The problem with Diabetes.

Referring to Blood Glucose, Insulin & Diabetes, a healthy person regulates his/her blood glucose level so that it doesn't go too high or too low.

Someone who has diabetes either has insufficient/no insulin secretion (type 1) or has insulin secretion but it's ineffective (type 2). People with type 1 diabetes have to inject various types of insulin and monitor their Blood Glucose (BG) with a BG meter. Here lies the problem. Consider the following analogy:-

Blood glucose control is like driving down a road cut into the side of a mountain. If you steer too far to the left (low blood glucose), you fall off the edge of the road and die. If you steer too far to the right (high blood glucose), you smash yourself against the side of the mountain and damage yourself. Injecting insulin/taking oral hypoglycaemic agents is like pulling on the steering wheel to the left. Eating sugary/starchy carbs is like pulling on the steering wheel to the right. Exercising is like pulling on the steering wheel to the left.

Not monitoring BG regularly is like driving down the above road with your eyes shut most of the time. You have no idea where you are on the road. Every time you monitor BG, you open your eyes.

A high-glycaemic load diet + high-medication regimen (e.g. ADA & Diabetes-UK) is like pulling on the steering wheel hard, which results in diabetics veering all over the road. As diabetics don't want to fall off the edge of the road and die, they steer too far to the right (high average blood glucose) and damage themselves due to glycation.

A low-glycaemic load diet + low-medication regimen (e.g. Bernstein, Christie, Ruhl, Cooksey, Shwarzbein etc) is like pulling on the steering wheel gently, which results in diabetics steering a reasonably straight course down the middle of the road. Regular BG monitoring allows rapid error-correction.

As low blood glucose is potentially fatal, that's why Studies show that a high average blood glucose level has lower mortality than a more normal average blood glucose level.

Everybody knows.........Part 1

Yesterday, on a message-board in a galaxy far far away, I was informed by a Nutritionist with letters after her name:-

"As a health and fitness scientist, I have to agree with the overwhelming body of peer reviewed evidence that shows high fat diets are dangerous over a long period of time, and that an athletic diet includes complex carbs taken regularly throughout the day."

To which I replied:-

"Apart from epidemiological evidence (which is highly suspect as there are too many variables), can you show me some solid evidence that "high fat" hypocaloric or isocaloric diets are dangerous over a long period of time? Obviously, high fat hypercaloric diets are dangerous as they cause weight gain.....as do all hypercaloric diets."

Followed by:-

"What if what you were taught was wrong? Read Dr. Schwarzbein's Personal Experiences - Background to first book.

"In medical training, I was taught that a low-fat diet high in complex carbohydrates prevented weight gain and disease. I believed what my professors said. Early on, I advocated low-fat diets. But this soon changed."

Practical experience showed that what she'd been taught was wrong. Just bear that in mind. Obviously, athletes have different dietary requirements to fat people with type 2 diabetes. However, suggesting that all athletes eat "complex carbs" (you shouldn't use the expression "complex carbs" as amylopectin & maltodextrin are complex carbs that turn into blood glucose as quickly as glucose) regularly throughout the day, whether bulking or cutting is wrong.

Cheers, Nige."