Certain foods might make your child more likely to develop type 1 diabetes, researchers have found.
Eating a diet that is high in oats, rye, and some fruits is linked with an increased risk of developing type 1 diabetes, according to new research about to be presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) conference in Spain.
Interestingly, other fruits like berries were found to be associated with a decreased risk of developing diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. As a result, the body produces little to no insulin, which is a hormone that helps move sugar from your blood into your cells for energy. People with type 1 diabetes must take insulin injections or use an insulin pump to control blood sugar levels. Type 1 diabetes usually starts in children or young adults, but it can happen at any age.
“Type 1 diabetes is a serious condition that requires lifelong treatment and so places a considerable burden on the patient and their family,” study co-author Suvi Virtanen, a professor at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, Finland, said in a statement. “It can lead to complications including eye, heart, nerve and kidney problems and shorten life expectancy and has substantial health care costs (around 1 million euros per patient in Finland).”
The researchers explain that they analyzed the diets of over 5,600 children in Finland who had a genetic predisposition for type 1 diabetes between birth and the age of 6, by which time 94 of the children had developed type 1 diabetes. A further 206 were found to have developed islet autoimmunity, which is when the immune system begins to attack the cells that produce insulin, making the development of type 1 diabetes likely in the future.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a child’s entire diet has been considered at the same time,” Virtanen said.
They found that children who ate more oats, rye, fermented dairy products, fruits like bananas, and wheat were more likely to develop type 1 diabetes,
Children who ate more berries—including strawberries, blueberries, lingonberries, raspberries, and blackcurrants—were less likely to develop type 1.
“Berries are particularly rich in polyphenols, plant compounds which may dampen the inflammation that is associated with the development of type 1 diabetes,” Virtanen said. “On the other hand, fruits may contain harmful substances that don’t occur in berries. For example, berries can be free of pesticides that are found on other fruits.”
Cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage, were also found to decrease risk of type 1.
“It is important to find out which factors in these foods are responsible for these associations. Are the same causative factors or protective factors found in several foods?” Virtanen said. “If berries are found to contain a particular protective factor, for instance, either that substance or berries themselves could used to prevent T1D.”
She added: “The rapid increase in type 1 diabetes in children suggests that environmental factors play an important role in the development of the disease. Identifying these factors will offer an opportunity to develop strategies to prevent it and its complications.”
However, the researchers note that as all of these foods are generally considered healthy, it is too soon to recommend avoiding them until further research has been done.
“Many foods of the foods that we found to be associated with increased risk of type 1 diabetes and the disease process are considered part of a healthy diet and it is important that our results are replicated in other studies before anyone considers making changes to their child’s diet,” Virtanen said.
Other experts agree that this is very early research and much more investigation into these foods effects on type 1 needs to be performed.
“The research may make sense as a preliminary look at whether there could be associations between children’s intakes of different foods and the risk of diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes (T1D), or of conditions likely to lead to T1D later. But, as the researchers rightly say, it’s far too early to say whether the findings should lead to dietary recommendations. That’s clear even from the limited information we have so far,” Kevin McConway, an emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University in the United Kingdom, said in a statement.
“One important reason for that is that the study is observational – the children weren’t assigned to particular diets by the researchers, but just ate what they would eat anyway. The researchers observed and recorded what they ate, and observed T1D diagnoses and related health outcomes.”
Additionally, the research is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
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References
Virtanen, S. M., E. J. Peltonen, L. Hakola, S. Niinistö, H.-M. Takkinen, S. Ahonen, M. Akerlund, U. Uusitalo, M. Mattila, T. E. I. Salo, J. Ilonen, J. Toppari, R. Veijola, M. Knip, & J. Nevalainen. (2024, September 9). Food consumption associated with the risk of islet autoimmunity and type 1 diabetes. EASD Annual Meeting, Madrid, Spain.
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