Researchers have developed a novel way to detect whether a person follows a Mediterranean diet using a blood test and have shown it is associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
Prior research has shown that people who self-report that they follow a Mediterranean diet have a modestly lower risk of type 2 diabetes. However, the subjectivity of self-reports makes that link uncertain.
University of Cambridge researchers have now developed a novel biomarker-based indicator of a Mediterranean diet that incorporates levels of certain molecules in the blood. Blood levels of 24 fatty acids and 5 carotenoids could be applied to predict whether participants from a clinical trial of 128 people were assigned to follow a Mediterranean diet.
Levels of these molecules in a person’s blood were used to calculate a biomarker score, which the researchers used as a measure of the extent to which they followed a Mediterranean diet.
Next, the researchers applied the biomarker score in a study of 340,234 people living in eight European countries, of whom 9453 developed type 2 diabetes during follow-up and had relevant biomarkers measured. Comparing them with 12,749 participants who remained free of type 2 diabetes, the researchers found that people whose biomarker score indicated greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet were less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.
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