A prospective study of fruit and vegetable intake and the risk of type 2 diabetes in women.

F ruits and vegetables contain many beneficial nutrients and phytochemicals that are thought to protect against cardiovascular disease (1,2) and diabetes (3–5). Further, different types of vegetables and fruits may differ in their contents of carbohydrates, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and other unidentified phytochemicals. However, epidemiologic data on fruit and vegetable intake and type 2 diabetes are very limited. To evaluate the hypothesis that a high intake of fruits and vegetables protects against the incidence of type 2 diabetes and to explore whether specific subgroups of fruits and vegetables differentially affect diabetes risk, we analyzed prospective data from the Women’s Health Study (WHS) from 1993 to 2003.