Omega Threes May Prevent Diabetes in Kids

An article reported on September 25, by Reuters on another food stubstance found in fish and walnuts which may prevent diabetes in children .

CHICAGO - A diet rich in fish and other sources of omega-3 fatty acids helped cut the risk that children with a family history of diabetes would develop the disease, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

"It is a relatively large effect," said Jill Norris, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"It is exciting because it suggests we might be able to develop nutritional interventions to prevent diabetes."

Type 1 diabetes, formerly called juvenile diabetes, is the most common form of diabetes in children. It occurs when the immune system goes haywire and starts attacking insulin-producing cells (beta cells) in the pancreas.

No one knows exactly what triggers this process, but heredity and environmental factors such as diet are thought to play a role. Another factor is hyperintestinal permeability (Leaky Gut) which permits more intestinal antigens to be absorbed and a concept of innocent bystander, where a protein of that person is misinterpreted as foreign and (auto) antibodies are made and directed against that protein.

Several studies in animals have suggested that omega-3 fatty acids — which are found in fish, flaxseed oil, walnuts, soybeans and other foods — may help.

In this study to see if whether omega-3 fatty acids offer a potential protective effect, Jill Norris and colleagues at the University of Colorado at Denver studied 1,770 children between 1994 and 2006 who were deemed at high risk for diabetes because of genetic tests or because they had a sibling or parent with type 1 diabetes.

The researchers found at-risk children who ate a lot of foods rich in omega-3 were less likely to develop islet autoimmunity — antibodies against the cells in the pancreas that precede full-blown diabetes.

"This is the first study to show this," Norris said in a telephone interview. "This is all omega-3 fatty acids, not just the kind that are found in fish."

The take home message is to keep the kids from becoming fat by avoiding saturated fats and high glycemic carbohydrates, encourage lots of exercise and get them to eat foods rich in omega three's to prevent both types of diabetes, I and II

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