Abstract MP14: A Prospective Study of the Association Between Plant-Based Dietary Patterns and Incident Type 2 Diabetes in Women

Studies of dietary determinants of type 2 diabetes (T2D) have found inverse associations with several plant-foods, and positive associations with some animal-foods, raising the question of whether plant-based diets are protective against T2D. However, as not all plant-foods are equally beneficial, the healthiest version of a plant-based diet needs to be identified. We assessed the hypothesis that plant-based diets are associated with lower T2D risk. We prospectively observed 74,248 women from the Nurses’ Health Study (1984-2012) who were free of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer at baseline. We created a total plant-based diet index (PDI) and a healthy or ‘alternate’ plant-based diet index (aPDI) using dietary data collected every 4 years with a food frequency questionnaire. Individual foods were aggregated into healthy plant-food groups (whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, vegetable oils, and tea/coffee), unhealthy plant-food groups (fruit juices, refined grains, potato/fries, mar...