Fat Intake and Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract

Increasing number of patients with diabetes has become a worldwide healthcare problem, and it is expected to reach approximately 600 million patients in 2035. In Asia-Pacific region, the prevalence of type 2 diabetes has increased dramatically in recent decades as the result of modern lifestyle changes, e.g., Western dietary pattern and reduced physical activity, on their genetic basis of lower insulin secretion capacity. In particular, nutritional surveys in East Asian countries consistently reported nearly three-fold increase in dietary fat intake in this half of century; dietary fat appears to be the major culprit of type 2 diabetes pandemic in East Asia. However, epidemiological cohort studies have not yet provided convincing evidence whether high-fat diet causes type 2 diabetes. Here, we summarize epidemiological studies on the relationship of dietary fat to type 2 diabetes and animal studies on high-fat diet-induced diabetes including our recent works on novel mouse lines selectively bred for different susceptibilities to high-fat diet-induced diabetes. These epidemiological and experimental findings would provide further insight into the etiology of type 2 diabetes under the modern nutritional environment.