RE: Grains and T1D - interesting stuff!
So - this is not yet published, but I wanted to share anyway. My colleague recently returned from a conference on Type 1 diabetes and gave a brief summary of some interesting talks at work today.
One of them involved a study on the effect of a high grain diet on mice with a predisposition to develop diabetes. The mice that were fed a high grain diet developed earlier/worse disease and had decreased numbers of regulatory T cells. Regulatory T cells are important for stopping inappropriate immune responses in the body. My colleague mentioned they also had data for a high casein data, but didn't have the details in hand. The problem is, I have no idea what was fed to the mice in the low cereal diet....so I can't say anything about how healthy it was.
Also interesting....the type/number of gut flora impacted the severity of the grain effect.
I thought is was great that this work is even taking place and that it was presented at a highly respected meeting. I will keep an eye out for the paper and post it when it rolls around.