Vitamin C and Dietary Antioxidants may Reduce Diabetes Risk, reveals research
Researchers have established that higher dietary antioxidant intake, particularly vitamin C, is inversely associated with the prevalence of diabetes mellitus. A recent study was published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition conducted by Zhou L. and colleagues.
Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease influenced by oxidative stress. This study fills the gap by examining the association between different levels of dietary antioxidant intake and risk of diabetes while also looking at the combined effect using the Composite Dietary Antioxidant Index among U.S. adults.
This cross-sectional study used the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data collected between 2011 and 2018. The dietary data for the participants was obtained from two 24-hour dietary recall interviews, which involved six critical dietary antioxidants to find the CDAI score. To explore the interaction between individual antioxidants and CDAI and diabetes, multifactorial logistic regression models were considered. Other subgroup analyses and restricted cubic spline curves also explored the relationship between CDAI and risk of diabetes.
Key Findings
The analysis included 7,982 adults, with a mean age of 47.32 years (±16.77), comprising 48.5% males and 51.5% females.
In the multivariate-adjusted single antioxidant model, vitamin C intake was significantly associated with a reduced risk of diabetes (p= 0.047), suggesting its powerful protective effect.
Although not reaching statistical significance, zinc intake exhibited a potential trend toward lowering diabetes risk (p= 0.088).
Composite Dietary Antioxidant Index (CDAI): CDAI was notably associated with a lower risk of diabetes in female participants (p= 0.046), emphasizing the combined effect of antioxidants in dietary intake on diabetes risk.
This study concludes that higher dietary antioxidant intake, particularly vitamin C, is related to reduced prevalence of diabetes, and that CDAI is valuable in reducing the risk of developing diabetes among women. The findings thus imply that dietary antioxidant intake is a viable approach in helping attenuate diabetes risk and hence holds gigantic implications for public health strategies based on nutrition.
Reference:
Zhou L, Xu X, Li Y, Zhang S and Xie H (2024) Association between dietary antioxidant levels and diabetes: a cross-sectional study. Front. Nutr. 11:1478815. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1478815
