There are a number of factors which may reduce the type 2 diabetes occurrence throughout the world. Diet is the most important factor of whether or not a person gets type 2 diabetes. People who are overweight or obese carry the largest risk factor for developing diabetes. Research has shown that even people that are hereditarily predisposed to developing diabetes can delay the onset or avoid the disease completely if they adhere to a healthy diet and keep a healthy weight.

One continuing question is whether or not vegetarian diets reduce the diabetes occurrence in a population. One study, which can be found on the National Institutes of Health website, NIH.gov, posed this question and found that vegetarians had a substantially lower risk than non-vegetarians of diabetes as an underlying or contributing cause of death. Also the prevalence of self-reported diabetes was lower in vegetarians than non-vegetarians.

Whether a person …