Diet is a quite important matter for diabetic people. Everything they eat may have a consequence positive or not in their disease evolution. According to researchers from Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, overweight Latino children show signs of beta cell decline, a precursor of type 2 diabetes because they are consuming lots of sugar, especially in sugary drinks.
Nowadays, statistics show that nearly one out of four Latino children in the United States is overweight, and the problem appears to be worse over the future. Obesity rates are increasing along with the incidence of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes within overweight teens. Under a researchers’ report published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, high sugar consumption during childhood may play an important role in the development of diabetes in this population.
According to experts in preventive medicine, overweight and poor diet among these children could have disastrous consequences for minority health and the health-care costs for future generations, if they are left untreated.
The research called Study of Latinos at Risk (SOLAR) Diabetes Project is conducted by the research team from the Keck School. This project examined overweight Latino children in Los Angeles from 9 to 13 years old and do not have diabetes.
Beta cells in the pancreas, experts explain, create the hormone insulin in response to sugar from food. Energy is something necessary to cells in the body’s tissues, so they need sugar or glucose, and…
… insulin helps cells grab and take up glucose in the blood.
Other factors besides diabetes such as poor glycemic control and elevated lipids may put Hispanic youth with type 1 and type 2 diabetes at risk for future diabetes-related complications.
There are more than 50 million Hispanics/Latinos currently living in the United States, making up about 16 percent of the population. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that by 2050, one in three people living in the United States will be of Hispanic/Latino origin, including such diverse subgroups as Puerto Rican, Mexican, Cuban, Central and South Americans. But, wrote the authors of a commentary being published in this issue of Diabetes Care, “the differences in diabetes and obesity prevalence among Latino subgroups are masked when all individuals are combined into a single group.”