Type 2 diabetes diet should include homemade meals to reduce risk: study

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There's something about home-cooked meals that make one feel fuzzy all over. Whether it's mom's delicious cooking or the nostalgia from one's favorite childhood meals, it's always a nice experience for both one's tastebuds and in fact, also for one's health as well. New research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions this year shows that homemade meals may decrease the risk of type 2 diabetes, Eurekalert reports.

Diabetes affects 9% of adults aged 18 and above globally, the World Health Organization reports. In fact, type 2 diabetes accounts for 90 to 95% of diagnosed cases of diabetes, Healthline reports. In the United States alone, 29.1 million people are affected by this disease, with 8.1 million left undiagnosed and unaware of their condition.

According to Healthday, researchers from Harvard found that consuming homemade meals may help lessen weight gain, which can lead to a reduction in the risk for type 2 diabetes.

Researchers analyzed data from the Nurses Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, which asked 99,000 men and women about their lunch and dinner eating habits for over 30 years. None of the participants had diabetes, heart disease or cancer at the beginning of the study. Results showed that those who consumed two meals at home on average daily had a 13% lower risk of developing diabetes compared to those who had less than six homemade meals per week.

Geng Zong from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health explained that the lowered risk is because those who ate at home gained less weight during the study period than those who ate out more. Researchers also claimed that those who dined at home had less sugar-sweetened sodas to go with their meals, and therefore had lower rates of insulin resistance and diabetes.

TIME reports that according to Zong, "We know that eating out is associated with lower diet quality, and higher obesity in young adolescents, as well as insulin resistance and high triglyceride levels."

"We tried to analyze differences in the diet of these people and found, among other differences, that there was a slightly lower intake of sugar-sweetened beverages when people had more homemade meals, which is another bridge linking homemade meals and diabetes in this study," Zong explained.

"There is growing trend of eating meals prepared out-of-home in many countries," he commented. "Here in the United States, energy intake from out-of-home meals has increased from less than 10 percent in the mid-60s to over 30 percent in 2005-2008, and average time spent on cooking has decreased by one third."

Zong recommended, "We need more studies to demonstrate whether preparing meals at home may prevent risk of diabetes and obesity, and how."