Food items Habit Tied to Kind 2 Diabetes, Even Over and above BMI

A “sturdy, good affiliation” exists among food addiction and form 2 diabetes that is only partly discussed by human body fat, new details advise.

In a huge Danish populace-primarily based research, people who scored positively on the Yale Food Dependancy Scale 2. experienced far more than a fivefold improved possibility for sort 2 diabetes, even soon after adjusting for age and body mass index (BMI). The amplified chance was attenuated, but still present, among individuals with psychological diseases.

The examine is the to start with to show a good affiliation among food stuff dependancy and kind 2 diabetes, say Christina Horsager, MD, PhD, of the division of psychiatry at Aalborg College Medical center, Denmark, and colleagues in their article posted in the May situation of Medical Nutrition.  

“The results insert to our present knowledge of potential chance aspects for kind 2 diabetes and, by extension, doable targets for interventions aimed at possibility reduction,” Horsager advised Medscape Healthcare Information.

It could possibly be anticipated that “meals addiction” would lead to overeating and body weight obtain, which in flip, raises the chance for kind 2 diabetes. “Nevertheless, the success from our analyze advise that BMI is not the only mediator in this context, which is not that stunning given the complex etiology of kind 2 diabetes,” she reported.

Even so, she also cautioned, “the interpretation of these results is complex by the reality that BMI was calculated employing self-described body weight and height, making it prone to response bias.” In addition, “the cross-sectional style of the analyze precludes causal interpretation of the results.”

Food stuff Addiction, Style 2 Diabetic issues Strongly Linked

The study, from the Food items Addiction Denmark Challenge, associated 1699 grownups from the common populace and 1394 grownups from a populace with clinically confirmed psychological problems which include substance abuse, affective issues, stress/panic-associated issues, and autism spectrum diseases.

Food stuff habit was assessed utilizing the self-documented 11-level Yale Meals Habit Scale 2.. The groups of mild, reasonable, and extreme food items addiction have been mixed into one particular team, and discrete scale scores were being also assessed.

Among the the basic populace sample, 9.% fulfilled the requirements for food stuff habit and 3.1% experienced kind 2 diabetic issues. The odds ratio was 6.7 for the association among foodstuff habit and sort 2 diabetic issues, immediately after adjustment for sex and age (P < .001), dropping just slightly to 5.6 after additional adjustment for BMI but remaining significant (P < .001).

In a dose–response model, the odds ratios per point on the addiction scale were 1.3 after age and sex adjustment (P < .001) and 1.3 with the addition of BMI adjustment (P < .001).

Association Among Those With Mental Disorders

Among those with mental disorders, 26.5% had a food addiction and 4.1% had type 2 diabetes. Here, the age- and sex-adjusted odds ratio for the association between food addiction and type 2 diabetes was 2.4 (P = .002). With BMI factored in, there was still an association, with an odds ratio of 1.8, which just missed statistical significance (P = .061).

The dose–response relationship, on the other hand, remained significant even in the group with mental disorders, with odds ratios of 1.1 (P < .001) and 1.1 (P = .034) per point on the Yale Food Addiction 2.0 scale, respectively.

An analysis of individual mental disorders showed that all associations were positive, but because of the small sample sizes, only the age- and sex-adjusted odds ratio for anxiety remained significant (4.9 P = .041).

It’s likely that the weaker association among those with mental disorders is “a consequence of a ceiling effect, as food addiction “competes” with other risk factors for type 2 diabetes that are common among individuals with mental disorders, such as sedentary lifestyle and use of psychotropic medication, making food addiction a relatively weaker risk factor for type 2 diabetes in this specific population when compared with the general population,” Horsager and colleagues write.

The higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the population with mental disorders, despite that group being nearly 10 years younger (mean age, 33.5 vs 43.4 years), lends support to that explanation, they note.

The group is continuing this work, Horsager told Medscape Medical News. “There is a paucity of studies assessing the longitudinal course and correlates of food addiction. We will aim to bridge this gap with the upcoming Food Addiction, Obesity, and Type 2 Diabetes in Denmark (FAT2DK) cohort study,” she said.

The study was supported by grants from the Beckett Foundation, the A.P. Møller Foundation, the Lundbeck Foundation, and the Heinrich Kopps Grant. Horsager has reported no relevant financial relationships.

Clin Nutr. 202342:717-721. Full text

Miriam E. Tucker is a freelance journalist based in the Washington, DC, area. She is a regular contributor to Medscape, with other work appearing in The Washington Post, NPR’s Shots blog, and Diabetes Forecast magazine. She is on Twitter: @MiriamETucker.

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