Researchers Found A 91% Difference In Diabetes Odds — Here's What Stood Out
If you've ever looked at your supplement shelf and wondered which bottles are actually worth taking, some have years of research behind them and others much less.
Lycopene is best known for giving tomatoes their red color, not for metabolic health.
But in a recent analysis of 2,381 adults, researchers found a notable difference in diabetes prevalence among people taking different supplements.
They also looked at biological aging to see whether it helped explain the finding.
About the study
Researchers analyzed health data from 2,381 adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), including which supplements they had taken during the previous 30 days (calcium, iodine, molybdenum, and lycopene), whether they had diabetes, and several measures related to biological aging.
Diabetes status was determined using medical history, glucose-lowering medication use, fasting blood sugar, and hemoglobin A1c, a measure of average blood sugar levels over the previous few months.
The aging measures track chemical changes to DNA that give scientists clues about how quickly someone is aging biologically.
One supplement had a much stronger association
Lycopene was the only supplement that remained associated with lower diabetes prevalence after researchers adjusted for other factors and corrected their analysis to reduce the chance of false-positive findings.
People who reported taking lycopene supplements had about 91% lower odds of having diabetes than people who didn't. That doesn't mean lycopene lowers someone's risk of developing diabetes by 91%.
The study only looked at whether supplement use and diabetes occurred together, so it can't tell us whether lycopene itself caused the difference.
Calcium, iodine, and molybdenum showed similar associations at first, but those links disappeared after the additional correction.
Only lycopene, an antioxidant from the family of compounds researchers have examined in relation to insulin resistance, held up.
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Biological aging may be part of the story
Your biological age isn't necessarily the same as your age on paper.
Researchers can look at certain chemical changes to DNA to estimate how quickly the body appears to be aging, and diet may be one of the things that shifts your biological clock.
Three of the measures showed the strongest signs of helping explain the lycopene-diabetes relationship. Researchers also found indirect associations involving calcium, iodine, and molybdenum, though they described those findings as exploratory.
Supplement use and diabetes status were measured at a single point in time, which can reveal a connection but not cause and effect. People who take lycopene supplements may also differ from nonusers in diet, exercise habits, or overall health.
A simple way to get more lycopene
This research isn't enough to recommend lycopene supplements for diabetes prevention, and longer-term studies are needed to determine whether the relationship holds over time. Food makes it easy to get more:
- Start with tomatoes: they're the best-known source, and the same antioxidant has also been studied for brain health.
- Cook them: heat makes lycopene easier to absorb, so canned tomatoes and tomato paste count.
- Branch out: lycopene also shows up in watermelon, red bell peppers, and pink grapefruit.
Food also gives you a mix of other nutrients that support overall health, which makes produce a more grounded starting point than a supplement bought on the strength of one finding.
The takeaway
Lycopene was the only supplement in this analysis that stayed linked to lower diabetes prevalence after researchers adjusted their findings. The association was large, but it doesn't prove lycopene prevents diabetes, so getting it from foods such as tomatoes and watermelon makes more sense than treating a supplement as a diabetes fix.