[acb-diabetics] Tangerines

[Patricia LaFrance-Wolf]

Diabetes Health Staff
Apr 30, 2011 

Canadian scientists have found that nobiletin, a substance found in high
concentrations in tangerines, thwarted obesity and the onset of diabetes
<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/>  in lab mice. The researchers at the
University of Western Ontario fed the mice a high-sugar, high-fat diet that
mimicked the diet of many people in Western societies. One group of animals
became obese, developing fatty livers and elevated levels of cholesterol
<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/lipid-problems/
>  and insulin <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/medications/insulin/>
-typical precursors to type 2
<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/community/type-2-issues/>  diabetes
and cardiovascular disease. But a second group of mice, given the flavonoid
nobiletin, did not develop the symptoms of the first group. The nobiletin
prevented fatty buildup in the liver by blocking the genes that control the
production of fat.

Flavonoids are compounds found in plants, often as pigments, that are highly
anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory. Nobiletin, which is found in citrus
fruits, occurs in its highest concentration in tangerines. The Canadian
scientists also found that nobiletin protected the lab mice from
atherosclerosis, arterial plaque build-up that can lead to heart attack or
stroke.

The research leader, Murray Huff, a vascular biologist at the university,
had previously found a flavonoid in grapefruits, naringenin, that offered
lab mice protection against obesity. Huff said, however, that nobiletin
offers 10 times the level of protection against obesity that naringenin
does.

Results of the Canadian study, published in the medical journal Diabetes,
open the door for studies on nobiletin's effects on human test subjects.

  _____  

Categories:
<http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/complications-and-care/-cholesterol/>
Cholesterol,  <http://www.diabeteshealth.com/browse/community/diabetes/> 

 

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