Dietary factors in the development of type 1 diabetes

Abstract

There are several indicators concerning the putative importance of dietary factors during the fetal period lactation, infancy and childhood in the etiology of type 1 diabetes. Among foods, cow's milk consumption has been associated with an increased risk of preclinical and/or clinical type 1 diabetes and sugars with a progression from preclinical to clinical disease. Breast milk, on the other hand, may be protective. Processed foods may be related to a greater risk of type 1 diabetes because they contain higher amounts of advanced glycation end-products. Nitrites or N-nitroso compounds in processed meat products could increase the risk of this disease. Among nutrients, n-3 fatty acids, vitamins D and E, and zinc may protect from preclinical and/or clinical type 1 diabetes. The microbial composition of foods or food's other effects on gut microbiota are receiving increasing attention, also due to their putative role in the development of type 1 diabetes. Still the number of prospective studies in this research field is limited and most of the findings remain to be replicated.

Imbalance of bacteriome profiles within the Finnish Diabetes Prediction and Prevention study: Parallel use of 16S profiling and virome sequencing in stool samples from children with islet autoimmunity and matched controls

“…Both B. pseudocatenulatum and B. bifidum have been previously used in probiotic preparations, although the evidence of efficacy is inconclusive, if any (eg, ), and bifidobacteria have been also connected to breast‐feeding . Both probiotics and breast‐feeding have been linked to decreased risk of developing T1D later in life 31‐33 . Human humoral immunity responds to bifidobacteria, but this reactivity does not appear to profoundly differ between children with islet autoimmunity and controls .…”

The DIPP project: 20 years of discovery in type 1 diabetes

“…Dietary exposures also remain of great interest to DIPP investigators. Virtanen provides a review of putative dietary factors associated with T1D risk and notes associations with maternal consumption, infant feeding practices, and childhood eating patterns (14).…”

“…Dietary exposures also remain of great interest to DIPP investigators. Virtanen provides a review of putative dietary factors associated with T1D risk and notes associations with maternal consumption, infant feeding practices, and childhood eating patterns . While exposures ranging from maternal consumption of coffee, root vegetables, and vitamin D to breast versus cow's milk feeding, age at introduction to solids, and childhood exposure to processed foods, nitrites, N‐3 fatty acids, and advanced glycation end products have all been associated with varying degrees of protection or susceptibility to T1D, Dr. Virtanen carefully cautions that we must not raise premature concern or recommend changes in feeding practices until observations from other large prospective birth cohorts corroborate these findings.…”

Development of a harmonized food grouping system for between-country comparisons in the TEDDY Study

“…Infant and childhood diet plays an important role in the etiology of type 1 diabetes and islet autoimmunity (Virtanen, 2016) and celiac disease (Andrén Aronsson et al, 2016a; Chmielewska et al, 2015). In order to examine nutrient intakes in the TEDDY study, considerable effort was made to estimate the comparability of the nutrients between the country specific food composition databases (FCDBs) linked to the study (Uusitalo et al, 2011).…”

“…In order to examine nutrient intakes in the TEDDY study, considerable effort was made to estimate the comparability of the nutrients between the country specific food composition databases (FCDBs) linked to the study (Uusitalo et al, 2011). Besides the role of nutrients there is a growing emphasis on the importance of food level exposures to better understand diet and disease relationships (Norris, 2010; Virtanen, 2016). One of the aims of the TEDDY study is to examine the quantitative exposure to foods such as cow's milk, root vegetables and gluten-containing cereals which have been associated with increased risk of islet autoimmunity, type 1 diabetes and/or celiac disease in infancy and later in childhood (Knip et al, 2010; Virtanen et al, 2000; Virtanen et al, 2012; Lamb et al, 2015a; Lamb et al, 2015b; Virtanen, 2016; Szajewska et al, 2016).…”