Consuming saturated fats and animal origin, such as butter, rich in saturated and trans fatty acids, increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, but eating whole yogurt carries less risk.

This is the result of the follow -up for four years of more than 3,000 men and women between 50 and 80 years participating in the Predimed project, a clinical study of nutritional intervention in patients with high cardiovascular risk, carried out by the Human Nutrition Unitof the University Rovira I Virgili (URV) of Tarragona, in collaboration with other centers participating in the Predimed study and Harvard University.

The study, published by the scientific journal 'The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition', makes it more evident than a diet high in foods of plant and low -source foods of animal food, such as the Mediterranean diet, it has beneficial effects on health and reducesThe environmental impact on the planet.

In this study, researchers have wanted to go further and evaluate exactly what dietary fats are related to the most risk of suffering from type 2 diabetes.

They have also investigated what effects have different diabetes high foods in saturated fats, which have previously been related to cardiovascular diseases.

The most relevant results of this work - Fruit of the follow -up for four years of more than 3,000 men and women between 50 and 80 years old - show that people who eat saturated fats and fats of animal origin are twice as a risk of suffering from suffering from diabetes type diabetes2 compared to those people who eat less.

The consumption of 12 grams a day of butter has been linked to twice the risk of diabetes at four and a half years, which is the time during which the volunteers who have participated in the project have been monitored.

On the other hand, eating a whole yogurt per day is associated with 35% less risk of developing diabetes.

The study has analyzed the data of 3,349 participants with high cardiovascular risk of the Predimed study that did not have diabetes at the beginning of the study, were followed for an average of four and a half years, during which 266 people developed the disease.

The study has been led by Marta Guasch-Ferré, researcher at the Harvard Public Health School;Nerea Becerra-Tomás, of the Human Nutrition Unit, and Jordi Salas-Salvadó, director of the URV Human Nutrition Unit and the University Hospital of Sant Joan de Reus and principal researcher of the cyber network of the Carlos III Institute, allMembers of the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute (IISPV).

According to researchers, the results highlights the importance of replacing the consumption of animal and saturated fats (especially red and processed meat) with others of plant origin, such as olive oil or nuts.