Working with researchers in Leicester, they recruited 1,368 people – including more than 300 of south Asian ethnicity – to take part in the NIHR-funded PROPELS study.

Study participants all had blood glucose (sugar) levels that were higher than normal, and this put them at risk of developing T2D.

Participants were allocated to one of three groups. The first group received detailed advice on how to reduce their risk of T2D. The second group received the same information, a pedometer (step counter), encouragement to walk 2,000-3,000 steps more each day and an annual 4-hour education programme about diet and physical activity. The final group received all this plus follow-on support through personalised text-messaging and telephone calls to encourage behaviour change and monitoring of physical activity by a pedometer.

After 12 months and then again at 4 years, participants provided blood samples and their physical activity was measured. The data is being analysed and the results should provide new evidence for the long-term effectiveness of a tailored programme to reduce T2D risk in high-risk groups.

One way of adding objective information to this picture is to use ‘nutritional biomarkers’ – molecules found in the body that reflect the foods we eat. These can be measured in body tissues such as blood or urine, and can provide helpful additional information.

To improve their understanding of the link between dietary saturated fat consumption and the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, researchers in Cambridge studied saturated fatty acid blood biomarkers as a way to help distinguish between different types of saturated fat.

They developed a sophisticated method of high-speed blood analysis to study biomarkers from thousands of people across eight European countries. They found that saturated fatty acids can be associated with both an increased and decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, depending on the type of fatty acids present in the blood.

These findings provide evidence that individual saturated fatty acids are not all the same. And they could partially explain recent other evidence that suggests some foods high in saturated fats, such as dairy products, could actually lower the risk of type 2 diabetes, while other high fat foods, such as red and processed meat, raise its risk.

Work remains to understand more about the precise relationship between what people eat and the chemicals found in their blood. However, in time, these types of findings could be used to help refine dietary guidance for everyone, and even as part of identifying groups of patients who could benefit from personalised lifestyle recommendations.