In a study from Tufts University and the University of Cambridge, researchers found that eating more unsaturated fats, especially polyunsaturated fats, lowers blood sugar levels and improves insulin resistance and secretion.
Rates of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes are rising sharply worldwide, highlighting the need for new, evidence-based preventive strategies.
While a healthy diet is clearly a cornerstone of such efforts, the effects of different dietary fats and carbohydrates on metabolic health have been unclear.
The study was the first systematic evaluation of all available evidence from trials to quantify the effects of different types of dietary fat (saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated) and carbohydrate on key biological markers of glucose and insulin control that are linked to the development of type 2 diabetes.
In the study, the team reviewed 102 published studies involving 4660 people.
They then evaluated how such variations in diet affected measures of metabolic health, including blood sugar, blood insulin, insulin resistance, and sensitivity, and the ability to produce insulin in response to blood sugar.
The researchers found that exchanging dietary carbohydrates or saturated fat with a diet rich in monounsaturated fat or polyunsaturated fat had a beneficial effect on blood glucose control.
For example, for each 5% of dietary energy switched from carbohydrates or saturated fats to mono- or polyunsaturated fats, there is an approximately 0.1% reduction in HbA1c, a blood marker of long-term glucose control.
Based on prior research, each 0.1% reduction in HbA1c is estimated to reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes by 22% and cardiovascular diseases by 6.8%.
Among different fats, the most consistent benefits were seen for increasing polyunsaturated fats, in place of either carbohydrates or saturated fat.
The results suggest that increasing the intake of unsaturated fats (e.g. vegetable oils, avocados, and nuts) in place of either saturated fats or highly refined grains and sugars will help improve glucose control and therefore likely helps to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes.
These findings support preventing and treating type 2 diabetes by eating more fat-rich foods like walnuts, sunflower seeds, soybeans, flaxseed, fish, and other vegetable oils and spreads, in place of refined grains, starches, sugars, and animal fats.
Given the current global pandemic of type 2 diabetes, the authors hope that these findings will help inform scientists, clinicians, and the public on dietary priorities related to dietary fats and carbohydrates and metabolic health.
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The study was published in PLOS Medicine and conducted by Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian et al.
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