Combined effort of alcohol consumption and lifestyle behaviors on risk of type 2 diabetes

Summary

ackground: It has been suggested that the inverse association between alcohol and type 2 diabetes could be explained by moderate drinkers’ healthier lifestyles. Objective: We studied whether moderate alcohol consumption is associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes in adults with combined low-risk lifestyle behaviors. Design: We prospectively examined 35,625 adults of the Dutch European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC-NL) cohort aged 20–70 y, who were free of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer at baseline (1993–1997). In addition to moderate alcohol consumption (women: 5.0–14.9 g/d; men: 5.0–29.9 g/d), we defined low-risk categories of 4 lifestyle behaviors: optimal weight [body mass index (in kg/m2)