Potato and french fry consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes in women.
BACKGROUND
Potatoes, a high glycemic form of carbohydrate, are hypothesized to increase insulin resistance and risk of type 2 diabetes.


OBJECTIVE
The objective was to examine prospectively the relation between potato consumption and the risk of type 2 diabetes.


METHODS
We conducted a prospective study of 84,555 women in the Nurses' Health Study. At baseline, the women were aged 34-59 y, had no history of chronic disease, and completed a validated food-frequency questionnaire. The participants were followed for 20 y with repeated assessment of diet.


RESULTS
We documented 4496 new cases of type 2 diabetes. Potato and french fry consumption were both positively associated with risk of type 2 diabetes after adjustment for age and dietary and nondietary factors. The multivariate relative risk (RR) in a comparison between the highest and the lowest quintile of potato intake was 1.14 (95% CI: 1.02, 1.26; P for trend = 0.009). The multivariate RR in a comparison between the highest and the lowest quintile of french fry intake was 1.21 (95% CI: 1.09, 1.33; P for trend < 0.0001). The RR of type 2 diabetes was 1.18 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.35) for 1 daily serving of potatoes and 1.16 (95% CI: 1.05, 1.29) for 2 weekly servings of french fries. The RR of type 2 diabetes for substituting 1 serving potatoes/d for 1 serving whole grains/d was 1.30 (95% CI: 1.08, 1.57). The association between potato consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes was more pronounced in obese women.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest a modest positive association between the consumption of potatoes and the risk of type 2 diabetes in women. This association was more pronounced when potatoes were substituted for whole grains.
Department of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Thomas L
TL
Halton
Walter C
WC
Willett
Simin
S
Liu
Joann E
JE
Manson
Meir J
MJ
Stampfer
Frank B
FB
Hu
D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003296:Cooking / Q000379:methods; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000737:chemistry; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D004040:Dietary Carbohydrates