The role of diet in inflammation and metabolic syndrome

Abstract

The human species has evolved intricate control systems to manage the intake and storage of nutrients to increase the chances for successful survival and the procreation of the next generation. However, these complex communication systems can be disturbed by increased levels of inflammation leading to metabolic defects (obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes) that can make successful procreation difficult, and more ominously these metabolic defects can possibly be transmitted to the next generation via fetal programming. The purpose of this opening chapter is to present an overview of how diet-induced inflammation can lead eventually to metabolic syndrome that can have an adverse effect on pregnancy. Inflammation is easy to define but complex to understand at the molecular level. The same is true for insulin resistance. Nonetheless, cellular inflammation induced by hypothalamic and adipose tissue damage that results from a wide variety of dietary factors appears to be a key to understanding and therefore reversing the wide range of the adverse metabolic consequences of insulin resistance. It appears that insulin resistance starts in the hypothalamus causing a disruption in the balance of satiety and hunger signals. This leads to overconsumption of calories. Although excess calories can be theoretically stored safety in the adipose tissue, as the inflammation increases in this organ and insulin resistance develops in the fat cells, the ability to safely store excess fat is compromised. One of the consequences of insulin resistance in the adipose tissue is that excess fat is released into the bloodstream and is sequestered by other organs (liver and skeletal muscles) that are not equipped to safely store this excess fat. This is the start of lipotoxicity. With increased lipotoxicity, the metabolism and energy generation by the body become compromised, and the development of chronic diseases becomes accelerated. Since insulin resistance is primarily caused by the diet, it can also be reversed by the diet, especially an anti-inflammatory diet, as will be discussed later in this book.