http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,6566370%255E2702,00.html


Potatoes may trigger diabetes
By Helen Tobler, Medical reporter
June 09, 2003
AUSTRALIAN researchers have found that mothers who eat vegetables such as
potatoes and turnips when pregnant could increase their child's risk of
developing diabetes.

It has long been suspected that there is an environmental trigger for type 1
diabetes, but only now have researchers found a possible cause.

The culprit is bafilomycin, a toxin found in some bacteria called
streptomyces that infect vegetables such as potatoes, sugar beets, turnips
and radishes.

The research was headed by Paul Zimmet, director of Melbourne's
International Diabetes Institute, and Mark Myers, of Monash University.

Dr Myers will tell the American Diabetes Association Congress in New Orleans
this week that the bafilomycin toxin could be a trigger for type 1 diabetes
in children with a genetic susceptibility.

The research team discovered that bafilomycin in diets could cause type 1
diabetes, but they were not sure why this happened.

In experiments on mice, they found that pregnant mice that were fed tiny
amounts of the toxin were far more likely to give birth to babies who later
developed type 1 diabetes.

"It occurred to Myers that during pregnancy the mother eating foods that
might have these toxins affected the development of the pancreas," Professor
Zimmet said. "So in genetically susceptible subjects . . . it might then
turn on type 1 diabetes."

Between 5 and 10 per cent of people could have the gene that made them
susceptible to type 1 diabetes, he said.

Populations where tuberous vegetables were widely eaten had high rates of
diabetes, Professor Zimmet said.

"The highest rates of diabetes in the world are in Finland and Sardinia, and
the Finns are very big potato eaters and the Sardinians are big eaters of
sugar beet.

"These are two classic vegetables that are infected by this organism."

Professor Zimmet said an estimated 13 per cent of potatoes that went to
market in Australia were infected with the bacteria, which cannot be
destroyed through cooking.

These tuberous vegetables often entered the food chain indirectly, such as
through food for livestock.

"They could be right through the food chain, but it's (diabetes) only going
to happen in people who have got the susceptibility to diabetes."

An estimated 100,000 Australians and 2 million children worldwide have type
1 diabetes, which makes up 10 to 15 per cent of all diabetes cases. The
disease is different to type 2 diabetes, which is triggered by lifestyle
factors.

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