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Those of you who read this blog regularly already know that my answer would be “No!  Cheese is not the enemy!” At home, we’ve chosen largely an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet, which basically means we eat eggs and cheese.  But isn’t cheese the enemy?

Recent News

This topic hit my social media feed recently, so I thought I’d share my more detailed commentary!

The New York Times post covered the PURE study published in The Lancet analyzing data across 21 countries from 5 continents.  Whole-fat dairy consumption of three servings per day was associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease and mortality, compared to lower levels of consumption.

Longer History

This is simply a reinforcement of what was known from the time before I was even diagnosed with diabetes.  The CARDIA study results published in 2002 actually showed an inverse relationship between dairy consumption and insulin resistance syndrome (IRS).

A later study in 2015 clarified that it is high-fat dairy that has the protective effects.  More surprisingly, high fat dairy uniquely reduces diabetes risk but meat intake actually increases diabetes risk!

Decreased T2D [Type 2 Diabetes] risk at high intake of high- but not of low-fat dairy products suggests that dairy fat partly could have contributed to previously observed protective associations between dairy intake and T2D. Meat intake was associated with increased risk independently of the fat content.

I never bought the arguments against cheese because it is high in fat, as numerous reports — including earlier results from the PURE study — have shown that dietary fat is not associated with either cardiovascular disease or mortality.  Also, I never bought the high cholesterol arguments against cheese, as high “bad” cholesterol levels appear to be unrelated to the risk of disease.  Despite what our doctors are telling us, most scientists are quick to point out that our bodies are much more complex than drain pipes and that arteries don’t get clogged simply because we eat foods higher in fat and cholesterol!

The more complex issue is about the high salt content in cheese.  I actually do agree with the assertion that most of us in the United States should reduce salt intake.  However, a study out of Penn State showed that the sodium levels in cheese do not affect the body the way the same sodium levels do in other salty foods.

Cheese and Gut Bacteria

I happen to believe that future studies will look further into the effects of cheese on our gut bacteria.  If you haven’t seen them yet, I recommend you read my posts on gut bacteria and diabetes and on gut bacteria and the metabolism of histidine.

Time wrote a very approachable piece about the potential benefits of cheese on the gut bacteria and the lower levels of the TMAO when metabolizing choline.  As referenced before in a previous post, there is an association between TMAO and Type 2 diabetes, so lowering TMAO may be an indication of a protective effect in the gut!

Science will ultimately catch up here.

The Environment

Until science does catch up, there’s another more point to make here.  Eating cheese does have an environmental impact.  Cheese ranks 3rd highest among common foods in greenhouse gas emissions on a per kilogram basis — higher than pork and chicken — largely because of the amount of milk it takes to make cheese.

Less dense cheeses and younger cheeses, such as cottage cheese, feta, brie, or camembert, don’t use as much milk and thus have a lower environmental impact.  It’s also important to note in most cultures, cheese is not eaten in large quantities.  It may be common in many cultures to eat a big piece of meat with a meal, but it’s not as common to eat a whole wheel of cheese at once!

For environmental reasons — independent of health considerations — try not to overindulge in cheese, and also be sure to eat what you buy!

Photo by Tabitha Mort from Pexels

Science continues to explain what we’ve known for a long time.  Mothers should eat in a healthy manner while pregnant!

This past week, a study out of Germany was published explaining how for some, the root cause of Type 2 Diabetes might be in the expression of a single gene, and that this gene can be “edited” early in life.  A Science Alert story covering this research explained the conclusion:

Intriguingly, researchers had found evidence that the binding protein’s gene had been silenced by an epigenetic switch – the DNA equivalent of a padlock that can be put in place for various reasons, typically environmental ones.

Their findings suggested that the gene for IGFBP-2 in the liver was edited early in life, setting the mice up for type 2 diabetes later.

The field is called epigenetics.  The Guardian wrote a very approachable piece on the topic.  In it they explain:

Studies of humans whose ancestors survived through periods of starvation in Sweden and the Netherlands suggest that the effects of famine on epigenetics and health can pass through at least three generations. Nutrient deprivation in a recent ancestor seems to prime the body for diabetes and cardiovascular problems, a response that may have evolved to mitigate the effects of any future famines in the same geographic area.

While most popular theories suggest that chronic diseases are caused by genetic factors and lifestyle, scientists now understand that environmental factors are also at play — and not just over long periods of time.  Your mother’s nutrition during pregnancy plays a big role in your adult health and risk of Type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

This theory started with Barker’s hypothesis of 1992.  The Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) summed up David Barker’s work well.

Over twenty-five years ago, he [David Barker] was the first to show that people who had low birth weight are at greater risk of developing coronary heart disease and diabetes – now a widely accepted fact. This finding led to a new understanding that chronic adult diseases are “programmed” in the womb by malnutrition and other harmful influences.

A decade later, the World Health Organization published a piece called “Programming of chronic disease by impaired fetal nutrition: Evidence and implications for policy and intervention strategies” calling for further research.  The New Yorker also wrote a much more approachable piece called 2007 called “Small and Thin” about this topic, which was still considered controversial even by 2007.

Still, scientific evidence on the impact of epigenetics continues to mount.  A literature review of the research was just done in August 2018 called “Nutritional programming of the metabolic syndrome.”  In it, they draw an interesting diagram of epigenetic effects of “sub-optimal maternal fed nutritional environments.”  (Don’t you love scientists?  😇)

I personally became very interested in this topic back when I found out I had diabetes back in 2003, as I believe that I was personally impacted by epigenetics.  While I am not from an impoverished region, my mom — who is known among friends and family to always look her best — only gained 10 pounds when she was pregnant with me.  She had boasted to me once that no one even knew she is pregnant until she was 8 months in!  The graph below shows that, even for her, she was grossly underweight.

Source: babycenter.com

To sum it up, I think her dieting during pregnancy may have epigenetically impacted my gene for IGBF-2!  Of course, there’s a lot we didn’t know back then, and knowing this now doesn’t help me much personally for now.  I will still continue my own care as I have been!

Still, for any of you out there who are pregnant or know someone who is, make sure they know to eat well during pregnancy!

Photo by Leah Kelley from Pexels

Another study was published this week associating plant-based diets with better outcomes for diabetics.

The conclusion:

Plant-based diets were associated with significant improvement in emotional well-being, physical well-being, depression, quality of life, general health, HbA1c levels, weight, total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, compared with several diabetic associations’ official guidelines and other comparator diets. Plant-based diets can significantly improve psychological health, quality of life, HbA1c levels and weight and therefore the management of diabetes.

This study was a meta-analysis of other studies, and didn’t attempt to draw a root cause.  The timing of the study’s publication fell close to World Vegan Day on November 1st.  Personally, I actually believe in variations of plant-based diets, such as ovo-lacto vegetarian diets (milk and eggs OK) because ovo-lacto vegetarian diets allow people to naturally get everything they need from food.

I’m more skeptical of vegan diets for most just because the rules aren’t as simple in the modern world.  Anyone thinking about a vegan diet should remember that vegans must also take supplements. Even those who claim that gorillas are naturally vegan without thinking about it have to remember that they supplement naturally by not washing their food.  They do end up eating some soil for minerals they don’t get from plants, as well as insects for key nutrients.

Still, I believe in getting most protein from plants.  There is certainly the sustainability angle to plant-based diets.  The Guardian wrote a very good piece titled “Avoiding meat and dairy is ‘single biggest way’ to reduce your impact on Earth.”

However, if you’re new to this blog, I also recommend you dive into my other posts on the reasons why the right plant-based diets can improve diabetes.

• Gut bacteria.  Non-processed plant-based foods contain prebiotics (fiber) and have a positive effect on the composition and the activity of the gut microbiome.  There is a strong association between the dysbiosis – imbalance in the gut microbiome – and metabolic diseases, such as diabetes.
• Mitochondrial function.  Plant-based foods are rich in many of the micronutrients missing from meat-based diets that are necessary for proper function of the mitochondria, i.e., converting macronutrients into chemical energy in the body.  Mitochondrial dysfunction is also strongly associated with metabolic diseases, such as diabetes.  Again, the key here is that mitochondrial function is optimal on balanced diets, and ovo-lacto vegetarianism involves fewer supplementation rules to keep track of than being vegan.

Again, I think the recent study has some merit and shares good data.  I’d just like to emphasize the “why” which I believe are tied to gut bacteria and our own mitochondrial function as the host.  Still, for myself (other than a recent bone broth fast), I’ve switched to mainly an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet, with an occasional “splurge” for meat or fish.