Higher intake of dietary dicarbonyl compounds is associated with lower incidence of type 2 diabetes: European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-InterAct case-cohort study
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Purpose
Dicarbonyls are reactive precursors of advanced glycation end-products. They are formed during food processing, and endogenously in humans during glycolysis and lipid peroxidation. Higher plasma dicarbonyls, particularly methylglyoxal (MGO), promote insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, but the association between dietary dicarbonyls intake and type 2 diabetes is unknown. This study examined the associations between dietary dicarbonyls and type 2 diabetes incidence.
Methods
11,995 incident type 2 diabetes cases and a sub-cohort of 15,797 controls from the prospective multi-center European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-InterAct cohort were included. Intakes of three major dicarbonyls MGO, glyoxal [GO], and 3-deoxyglucosone [3-DG] were estimated at baseline using dietary questionnaires. Type 2 diabetes risk according to dietary dicarbonyl intake was estimated by multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios from Prentice-weighted Cox-regression analyses.
Results
Higher intakes of MGO (sample-specific mean intake 3.4 ± 1.3 mg/d) and 3-DG (13.8 ± 10.5) were associated with lower incidence of type 2 diabetes (HR 0.92 [95% CI 0.90–0.95] for 1 SD higher MGO intake and 0.93 [0.90–0.95] for 1 SD higher 3-DG intake). No associations were observed for dietary GO.
Conclusion
Participants who consumed more dietary dicarbonyls MGO and 3-DG had a lower risk to develop type 2 diabetes. This protective association contrasts with the harmful effects on type 2 diabetes risk reported for endogenously formed dicarbonyls.
Dicarbonyls are reactive precursors of advanced glycation end-products. They are formed during food processing, and endogenously in humans during glycolysis and lipid peroxidation. Higher plasma dicarbonyls, particularly methylglyoxal (MGO), promote insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, but the association between dietary dicarbonyls intake and type 2 diabetes is unknown. This study examined the associations between dietary dicarbonyls and type 2 diabetes incidence.
Methods
11,995 incident type 2 diabetes cases and a sub-cohort of 15,797 controls from the prospective multi-center European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-InterAct cohort were included. Intakes of three major dicarbonyls MGO, glyoxal [GO], and 3-deoxyglucosone [3-DG] were estimated at baseline using dietary questionnaires. Type 2 diabetes risk according to dietary dicarbonyl intake was estimated by multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios from Prentice-weighted Cox-regression analyses.
Results
Higher intakes of MGO (sample-specific mean intake 3.4 ± 1.3 mg/d) and 3-DG (13.8 ± 10.5) were associated with lower incidence of type 2 diabetes (HR 0.92 [95% CI 0.90–0.95] for 1 SD higher MGO intake and 0.93 [0.90–0.95] for 1 SD higher 3-DG intake). No associations were observed for dietary GO.
Conclusion
Participants who consumed more dietary dicarbonyls MGO and 3-DG had a lower risk to develop type 2 diabetes. This protective association contrasts with the harmful effects on type 2 diabetes risk reported for endogenously formed dicarbonyls.
Date Issued
2026-04-01
Date Acceptance
2026-01-22
Citation
European Journal of Nutrition, 2026, 65 (3)
ISSN
1436-6207
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Journal / Book Title
European Journal of Nutrition
Volume
65
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/41843191
PII: 10.1007/s00394-026-03904-0
Subjects
Advanced glycation end products
Dietary dicarbonyl compounds
Food processing
Glycation
Methylglyoxal
Type 2 diabetes
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Germany
Article Number
98
Date Publish Online
2026-03-17