Men Develop Diabetes With Less Body Fat Than Women: Study

Men Develop Diabetes With Less Body Fat Than Women: Study

 Men develop type 2 diabetes at a lower body-mass index (BMI) than women, and this finding helps explain why men have higher rates of diabetes in many parts of the world, researchers report.
They analyzed data from 51,920 men and 43,137 women in Scotland with diabetes and found that average BMI at diabetes diagnosis was 31.83 in men and 33.69 in women. This difference was most noticeable at younger ages, the researchers said.
The study was published online Sept. 30 in the journal Diabetologia.
The findings confirm the hypothesis that men have to gain less weight to develop diabetes, according to study leader Professor Naveed Sattar, of the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow.
Fat distribution may explain why men develop diabetes with less weight gain than women. Men tend to have more fat in their abdominal regions and in their liver than women, while women have greater amounts of "safe" subcutaneous (beneath the skin) fat than men.
"It is worrying that men develop type 2 diabetes at a higher rate than their female counterparts. Research like this will help us understand reasons why and provide greater insight into what we can do to improve prevention of type 2 diabetes," Dr. Victoria King, head of research at Diabetes UK, said in a university news release.
-- Robert Preidt

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Red Meat and Diabetes

Cut back on red meat - processed and unprocessed - and you may dramatically lower your risk of type 2 diabetes. After analyzing responses to more than 442,000 questionnaires from studies over 28 years, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health suggested that eating a daily serving of about 1.8 ounces of processed red meat such as hot dogs, sausages or bacon is linked to a 51 percent increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes. The same analysis showed that eating 3.53 ounces daily of unprocessed red meat boosts the risk by 19 percent. The research team also found that substituting a daily serving of nuts cut the risk by 21 percent, substituting low fat dairy led to a 17 percent risk reduction and eating whole grains lowered the risk by 23 percent. The study didn't find that processed and unprocessed red meat causes type 2 diabetes, but rather that increased risks of the disease are associated with the regular consumption of these meats. The study was published online August 10 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

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