Type 2 Diabetes

Nuts May Lower CVD Risk in Type 2 Diabetes, Novel Evidence Suggests

Greater nut consumption may be cardioprotective among individuals with type 2 diabetes, novel evidence suggests.

 

This finding emerged from a study published in Circulation Research. Study participants with type 2 diabetes who had a higher intake of nuts, especially tree nuts, in the context of a healthy diet were found to experience lower incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality.1

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“Our findings provide new evidence that supports the recommendation of including nuts in healthy dietary patterns for the prevention of cardiovascular disease complications and premature deaths among individuals with diabetes,” said lead study author Gang Liu, PhD, nutritional sciences researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Massachusetts, in a press release.2

 

In their prospective analysis, Dr Liu and colleagues evaluated 16,217 men and women from the 1980-2014 Nurses’ Health Study and the 1986-2014 Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. All participants had diabetes that had been diagnosed at baseline or during follow-up.

 

Validated food frequency questionnaires, updated every 2 to 4 years, were used to evaluate nut intake.

 

Overall, there were 3336 incident cases of CVD and 5682 deaths over 223,682 and 254,923 person-years of follow-up, respectively. Higher total nut intake was found to be associated with a decreased risk of CVD incidence and death but was not found to be associated with risk of stroke incidence nor cancer mortality.

 

For participants who consumed at least 5 servings of total nuts per week compared with those who consumed less than 1 serving per month, multivariate-adjusted hazard ratios were:

 

  • 0.83 for total CVD incidence.
  • 0.80 for coronary heart disease (CHD) incidence.
  • 0.66 for CVD mortality.
  • 0.69 for all-cause mortality.

 

Higher tree nut consumption in particular was found to be associated with reduced risks of total CVD, CHD incidence, and mortality due to CVD, cancer, and all causes compared with higher peanut consumption, which was only found to be associated with reduced all-cause mortality.

 

Even after adjustment, increased nut intake compared with no change in nut intake over the course of the study was found to be associated with:

 

  • An 11% lower risk of CVD.
  • A 15% lower risk of CHD.
  • 25% lower CVD mortality.
  • 27% lower all-cause mortality.

 

—Christina Vogt

 

References:

 

1. Liu J, Guash-Ferré M, Hu Y, et al. Nut consumption in relation to cardiovascular disease incidence and mortality among patients with diabetes mellitus [Published online February 19, 2019]. Circulation Res. doi:10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.118.3143161.

 

2. Eating nuts may reduce cardiovascular disease risk for people with diabetes [press release]. Dallas, TX. American Heart Association. February 19, 2019. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/eating-nuts-may-reduce-cardiovascular-disease-risk-for-people-with-diabetes Accessed on February 19, 2019.