Meat Consumption and Risk of Developing Type 2 Diabetes in the SUN Project: A Highly Educated Middle-Class Population.

BACKGROUND: Meat consumption has been consistently associated with the risk of diabetes in different populations. The aim of our study was to investigate the incidence of type 2 diabetes according to baseline total meat consumption in a longitudinal assessment of a middle-aged Mediterranean population. METHODS: We followed 18,527 participants (mean age: 38 years, 61% women) in the SUN Project, an open-enrolment cohort of a highly educated population of middle-class Spanish graduate students. All participants were initially free of diabetes. Diet was assessed at baseline using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire of 136-items previously validated. Incident diabetes was defined according to the American Diabetes Association's criteria. RESULTS: We identified 146 incident cases of diabetes after a maximum of 14 years of follow-up period (mean: 8.7 years). In the fully adjusted model, the consumption of ≥3 servings/day of all types of meat was significantly associated with a higher risk of diabetes (HR: 1.85; 95% CI: 1.03-3.31; p for trend = 0.031) in comparison with the reference category (<2 servings/day). When we separated processed from non-processed meat, we observed a non-significant higher risk associated with greater consumption of processed meat and a non-significant lower risk associated with non-processed meat consumption (p for trend = 0.123 and 0.487, respectively). No significant difference was found between the two types of meat (p = 0.594). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that meat consumption, especially processed meat, was associated with a higher risk of developing diabetes in our young Mediterranean cohort.

[Proposed profile of omega 3 fatty acids in enteral nutrition]. / Propuesta de perfil de ácidos grasos omega 3 en nutrición enteral.

We review the international recommendations on oral intake of n-3 fatty acids and their content in the enteral nutrition formulas. Their metabolic actions depend on their metabolization to EPA and DHA. The activity of desaturases catalyzing this process increases with exercise, insulin, estrogens in the fertile women, and peroxisomal proliferators, whereas it decreases with fasting, protein and oligoelements deficiencies, age < 30 years, sedentary lifestyle, cigarette smoking, alcohol, cholesterol, trans and saturated fatty acids, insulin deficiency, and stress hormones (adrenalin and glucocorticoids). Most of the guidelines recommend that 20-35% of the total energy comes from fat, being 7-10% saturated fats, 6-10% polyunsaturated, and 20% monounsaturated, in Spain. The recommendation for n-3 FA is 0.5-2 g/day or 0.5-2% of total caloric intake, with an upper limit of 3 g/day. For n-6 FA, 2.5-10% of total caloric intake, the n-6/n-3 ratio not being well established although most of the guidelines recommend 5:1. The EPA and DHA content should be at least 500 mg per day. Finally, the EPA/DHA ratio is 2:1 in most of them. Standard nutrition formulas present an appropriate fat content, although most of the products containing EPA and DHA exceed the limit of 3 g/day. Among the products with hyperprotein and/or concentrated, only of them contains EPA y DHA. Not all the formulas used for the frail elderly contain EPA or DHA, and in those containing them their concentration may be excessive and with a proportion very dissimilar to that of fish oil.

[Olive oil consumption and incidence of diabetes mellitus, in the Spanish sun cohort]. / Consumo de aceite de oliva e incidencia de diabetes mellitus en la cohorte española seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN).

INTRODUCTION: The beneficial effects of the overall Mediterranean dietary pattern on cardiovascular risk factors and on carbohydrate metabolism are well known; however, it is unclear whether the consumption of olive oil in particular is able to reduce the incidence of type 2 diabetes. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the specific effect of olive oil consumption on the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus in a large Spanish cohort (the SUN Project). METHODS: We followed up 10,491 participants for a median of 5.7 years. Habitual diet was assessed at baseline with a semi-quantitative 136-item food-frequency questionnaire previously validated in Spain. The outcome of interest was incident type 2 diabetes diagnosed by a physician and confirmed by review of a medical report. The multivariate-adjusted odds ratios for incident type 2 diabetes for each of the 4 upper quintiles of olive oil consumption using the lowest quintile as the reference were assessed using logistic regression models. RESULTS: At baseline mean age was 38.9 + 11.38 year with a BMI of 23.8 + 3.41 kg/m². Forty two new cases of diabetes mellitus were diagnosed during follow-up. The adjusted odds ratio for the highest vs. the lowest quintile of consumption of olive oil was 1.11 (95% CI: 0.45-2.78; p for trend = 0.32). CONCLUSIONS: We found no association between olive oil consumption and the incidence of type 2 diabetes. The lack of association could be attributed to the small number of observed incident cases of diabetes. Further studies in Mediterranean countries with a longer follow-up and a higher baseline risk are needed to evaluate this association.