Natural foods overloaded with magnesium, especially whole grains, are very potent in cutting diabetes risk in individuals, according to a recent study carried out by a team of researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Boston University. Previous studies have also shown that daily intake of whole grains reduces diabetes chances in white women, while the present study mainly focused on how rich-in-magnesium whole grains regular consumption works on African-American women's health. Overall results of the current research showed that black women who eat whole grains daily are about 30% less likely to develop any form of diabetes, especially type-2 diabetes.

Lead researcher of the study Dr. Rob van Dam stated for NutraIngredients.com: "The take-home message is that higher consumption of whole grain should be promoted, based on research on whole grain and lower risk of type 2 diabetes as well as other chronic diseases." The team also wrote in their report published in the Diabetes Care Journal: "These findings indicate that higher consumption of magnesium-rich foods, particularly wholegrain products, is associated with a lower risk of type-2 diabetes in African-American women."

The study investigated medical data from the Black Women's Health Study, which involved health analysis of 41 186 women with average ages of 39. The follow-up study lasted for an 8 year' period and showed that the more servings of whole grains women ate daily, the less likely they were to develop type 2 diabetes. For instance, women who consumed about 3 servings of whole grains per day had about 31% reduced risk of suffering from type-2 diabetes.

Future studies are going to focus on analyzing how regular wholegrain intake works on other populations. "We are evaluating intake of whole grain and its components in relation to risk of type 2 diabetes in other populations as well as summarising the evidence from all research conducted on this topic," concluded Dr. Rob van Dam.