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A friend sent this to me:
OMG. Well there you have it folks.
If this sort of behavior and thinking is out there in the world, we haven’t got a chance in heck of helping people.
(Side note: I read today that our beloved Mayor Bloomberg is now out to get salt. He’s cracking down on the mineral to help people become healthier. I guessed he missed this article.)
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I've been involved in exercise ever since I became a member of The Charles Atlas Club when I was 10 years old. In 1998, I founded and established Serious Strength on the Upper West Side of NYC. My clients include kids, seniors (and everyone in between), top CEOs, celebrities, bestselling authors, journalists and TV personalities.
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
This is akin to a holiday craft fair I attended last month. My diabetic doctor was selling the cookies and treats! I asked him if he need new patients that badly. He told me that small amounts of the stuff was OK. I still couldn’t buy one.
4 years since type 2 hit me, still controlling my bloodsugars with diet and exercise, no meds. It’s amazing how many people don’t believe it.
Audley –
I’m quite surprised your T2 diabetes isn’t cured by now via a low carb high fat diet – what is going on?
Fred,
As far as I am concerned, it is cured. I have not seen the doctor mentioned above in over 2 years. I don’t know if “cured” is the right word. Just to see what would happen, over the past few years, I would try to eat a”diabetic friendly” food (according to the American Diabetic Association) such as steel cut oats, and sure enough my blood sugars would rise to where I would not fell well within hours. The low carb diet works, and works well. Thanks to your advice along with the Drs Eades, I believe that the Type 2’s out there don’t have to be that way.
Fred,
Once a diabetic, always a diabetic. Low Carb eating controls/manages the symptoms for most. It all depends on how many beta cells a person has left after years of abuse.
Regards.
KD
Type 1 yes but not type 2 Kevin.
Fred,
I have also been controlling T2 with diet for four years with the LC diet (plenty of all types of fats — as high as 75% fat and only 20 – 30 gms carbs all veggies and some heavy cream only) in conjuction with your SB exercises for the past year yet know I am still “diabetic”. LC is not a one-size-fits-all cure for T2 because the cause is not the same for all cases of T2s. For those caused simply by Insulin Resistance, LC does seem to completely eliminate the high BGLs forever. Generally, those T2 diabetics were quite obese. But, if a diabetic’s problem is due to other factors or it remains after he has corrected his diet and lost weight if necessary, then he will remain “diabetic” as I have.
By “diabetic”, I don’t mean according to my BGLs or A1cs — which mostly stays within the normal range — around or below 100 / 5.3 to 5.6 — with diet alone (no meds or supplements whatsoever). So am I diabetic? Yes… because if I were to eat more than 20 grams carbs, my 2 hour post BGL would be over 200. By comparison, normal people’s BGL rarely goes over 140 no matter what or how much they eat disposing of the glucose in a sufficient, timely, healthy manner. So, even though I eat as I should ( 20 -30 gms carbs/day and NO sugar, grains, or fruits whatsoever), I am still diabetic.
So, we can’t go simply by our good, controlled blood sugar numbers to determine if we still have diabetes. Janet Ruhl of Blood Sugar 101 website (http://www.bloodsugar101.com/) explains that there is a difference between the typical IR caused T2 and two variations of it which would explain why LC diet alone doesn’t “cure” T2: LADA (Latent Autoimmune Diabetes of Adults) and MODY (”caused by at least nine different genes, some related to each other in function and some not”). I believe this may have something to do with why even though I follow the LC diet religiously, I still have diabetes.
Hi Kag –
I hear you loud and clear. Still, the way to deal with your particular condition is to eat low carb. Regardless of the type of diabetes, the nutritional solution or cure is still the same.
Put another way, there does not exist a single diabetic person who would not do best on a low carb diet.
I’m a Type 2 diabetic who has always been thin and has never eaten junk or processed food and I am not insulin resistant. I’ve been following a low carb Paleo diet for well over three years now and doing Slow Burn for about the same time – but I’m still diabetic. If I were to eat something like an orange – which is too high in carbs for me – my blood sugars would go up too high, much higher than a non-diabetic’s. Low carb controls my diabetes but it can’t cure it. Thankfully I enjoy low carb Paleo food very much
Anne
Right – LC can’t fix a broken pancreas or a genetically compromised one as far as I’m aware. Still, there is no better diet regime to be on for you than a low carb diet.
Why the ADA warns people to stay low fat if they are diabetic is beyond me.
Fred–I don’t want to be a conspiracy theorist here, but check out the ADA’s main financial supporters and the answer is pretty clear, I think.
Wait Anne – what do you mean by “your still diabetic?” What are your symptoms? If you don’t have symptoms, you’re not diabetic. I can’t eat carbs either.
By still diabetic I mean that if I have so much as an orange – which is comparatively high carb – then my blood glucose levels go much higher than a non-diabetic’s. This is because my pancreas can’t produce as much insulin as a non-diabetic. A non-diabetic can eat an orange and their blood glucose would be fine.
Anne
Hi Anne – This may be an oversimplification, but the reason that diabetes is a problem is because of elevated blood sugar (all types) and elevated insulin (Type II). If you don’t eat carbs, you won’t have high blood sugar or high insulin, so does it really matter if you are ‘diabetic?’
In mice:
Obesity + insulin resistance – carbs => No diabetes.
Obesity + insulinresistance + carbs => Diabetes
Now we are not mice, but the mechanisms appear to be similar.
Yes I think it matters. Diabetes is one of those ‘invisible’ disorders and it’s useful to have label to identify it so that, for example, other people will realise that it’s important that I eat low carb. If you’re not diabetic then it doesn’t matter so much but it does if you’re diabetic. Friends and relatives take notice of the fact that I have diabetes and – usually – remember to give me low carb food when we visit. If I was a non-diabetic eating low carb I might not be treated with such respect (hough in an ideal world I would be)…..actually I know I wouldn’t because it’s taken long enough for people to understand that I HAVE to eat low carb because of my diabetes !
It’s also important if I went into hospital for something that they knew I was diabetic. I also gain access to various other health checks like retinopathy checks. And I get testing strips so I can keep an eye on my blood glucose. Being a thin Type 2 with no insulin resistance there’s a chance that I may evolve into a Type 1 or LADA – as Kab describes above. Keeping a check on my blood glucose will warn me if it rises, despite keeping to low carb, that my diabetes has changed into Type ! or LADA before serious damage is done.
Anne
Yes I think it matters. Diabetes is one of those ‘invisible’ disorders and it’s useful to have label to identify it so that, for example, other people will realise that it’s important that I eat low carb. If you’re not diabetic then it doesn’t matter so much but it does if you’re diabetic. Friends and relatives take notice of the fact that I have diabetes and – usually – remember to give me low carb food when we visit. If I was a non-diabetic eating low carb I might not be treated with such respect (hough in an ideal world I would be)…..actually I know I wouldn’t because it’s taken long enough for people to understand that I HAVE to eat low carb because of my diabetes !
It’s also important if I went into hospital for something that they knew I was diabetic. I also gain access to various other health checks like retinopathy checks. And I get testing strips so I can keep an eye on my blood glucose. Being a thin Type 2 with no insulin resistance there’s a chance that I may evolve into a Type 1 or LADA – as Kab describes above. Keeping a check on my blood glucose will warn me if it rises, despite keeping to low carb, that my diabetes has changed into Type 1 or LADA before serious damage is done.
Anne
Anne is correct, anyone with diabetes has to constantly remind people that you are diabetic, whether you still have the symptoms or not. When I eat out, I tell my server that I am diabetic and they seem much more cooperative about giving me more veggies or protein in place of mashed potatoes, rolls or other carbs I would rather not eat.
I also get from those who do not understand: “It’s only one piece of cake”, or “It’s only one cookie, you’ll be OK!” I tell them I will NOT be OK and if they don’t get it, there’s nothing I can do to change their mind. I still don’t eat the cake. Part of that misconception is there are type 2’s that I know who will take extra insulin or medication to eat that piece of cake.
Anyone who has overcome the symptoms of diabetes should be proud of himself or herself for the discipline needed to accomplish the mission of reducing blood sugars.
Are we still diabetics? Yes. We listened to those who know what they are talking about and reaped the benefits. Fred, thanks to your advice on got on the right track. I took a chance on getting away from the mainstream thought process of the low fat/high carb diet, and it worked.
This is a very interesting discussion and because diabetes has become or is becoming a world-wide epidemic due to high-carb diets, it is also very important. In my opinion, the first reason it will remain at epidemic proportions is because, as Audley pointed out, the attitude that a diabetic can have “one cookie” or worse yet, that fruit and whole grains are actually necessary for everyone including diabetics! Every diabetic is advised to follow the misguided (to put it kindly) ADA’s diet so, we diabetics look to all of you LC advocates for the true facts to back us up when explaining our very different way of “managing” and “controlling” diabetes (terms which mean meds to just about everyone else out there).
The second reason is, because as Anne points out, we diabetics must stay on guard so we don’t fall prey to this high-carb, low-fat crazed world. Ironically, it’s easy to become lax about LC when we are doing so well (no symptoms)… until we’ve progressively damaged more beta cells and symptoms reappear. Therefore, I agree, the best way to stay on guard is to realize, accept, and act as someone who is diabetic. This is the best way to stay in control with a strict LC diet.
As you say, a LC diet is not only the BEST diet for a diabetic, it is the ONLY diet that works for a diabetic. Though I do not consider myself “cured”, this is just a matter of semantics. You are absolutely right — In the end what’s the difference if I am not experiencing the “symptoms” (high BGLs and/or high insulin levels — which are the direct cause of the complications of diabetes)? The important thing is that LC is not only saving my life, it is saving the quality of my life. Thank you for being one of those who have been courageous enough to buck the medical establishment and have truly helped me.
Kab
Great to hear this Kab. I suggest that anyone who has benefited from LC eating join the Nutrition and Metabolism Society. The NMS is a large group of doctors and scientists that are doing the work that the establishment is not doing and ignoring.
http://www.nmsociety.org