Omega-3 fatty acids protect against diabetes: study

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A diet rich in fish and other sources of omega-3 fatty acids helped cut the risk that children with a family history of diabetes would develop the disease, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

"It is a relatively large effect," said Jill Norris, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"It is exciting because it suggests we might be able to develop nutritional interventions to prevent diabetes."

Type 1 diabetes, formerly called juvenile diabetes, is the most common form of diabetes in children. It occurs when the immune system goes haywire and starts attacking insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

No one knows exactly what triggers this process, but heredity and environmental factors such as diet are thought to play a role.

Several studies in animals have suggested that omega-3 fatty acids -- which are found in fish, flaxseed oil, walnuts, soybeans and other foods -- may help.

To test whether omega-3 fatty acids offer a potential protective effect, Norris and colleagues at the University of Colorado at Denver studied 1,770 children between 1994 and 2006 who were deemed at high risk for diabetes because of genetic tests or because they had a sibling or parent with type 1 diabetes.

Data about their dietary intake were collected in food frequency surveys.