At 11:08 AM 11/8/99 -0500, you wrote:

>  A simple explanation for
>why the incidence of this disease has increased in the 20th
>century is that because of insulin theraphy more of these
>diabetics have normal lifespans and thus live long enough to have
>children, thus promulgating the mutant gene in the gene pool.

I found this in my files. I'm pretty sure this was written by Ron Hoggan. Don.

Dr. Fraser Scott of the Nutrition Research Division of Health Canada has
been studying the effect of diet on the development of Type 1 Diabetes in
BBdp rats for 20 years. He and co-workers have demonstrated conclusively
that Type 1 diabetes can be generated by proteins derived from wheat, soy
and milk. Food proteins can indeed induce cell-mediated autoimmunity and
not surprisingly the foods which supply the pathogenic proteins are those
added to the human diet during the Neolithic. I believe Dr. Scott's work is
of great significance for understanding the cause of autoimmune disease and
strongly supports Boyd Eaton's suggestion that the diet of our ancestors is
the best defense against the diseases of civilization.

The best reference for Scott's work is: Scott, FW, 1996, Food-induced Type
1 Diabetes in the BB Rat. Diabetes/Metabolism Reviews, v.12, p. 341-359.
This paper summarizes all his results up to 1996 and contains references to
all his earlier work.