Consuming a diet rich in antioxidant foods is associated with a reduction
in risk of type-2 diabetes (T2D) in middle-aged women, according to a new study
in the journal Diabetologia.
Women with
the highest quintile of dietary antioxidant intake, measured by total
antioxidant capacity (TOC), reduced their risk of T2D by 27 %.
Total
antioxidant capacity (TOC) is an index which estimates the aggregated
antioxidant capacity from the sum of all the individual antioxidant components
in the diet.
The
development of T2D may involve oxidative stress, recent evidence has suggested.
A diet containing fruit, vegetables and beverages including tea contains a
variety of compounds with antioxidative properties. In this study, “the food
groups that contributed the most to the TOC were fruit (23%), vegetables (19%),
alcoholic beverages (15%) and hot beverages such as tea, chicory and hot
chocolate (12%).
