Regularly eating blueberries, grapes, apples and pears can cut the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to research carried out by scientists from the UK and US.
Eating a standard serving of blueberries weekly can reduce the chances of developing diabetes by 26 per cent, while regular consumption of apples and pears will make you seven per cent less likely of developing type 2. Other fruits such as grapes, prunes and bananas were name-checked in the study, which was published in the British Medical Journal, as having diabetes reducing qualities.
However, drinking fruit juice could increase the risk of developing the condition, which affects more than 3 million people in the UK, by more than eight per cent.
Qi Sun, assistant professor at Harvard School of Public Health, claimed fruit juices contained less of the beneficial compounds found in whole fruits and he recommended that people replaced fruit drinks with servings of loose fruit.
He explained: 'Fluids pass through the stomach to the intestine more rapidly than solids even if nutritional content is similar. For example, fruit juices lead to more rapid and larger changes in serum levels of glucose and insulin than whole fruits.'
