Added the following:
Genes Linked to African Heritage Linked to Poor Carbohydrate Metabolism
It has long been known that African-Americans have a much higher rate of diabetes and metabolic syndrome than the American population as a whole. This has been blamed on lifestyle, but a 2009 genetic study finds strong evidence that the problem is genetic.
The study reports,
Using genetic samples obtained from a cohort of subjects undergoing cardiac-related evaluation, a strict algorithm that filtered for genomic features at multiple levels identified 151 differentially-expressed genes between Americans of African ancestry and those of European ancestry. Many of the genes identified were associated with glucose and simple sugar metabolism, suggestive of a model whereby selective adaptation to the nutritional environment differs between populations of humans separated geographically over time.In the full text discussion the authors state,
These results suggest that differences in glucose metabolism between Americans of African and European may reside at the transcriptional level. The down-regulation of these genes in the AA cohorts argues against these changes being a compensatory response to hyperglycemia and suggests instead a genetic adaptation to changes in the availability of dietary sugars that may no longer be appropriate to a Western Diet.In conclusion the authors note that the vegetarian diet of the Seventh Day Adventists, often touted as proof of the usefulness of the "Diet Pyramid" doesn't provide the touted health benefits to people of African American Heritage. Obviously, when hundreds of carbohydrate metabolizing genes aren't working properly the diet needed is a low carbohydrate diet.
The study is available in full text here:
Stable Patterns of Gene Expression Regulating Carbohydrate Metabolism Determined by Geographic AncestryJonathan C. Schisler et. al. PLoS One 4(12): e8183. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0008183
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