Women who
eat root vegetables and potatoes during pregnancy may expose
their children to a greater risk of type one diabetes, an
Australian study has found.
Scientists
at Melbourne's Monash University say a common toxin which
causes potato scab in root vegetables may affect the
development of the foetus' pancreas in pregnant women, and act
as a trigger for type one diabetes in genetically pre-disposed
children.
Researchers carried out tests on a group of mice susceptible
to diabetes and found that those whose mothers were fed
Bafilomycin, a toxin which commonly occurs in root vegetables,
were more likely to have a damaged pancreas and develop
diabetes.
University
professor of biochemistry Paul Zimmet said 70% of the
susceptible mice normally developed diabetes over 30 weeks.
However he
said, of the mice whose mothers were fed Bafilomycin, all
developed diabetes much more quickly.
"The ones
that we fed Bafilomycin 100% had diabetes by 20 weeks," he
said
Zimmet,
who is also the director of the Melbourne-based International
Diabetes Institute, said linking the disease to the human diet
would change thinking about the cause of type one diabetes,
also known as insulin dependent diabetes.
"We think
people have been looking in the wrong place," Prof Zimmet
said.
"(They've
been) looking at the events during childhood rather than what
happened to the mother during pregnancy."
Zimmet
said the Bafilomycin toxin was common in root vegetables and
could not be destroyed through cooking.
He advised
pregnant women with a history of type one diabetes in their
family to carefully peel vegetables and remove "scabs".
© AAP