People who regularly eat whole grain products are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes. This has been revealed by research conducted by nutritionist Marion Priebe. It’s not yet clear exactly how ‘unrefined grains’ offer protection, but her research has provided some initial clues. It’s a new step in the fight against diabetes. She will be awarded a PhD by the University of Groningen on 16 December 2009.
Diabetes is spreading like wildfire. According to the latest estimates, about 800,000 Dutch people have diabetes, and 250,000 don’t even know it. With the disease, glucose in the blood is not converted into useable energy. With type 2 diabetes the body has become resistant to insulin, the hormone that governs the conversion of glucose into energy. In the past, the majority of victims of the disease were over forty. Now type 2 diabetes is emerging at ever younger ages, sometimes even before age twenty, as a result of changed living and eating habits, and because we are becoming fatter and fatter.
Claim is supported
Previous studies of the eating habits of large numbers of people over a longer period of time revealed that those who ate a lot of whole grain products had a reduced chance of developing diabetes. However, the link could not be proved definitively. Many of the existing research projects did not take exercise habits into account, for example – and perhaps people who eat a lot of whole grain products take more exercise than those who don’t. Sufficient exercise is another factor that reduces the chances of developing diabetes. Based on an analysis of existing research, known as a systematic review, Priebe now concludes that the claim is sufficiently supported.
Fewer inflammatory markers
Priebe goes a few steps further, however. To this end she conducted experimental research where groups of test subjects were given meals with and without whole grain products. People with diabetes always have inflammatory markers in their blood – substances that indicate the body is reacting to a very slight infection. Eating whole grain products reduces the levels of inflammatory markers in the blood, Priebe’s research has shown.
More sensitive to insulin
Another risk factor for diabetes is that tissue becomes less sensitive to insulin, thus that glucose in the blood is converted less efficiently into energy. Priebe has shown that this can also be influenced by eating whole grain products. Even with healthy test subjects, the sensitivity of tissues to insulin increased after eating whole grain products, and glucose was converted more efficiently into energy. This means that people with a reduced sensitivity to insulin, one of the preliminary stages of diabetes, could benefit even more from eating whole grain products.
Healthier eating habits
Priebe found indications that short chain fatty acids could be responsible for the favourable effects of whole grain products. These substances are created in the large intestine when indigestible carbohydrates from unrefined grains are converted. Priebe: ‘It’s important that we now search for what exactly explains the favourable effects of whole grain products. Once we know that, nutritional products without whole grains can be adapted to help prevent diabetes. And that could make an important contribution to stemming the tide of the disease.’
Symposium
Before Priebe’s PhD ceremony, the University Medical Center Groningen will be hosting a symposium on the role of whole grain products in the prevention of type 2 diabetes, with speakers from the United States, Germany and Finland.
Curriculum Vitae
Marion G. Priebe (Nuremberg, 1956) studied Nutrition and Dietetics at the Hanze University Groningen and Epidemiology at the University of Amsterdam. She conducted her research at the Center for Medical Biomics of the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), where she has been working as a nutritionist and researcher since 1998. The research was financed by the European Commission and the Top Institute Food and Nutrition – a public/private research institute. The title of Priebe’s thesis is ‘Whole grain foods and the prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus’. Her supervisor in the Faculty of Medical Sciences is Prof. R.J. Vonk.
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