Then why did I not see any diabetes among the highland
people in the Andes?  THey eat potatoes at every meal,
sometimes only potatoes.  Lots of gatritis, rhuematoid
arthritis, cancer, anemia, epilepsy, cleft palate, and
(among the very poor and especially among rural and
poor Seventh Day Adventists) protein deficiency, but I
never met anyone with diabetes.

= = = Original message = = =

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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