Omega-6 and Diabetes

Stephen Guyenet posted this little tidbit a while ago:

Just 10% of the diet as corn oil (roughly 20% of calories), with no added omega-3 [n-3], on top of an otherwise poor laboratory diet, caused:

• Obesity
• Osteoporosis
• The replacement of bone marrow with fat cells
• Diabetes
• Insulin resistance
• Generalized inflammation
• Elevated liver weight (possibly indicating fatty liver)

Now, one of the active ingredients in corn oil is linoleic acid, an omega-6 (a.k.a. n-6) fatty acid.

Today, Robb Wolf posts an explanation of why this is true.

"Via some slick molecular biology and collaborative tests, the authors of the aforementioned paper show that n-3’s are critical in their interaction with GRP-120 not only for decreased inflammatory effects, but also for insulin sensitivity. It would appear that inadequate n-3’– decreased GRP-120 expression–increased inflammation+decreased insulin sensitivity. Net result? A ton of mierda."

Read the whole thing.

(I tried running Wolf's post through the surfer-dude to English translater, but had minimal success... I think I understood most of it, however. ;))