If you are diabetic then it is more than likely that the advice you have been given revolves around maximising so-called complex or low glycemic index carbohydrates (those that cause your blood sugar to rise fast) and reducing fat in your diet. This is because diabetics have a greatly increased risk of cardiovascular disease, which is widely believed to be caused by raised cholesterol levels from fat in the diet.
However, studies increasingly show that the fat-raises-cholesterol-and-causes-heart-disease theory is wrong, and that carbohydrates rather than fat cause the damage that leads to heart disease. So why is it, then, that low carbohydrate diets are not advised for diabetics? The fewer carbohydrates that diabetics eat, the lower their requirement for oral hypoglycemic drugs or insulin to normalise their blood sugar levels. Why encourage carbohydrates when it is the carbohydrates that are not only the immediate problem, but the main cause of the long term complications of diabetes, as well?
The trouble is, it takes many years for long-held beliefs to change in medical and government health advice circles. This is especially the case where these beliefs are constantly reinforced by the drug companies and agricultural and food manufacturing industries, who have much to lose should healthy eating advice change from the status quo.
Nutritional medicine experts such as Dr Richard Bernstein, Dr Robert Atkins and Weston Price have long maintained that type 2 diabetics can often be cured and taken off their diabetes medications completely by following a low carb diet, but they have largely been ignored by mainstream medicine. Now, however, the weight of scientific evidence is fast becoming overwhelming. Although this is unlikely to translate into official changes in dietary advice for diabetics for some time to come, many diabetics may now feel there is sufficient information on the issues around low fat versus low carb diets for them to make their own informed choice about the diet they should follow. It is important, though, to carry out any changes in diet in consultation with your doctor, as you may need to reduce or even stop your insulin or other diabetes medications.
If you or someone you know is diabetic, particularly type 2, and you want to know more about recent advances in understanding about using low carb diets in diabetes, the Nutrition and Metabolism Society web site is a good source to start with, particularly the section on low carb diets and diabetes.
Remember: it's your body, and your right to make an informed decision on how to deal with your diabetes. Challenging what your doctor or other sources of dietary advice say and seeking out the information you need can be daunting. But perhaps the following might help spur you into action:
Dr Bernstein, diabetes doctor and a diabetic himself, writes in Diabetes Health of his belief that the only way to keep insulin levels down and blood sugars normal is to reduce fast-acting carbs such as bread, pasta and sugar. He says that the American Diabetes Association does not support this approach because they maintain that 'diabetics are either too stupid or lazy to follow it'. He also suggests there is another institutional problem with normalising blood sugars via a low carb diet: doctors' fears of having a patient die from hypoglycemia, for which they could be sued. So doctors might prefer to keep their patients' blood sugars unnaturally high. If they die of heart attacks, or of other disease, as often happens, they won't get sued for that.
Dr Mary Vernon, co-author of 'Atkins Diabetes Revolution' says on her website that she used to tell her diabetes patients what she had been told to tell them in medical school but it wasn't helping. This made her wonder whether the advice was wrong, so she went back and looked at the biochemistry. This reminded her of a fact which has long been known, but which often gets forgotten. Insulin's primary job is to store fat and block fat burning. What her patients were doing on their high carb diets was to make large amounts of insulin, store fat very effectively and gain weight hand over fist. So she started advising them to eat low carb and they lost weight and improved their blood sugar levels tremendously. The news got around and soon she started getting referrals from other physicians whenever they had patients with metabolic problems.
A low carbing diabetic who contacted me recently told me: 'I get so cross that all my current ills are due to the high carb low fat diets that the doctors had me following.' She said that she followed these diets to the letter but her diabetes was getting steadily worse. Every time she had a blood test she was told she was not in control. However, when she changed to a low carb diet, the blood tests started coming back normal. She told the diabetes nurse she was low carbing, to which the nurse replied 'I thought so, it is the only way you could get those results!' So medical professionals do know low carbing works for diabetics, but they still recommend the traditional high carb low fat diet!
Copyright 2009 GoodDietGoodHealth.com GoodDietGoodHealth.com
Jackie Bushell is passionate about raising awareness of the role of diet and nutrition in good health and helping those who are affected by obesity. Via her website at gooddietgoodhealth.com GoodDietGoodHealth.com, she provides information, support, cookbooks, how-to guides and a newsletter for those wishing to understand more about how to improve their health and achieve a healthy weight in a natural way. Amongst the resources she has developed are the 'Easy Guide to Low Carb, Low GI and Low GL Diets' and a book called 'Why Can't I Lose Weight' offering solutions based on the latest research for common problems such as failing to lose weight on the standard low fat/low calorie diet or becoming stuck on a 'diet plateau'.
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