Question:
From Sydney, Australia:
Recent reports are showing a link between the onset of diabetes and overconsumption of protein (in meat) and cow's milk. As a diabetic (diagnosed at 6, 21 now) how valid are these claims, and should I steer clear of dairy and red meat?
Answer:
As someone who already has Type 1 Diabetes, you need have no
particular apprehension about eating normal amounts of meat or cow's milk
unless you already have significant kidney damage or some unrelated
problem like lactose intolerance.
The cow's milk story nonetheless is an interesting one on which
there is still a lot of argument. It started because twin studies showed
that there are environmental as well as genetic factors that influence the
onset of Type 1 Diabetes. One of these was thought to cow's milk because
there seemed to be a geographical relationship between cow's milk
consumption and the frequency of Type 1 Diabetes in the population. A year
or so ago there were a number of reports that disputed this; but more
recently it has been shown that there may be a relationship between Type 1
diabetes and the consumption of milk from strains of cows, usually some
Friesan varieties, that have a protein called A1 beta casein in their
milk. This particular protein seems to be partly resistant to complete
digestion in the human intestine leaving a peptide called
beta-caso-morphine which has immunomodulatory properties at least in
experimental animals. The issue is being extensively studied by the dairy
industry; but the final answer is still not established.
DO'B
Original posting 17 Aug 97
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