Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases: Is There a Link Between the Two?

Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases: Is There a Link Between the Two?
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What Is A Metabolic Disease?

Metabolic diseases can occur when digestive organs, such as your liver or pancreas, fail to adequately create or store energy for your body from the food you eat. There are literally thousands of metabolic diseases. Many are hereditary, and many simply leave the medical community stumped. Nutrition may play a role in some of these disorders.

Type II Diabetes

Because Type II diabetes involves the inadequate production of insulin from the pancreas, it’s considered a metabolic disease. Many studies link the onset of diabetes with obesity or poor nutrition, such as a diet overburdened with processed, simple carbohydrates. One of the keys to managing Type II diabetes is using a good eating plan to keep your blood sugar levels under control. This includes regular meals and snacks that are a good balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Avoid processed foods and simple carbohydrates, opting for complex carbohydrates like whole grains, legumes like lentils, and plenty of vegetables.

Gout

If you are prone to gout, it’s best to avoid foods high in purine like liver and other organ meats.

Gout can be a horribly painful metabolic disease. Commonly considered a hereditary condition, symptomatic gout can result from improper metabolism of purines, a protein found in many foods and throughout our bodies. Normally, purines are broken down into uric acid, which is expelled via the urinary tract. However, in those who are prone to gout, too much uric acid builds up in the body, and can form painful crystallizations in joints, resulting in inflammation.

Someone with active gout can also be prone to kidney stones, as crystallization can occur in the kidneys if they cannot expel uric acid fast enough. A proper nutrition plan that scrupulously avoids foods high in purine can keep uric acid from building up. These include organ meats, anchovies and other small, oily fish like herring and sardines, dried beans and peas, asparagus and mushrooms. It’s also a good idea to avoid alcohol. And similar to Type II diabetes, gout can result from obesity.

Celiac Disease

Those with celiac disease must avoid wheat, rye, barley, oats, and products made from these grains, like bread.

Imagine a life without the common foods we’ve grown to love like bread, cookies, or even a frosty beer at the ballgame. Those with celiac disease, another metabolic disorder linked to nutrition, cannot digest gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, rye, and oats. The body, or more specifically, the small intestine, looks upon gluten as a foreign invader. Similar to the process involved with allergies, antibodies begin to attack and can damage the villi, which are tiny projections that cover the lining of the small intestine and serve to absorb nutrients into your bloodstream. Malabsorption can cause nutritional deficiencies, leading to osteoporosis, infertility, birth defects, and seizures. While it is not clear what causes celiac disease (some studies blame heredity; some more controversial ones blame our over consumption of wheat, barley, rye, oats and products made from them), the only surefire “cure” is to diligently keep foods containing gluten out of your diet.

Lactose Intolerance

Got milk? Maybe not, if you’re lactose intolerant.

There are a lot of jokes about lactose intolerance, but for those who suffer from this annoying and uncomfortable metabolic disease, it’s not funny. If you are lactose intolerant, your large intestine does not produce lactase, the enzyme that digests lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products. While avoiding dairy products may be the only solution, those with lactose intolerance need to be mindful of their intake of nutrients found in dairy products, most notably calcium. Inadequate calcium can result in improper bone growth and maintenance, among many other conditions. If consuming lactose-reduced dairy products or taking enzymes in pill form to digest lactase do not work, you’ll need to obtain calcium from cold water, oily fish like salmon and sardines, calcium-fortified products, deep green, leafy vegetables like kale, or from supplementation.

These are only a few of the thousands of health problems that can result from miscues in our metabolic systems. And in many of these cases, strong links can be drawn between nutrition and metabolic diseases, either causally or to improve symptoms.

Credits

All photos courtesy of MorgueFile.com

References

MedlinePlus, “Metabolic Disorders” https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/metabolicdisorders.html

MedicineNet.com, “Celiac Disease” https://www.medicinenet.com/celiac_disease/article.htm

National Institute of Arthritis And Musculoskeletal And Skin Diseases, “Gout” https://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Gout/default.asp

Mayo Clinic.com, “Diabetes Diet: Creating Your Own Healthy Eating Plan” https://www.mayoclinic.com/health/diabetes-diet/DA00027

WebMD.com, “Celiac Disease” https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/celiac-disease/celiac-disease

WebMD.com, “Lactose Intolerance - Topic Overview” https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/tc/lactose-intolerance-topic-overview