By Amy Orciari Herman (www.jwatch.org website)

Adults who frequently consume certain whole fruits, including apples, grapes, and blueberries, have a significantly lower risk for type 2 diabetes than those who eat little fruit, according to a BMJ study.

Three cohorts of U.S. healthcare professionals, comprising nearly 190,000 adults without diabetes at baseline, regularly completed food-frequency questionnaires. During some 3.5 million person-years of follow-up, over 12,000 developed type 2 diabetes.

The risk for diabetes was significantly reduced with every three servings per week of blueberries (hazard ratio, 0.74), grapes and raisins (0.88), apples and pears (0.93), bananas (0.95), and grapefruit (0.95). Consumption of fruit juice, on the other hand, was associated with increased risk (hazard ratio for one or more servings/day: 1.21).

“These results support recommendations on increasing consumption of a variety of whole fruits, especially blueberries, grapes, and apples, as a measure for diabetes prevention,” the researchers conclude.