Diabetes attacks millions of people in the world, so talking about its forms of prevention is essential, especially in the diet.

Diabetes is one of the diseases that most commonly affects people around the world, but especially in North and Latin America. For example, according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), nearly 30 million children and adults in the United States have diabetes, and 8 million of them don’t know they have the disease.

For its part, in Latin America, type 2 diabetes affects almost 65 million people, a figure that has tripled in the last 40 years. To top it off, in Mexico diabetes is the first cause of death among women and the second among men and our country is the second Latin American country and the sixth in the world in terms of prevalence of this disease.

Symptoms of diabetes range from increased thirst, fatigue, blurred vision, and a constant urge to go to the bathroom to kidney, heart, and skin disease, to name a few.

Given this panorama where the intensity and frequency of the presence of diabetes in the world and in Mexico in particular is clear, it is essential to talk not only about how to live with diabetes, but also about what are the ways to prevent it.

And among some diabetes prevention measures is a new study that suggests a plant-based diet may be key to preventing the disease.

This theory comes after a team of experts performed blood plasma and dietary intake analyzes on more than 10,500 participants whose average age of the trial members was 54 years and had an average body mass index (BMI). In this trial, their adherence to proposed diets that included 18 plant-based food groups was measured. For example, the people in the study added fruits, vegetables, nuts, coffee and different legumes to their meals, which also help them live longer.

These participants had a lower risk of contracting type 2 diabetes because the profile of metabolites (the substances that remain after the decomposition carried out by the human body) coincided with the healthy standard values ​​after carrying out this type of diet for several months and constantly. This pattern opens a new panorama within nutritional research in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and high cholesterol levels by contemplating a plant-based diet as a way to prevent diabetes.

In the plant-based diet, you should dominate the consumption of vegetables, legumes, fruits, grains, nuts and seeds. Food must be fresh or minimally processed. Unlike other types of food, the consumption of meat, eggs or dairy products is not included.