Eating blueberries cuts the risk of type 2 diabetes by 26% but drinking fruit  juice increases it by 8%.

Researchers found eating grapes and raisins can cut the risk by 12%, prunes by 11% and apples and pears by 7%.

Bananas, plums and peaches had little impact but drinking fruit juice  increased the chance of type 2 – the most prevalent in the UK’s three million  diabetes sufferers – by 8%.

A team from Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts, told the British  Medical Journal: “Fluids pass through the stomach to the intestine more rapidly  than solids even if nutritional content is similar.

“Fruit juices lead to more rapid and larger changes in levels of glucose and  insulin than whole fruits.”

Replacing fruit juice with whole fruits could lead to a 7% drop in the risk  of developing type 2 diabetes, they said.