Dietary fats, insulin resistance, and diabetes.

Although population-based studies suggest that a high-fat diet may increase the incidence of diabetes, the mechanism of this association is not clear. Controlled metabolic studies indicate that changes in fat content of the diet within the range that people normally consume have little or no effect on insulin-mediated glucose disposal. Thus, the effects of a high-fat diet on the incidence of non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) may be mediated by inducing obesity, a known cause of insulin resistance and a risk factor for NIDDM. More research is needed in this area.