Pro-vitamin A good, Vitamin E bad. Or is it?

By 24. Januar 2013Blog, Health, Nutrition

For type 2 diabetes (T2D) this may be the case, according to a publication by researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine.

T2D is known to be caused by genetic and environmental factors, however documenting these interactions can be difficult. Using a combination of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and an environment-wide association study (EWAS), the researchers were able to identify a link between beta carotene (Pro-vitamin A) and c-tocopherol (Vitamin E) and T2D. Beta carotene seems to help protect against it and c-tocopherol seems to have a negative effect.

The researchers do acknowledge though that beta carotene levels are also correlated with fruit and vegetable consumption, while Vitamin E levels are predominantly in foods with high fatty acid contents.

The publication is open access and available on the Springer Link website.