Several studies have shown that the Mediterranean diet plays a role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease but little is known about this diet’s impact on diabetes risk. Therefore, Martinez-González et al. evaluated the association between adherence to a Mediterranean diet and the incidence of diabetes among initially healthy participants. This large prospective study of 13,389 subjects showed that high adherence to the diet spurred an 83% relative reduction in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Surprisingly, although participants with the highest adherence to the diet had a higher level of leisure time physical activity, they also had a higher baseline prevalence of important risk factors for diabetes, such as older age, higher body mass index, family history of diabetes, ex-smoker status, and personal history of hypertension, suggesting that the diet might have substantial preventive potential. The authors concluded that adherence to a Mediterranean diet reduces the risk of diabetes.
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