at the association between type 2 diabetes and drinking sugar-sweetened soft drinks and fruit drinks. For the study, Palmer's team collected data on 43,960 black women, 2,713 of whom developed type 2 diabetes during 10 years of follow-up.

"Drinking sweetened soft drinks or fruit drinks was associated with an increased risk of developing diabetes," Palmer said. "Specifically, women who drank two or more soft drinks per day or two or more fruit drinks per day had a 25 to 30 percent increased risk of diabetes. Drinking diet soft drinks did not increase risk."

Both soft drinks and fruit drinks, if consumed frequently, will increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. The main mechanism seems to be through their effects on weight gain, Palmer said. "Reducing consumption of these beverages may be a concrete way to reduce weight gain and prevent diabetes," she said.

"Fruit drinks, which are increasingly being consumed by the U.S. population, are not a healthy alternative to soft drinks, at least with regard to risk of type 2 diabetes," Palmer said. "Fruit drinks typically contain as many or more calories as soft drinks and, like soft drinks, may not decrease satiety to the same extent as solid foods."