De rol van voeding bij het ontstaan van diabetes mellitus type 2: calorieën in de hoofdrol

- Diets high in saturated fat, trans fat and glycaemic load and low in fibre and polyunsaturated fat are associated with a 25 to 50 increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes. However, obesity increases this risk by 500 to 1000. Effects ascribed to dietary composition might therefore be due to unmeasured effects of body size. In clinical trials, a weight loss of 3-5 kg plus twice 10 min of walking per day reduced the incidence of diabetes by 58. The size of this effect is remarkable. It points to the solution to the diabetes epidemic, which is to reconstruct cities so as to make people eat less and move more. There is an analogy here with the cholera epidemics, which also could be solved only by changing the urban environment.

Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2008;152:2375-7