Diabetes has two forms: Insulin Dependant Diabetes or Type I diabetes which normally develops early on in life as a consequence of the destruction of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Non-Insulin Dependant Diabetes or Type II diabetes which usually develops later on in life. In Type II diabetes, the pancreas produces insulin, but production is impaired. This disease is positively correlated with lifestyle and obesity in particular. Individuals with a BMI of 30 are seven times more likely to develop Type II diabetes than are non-obese people. Individuals with a BMI of 42 have 42 fold increase in risk (Figure 5.5).53
Figure 5.5. Increase in relative risk of contracting diabetes with increase in BMI. (Adapted from ref. 53.)
Diabetes mellitus is another disease that occurs less frequently among vegetarians than among non-vegetarians. An American study showed that Seventh-day Adventists (who follow mainly a vegetarian lifestyle) are only half as likely to develop this disease than the American population as a whole.54 The fact that vegetarians in general consume more complex carbohydrates in the form of whole foods, and thus have a more gradual release of glucose from the intestinal tract, is one of the factors which affords protection against hyperinsulinism and glucose surge associated with a diet of refined foods. Vegetarians, and vegan vegetarians in particular are less likely to be obese, and this affords further protection, particularly, since a Scandinavian study showed that even