According to the results of an analysis from the Nurses' health Study reported in the April issue of Diabetes Care under Qi Sun, MD, ScD and colleagues, higher zinc intake may be associated with a slightly lower risk for type 2 diabetes in women,.

"Despite the evidence from animal studies that zinc intake may have protective effects against type 2 diabetes, few studies in humans have been conducted to examine this relationship," presents the research team from Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts "The hypothesis that dietary zinc intake is associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes has not been examined in a prospective study. Also, it would be useful to examine the associations for supplemental zinc and zinc from food sources separately because the former is more bio available than the latter."

The goal of this analysis was to determine the interaction of zinc intake with risk for type 2 diabetes in US women. There were 6030 incident cases of type 2 diabetes during 24 years of follow-up in a study group of 82,297 subjects. There was also an inverse association between type 2 diabetes and dietary zinc–to–heme iron ratio. "Higher zinc intake may be associated with a slightly lower risk of type 2 diabetes in women," the study authors write. "More studies are warranted to confirm this association and to explore potential mechanisms."

"Our results also suggest that a diet with high zinc-to-heme iron ratio is significantly associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes," the study authors conclude. "These findings are considered preliminary, and, thus, further studies are warranted to confirm these findings." Incidentally, oysters are an excellent source of zinc.

Source : Diabetes Care. 2009;32:629-634.