EFN

According to new research, simply by living in a neighborhood that provides easy opportunities for exercise and healthy eating and fresh fruits and vegetables close by, may cut a person’s chance of developing type 2 diabetes.

The research calculated that people who live in neighborhoods that are “health neighborhoods” have a 38% reduced risk of getting diabetes compared with people who do not.

The study followed 2,285 individuals at three of the six sites involved in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA). All participants were at least 45 years Their neighborhoods were assessed by asking residents questions, for example whether it’s easy or pleasant to walk in their community, and whether local stores carry a large, high-quality selection of fruits, vegetables and other low-fat foods. Average neighborhood scores were 3.68 for physical activity and 3.36 for healthy foods, the researchers found.

The growing prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the past 30 years makes it imperative to find environmental features that could mitigate risk, the authors conclude. “Current efforts to foster health-promoting environments include designing and modifying physical environments, such as zoning residential neighborhoods to require safe sidewalks, creating parks and attractive public green spaces and improving public transportation so that residents rely less on their cars; supporting fresh-food farmers’ markets in low-income, urban neighborhoods; and assisting stores in those neighborhoods in improving their selection of healthy foods,” they write.

An approximated 23.6 million people in the U.S. and 246 million people around the world have diabetes. A large number have type 2, the kind associated with a bad diet and lack of physical activity.