Single enzyme necessary for development of diabetes

Another fat diet in mice study so the researchers may be exaggerating a bit the significance of the study but;

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140814192352.htm

Summary:


An enzyme called 12-LO promotes the obesity-induced oxidative stress in the pancreatic cells that leads to pre-diabetes, and diabetes. 12-LO's enzymatic action is the last step in the production of certain small molecules that harm the cell, according to researchers. The findings will enable the development of drugs that can interfere with this enzyme, preventing or even reversing diabetes

Hmm... this looks preliminary. It also does not fit very well with our current understanding of the etiology of type II diabetes. And I am also suspicious of the claim that our SAD (Standard American Diet) is loaded with saturated fats. Perhaps that use to be the case, but today it is loaded with carbohydrates (~50%) and polyunsaturated fats (the vegetable oils)*. His statement: "We surmised that when individuals eat high fat foods and become overweight, the beta cells of their pancreases fail to produce sufficient insulin" does not fit with what we now know. It is eating an excess of carbohydrates that results in our body producing the very saturated fats found in our bodies that he thinks came from our diet. The fact that he did not seem to understand this makes me even more suspicious of the findings. One more factor is that the mouse model he is using is not a good one for investigating etiology of type II diabetes since the mouse beta cells respond quite differently than human beta cells to BG levels (see the paper I reference below).

I saw another paper that says that it is glucose levels that cause glucose toxicity resulting in the death of beta cells. Their authors say that "graded increase in glucose from a physiological concentration of 5.6 to 11.2 mmol/liter and above induces apoptosis" of the beta cells. This too would help to explain the etiology of type II diabetes without having to find extraordinary causes. Just the normal cycle of eating too much carbohydrates over many years could cause type II diabetes. It would start with even slight increases in BG becoming a positive feedback loop that leads to the death of beta cells followed by even higher levels of BG which kill even more beta cells. The accumulation of fat in the pancreas and liver also likely play a role in this process. I am also suspicious that polyunsaturated fats that oxidize quite easily (saturated fats do not oxidize or go rancid) may also play a role based on the fact that they did not come into wide use until the 1970's and 1980's when low fat became the rule in healthy diets. That is the period in which the diseases of civilization, also called metabolic diseases, has increased markedly over since WWII.

* It is all but impossible to even buy tallow in our stores. And you can only buy lard that has been hydrogenated in some grocery stores. So if I want to use either tallow or lard I have to render my own.