High dietary intake of animal protein was associated with a modestly elevated risk of type 2 diabetes among women in an international case-control study published online in Diabetes Care.
Investigators assessed the self-reported dietary intakes of 26,253 adults from eight European countries participating in EPIC-InterAct, a large study of behavioral and genetic factors that correlate with the development of type 2 diabetes. A total of 11,637 study subjects developed incident type 2 diabetes and 14,616 did not during a mean follow-up of 12 years, said Dr. Monique van Nielen of the division of human nutrition, Wageningen (the Netherlands) University, and her associates.
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High animal protein intake was associated with an elevated risk of type 2 diabetes among women.
A high intake of total protein was associated with a 13% higher incidence of type 2 diabetes than was a low protein intake among women but not among men. Further analysis showed that animal, not plant, protein accounted for almost all of this association, they reported.
Among women only, for every 10-g increase in the consumption of animal protein the incidence of diabetes rose 5%. This amount is equivalent to approximately a 50-g serving of meat or fish or a glass of milk. No specific type of animal protein accounted for this association, since serial analyses excluding meat, fish, and dairy foods did not alter the results, Dr. van Nielen and her associates said (Diabetes Care 2014 April 10 [doi:10.2337/dc13-2627]).
"In contrast to suggested beneficial short-term effects of dietary protein on glycemic control, our study found that habitually high intake of protein increases type 2 diabetes risk," they noted. Although the mechanism underlying this association is not yet known, it may be advisable to limit isoenergetic diets high in dietary, especially animal, proteins, they said.
This study was funded by the European Union and numerous government and independent sources in all participating countries. No financial conflicts of interest were reported.