Associations of Total Legume, Pulse, and Soy Consumption with Incident Type 2 Diabetes: Federated Meta-Analysis of 27 Studies from Diverse World Regions

Publication: Journal of Nutrition

Matthew Pearce, Anouar Fanidi, Tom R P Bishop, Stephen J Sharp, Fumiaki Imamura, Stefan Dietrich, Tasnime Akbaraly, Maira Bes-Rastrollo, Joline W J Beulens, Liisa Byberg, Scheine Canhada, Maria del Carmen B Molina, Zhengming Chen, Adrian Cortes-Valencia, Huaidong Du, Bruce B Duncan, Tommi Härkänen, Maryam Hashemian, Jihye Kim, Mi Kyung Kim, Yeonjung Kim, Paul Knekt, Daan Kromhout, Camille Lassale, Ruy Lopez Ridaura, Dianna J Magliano, Reza Malekzadeh, Pedro Marques-Vidal, Miguel Ángel Martínez-González, Gráinne O’Donoghue, Donal O’Gorman, Jonathan E Shaw, Sabita S Soedamah-Muthu, Dalia Stern, Alicja Wolk, Hye Won Woo, EPIC-InterAct Consortium, Nicholas J Wareham, Nita G Forouhi

11 May 2021


Summary

A healthy diet is one important way to prevent type 2 diabetes. Legumes such as beans, lentils, peas and soy are typically high in dietary fibre, protein, B vitamins, and minerals and have a low glycaemic index.

Legume consumption is promoted as part of a healthy diet in many countries, but research has shown inconsistent and inconclusive findings for any link with type 2 diabetes. Researchers planned to find out the nature of the association between the amount and type of legume consumption and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes over time and in different world regions.

The research included data from 27 existing studies in Europe (Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK), the Americas (Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, USA), Eastern Mediterranean (Iran), and Western Pacific (Australia, China, South Korea).

They used data on more than 800,000 participants, among whom 42,473 participants developed type 2 diabetes over time.

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