Could Tangerines Fight Obesity?

by

Dr. Victor Marchione

A citrus fruit you may not consider at first may be making a leap into the healing foods category. A new study has found that the tangerine could potentially prevent obesity and protect the body against type 2 diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes. Thus, nutrition-related health tips may just begin to include this orange natural food for chronic disease prevention.

What the researchers have found is a substance in tangerines that could not only prevent obesity, but also type 2 diabetes and even atherosclerosis. The latter would be the plaque buildup that is a hallmark of major cardiovascular problems. The substance inside this citrus healing food is called nobiletin and the study is published in the journal Diabetes.

This health news comes from a study of mice fed a Western diet high in fats and simple sugars. One group became obese and showed high cholesterol and triglycerides, high blood levels of insulin and glucose, and a fatty liver. These factors all greatly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

The second group of mice, fed the exact same diet, but also nobiletin, experienced no elevation in their levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, insulin or glucose, and gained weight normally. These mice became much more sensitive to the effects of insulin.

Nobiletin was shown to prevent the buildup of fat in the liver by stimulating the expression of genes involved in burning excess fat, and inhibiting the genes responsible for manufacturing fat. These mice were essentially protected from obesity. Longer-term studies showed that nobiletin protected the mice from atherosclerosis as well.

This is a healing food with potentially multiple medicinal benefits. Two years ago, the same group of researchers found a flavonoid in grapefruit called naringenin. This substance offered similar protection against obesity and other signs of metabolic syndrome. It appears so far that the tangerine s nobiletin is 10 times more potent than naringenin.

This is not close to suggesting yet that you can eat a tangerine and receive these health benefits. But that idea may be coming, after such positive results found here.

And remember, you can always get more natural health advice, the latest alternative health breakthroughs and news, plus information about nutrition, alternative remedies and cures and doctors health advice, all free when you sign up for the Doctors Health Press e-Bulletin. Visit http://www.doctorshealthpress.com now to find out how to start your free subscription.

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