Meals change the communication between cells
It's not appetizing to think of food as a cocktail of hormones, but it can certainly help explain how diet affects health. "It's absolutely clear that food is nothing more than a pile of biological chemicals," says Donald Jump, a biochemist at Oregon State University.
The biochemically active substances found in a cookie or piece of broccoli can trigger a hormone-like response in human cells. So wrote Randy J. Seeley and Karen K. Ryan of the University of Cincinnati in the February 22 issue of the journal Science. Hormones are chemicals that travel from one place in the body to another and instruct target cells to produce a certain substance or perform some action.
For example, in 2010 a team of researchers from California and Japan showed that omega-3 fatty acids in food bind to the GPR120 protein found on the surface of fat cells and muscle cells. When the fatty acid binds to the protein, like a key to a lock, the protein activates a chain of reactions that ultimately protects the body from obesity and inflammation.
Obesity and inflammation are processes involved in type 2 diabetes. Seeley therefore hypothesizes that a deliberate choice of food capable of accelerating the cellular processes stimulated by GPR120 and other proteins similar to it may help protect against diabetes.
Fatty acids are not the only hormone-like components found in food. Amino acids can also activate a chain of reactions in the cell that control the division of the cell and affect the activity of insulin. Vitamin D and other vitamins are involved in the body's immune response. The omega-3-activated receptor is part of a family of proteins called G protein-coupled receptors, which transmit signals coming from outside the cell into the cell. Scientists know about the unique function of many proteins from this group, but according to Seeley they still don't know which molecules activate some of these receptors.
The missing keys to these locks can be found in food. The challenge will be to translate the research findings into clear recommendations for nutrition, Jump says.
The article is published with the approval of Scientific American Israel
