There Is A New Way Of Dealing With Diabetes Type 2
Well, in actuality, it is not so new but it seems like most doctors and nutritionists are unaware of it. The evidence is so compelling that the American Medical Association finally came out a few months ago endorsing this new way of eating for all hospital patients, which is eating a low-fat, plant-based diet. In 2001 the prestigious Banting Lecture, an annual lecture featuring the best science in diabetes research, was given by Dr. McGarry from the University of Texas. McGarry’s research was so beautifully designed and his results so convincing that Kaiser Permanente began recommending a plant-based diet to all its patients in 2015.
In a nutshell, McGarry demonstrated that insulin resistance, the very first sign of diabetes type 2, has nothing to do with blood sugar levels. By the time our blood sugar levels are abnormal, we have had the earliest stages of prediabetes for a number of years. Elevated blood sugar levels are the symptom of insulin resistance and diabetes type 2, not the cause of it. The very first thing that causes insulin resistance is an accumulation of fat in our bodies, particularly under our skin, in our livers and pancreas, and in our muscle cells. A simple way to understand it is to say that the accumulation of fat in these cells clogs up our insulin receptors. Our body can’t respond to insulin signals anymore because of the fat. Once that happens, our bodies can’t regulate the sugar in our blood.
All the treatments for diabetes type 2 involve targeting blood sugar levels and don’t address the real cause, the fat clogging up our cells. As a result, people don’t reverse their diabetes. Insulin resistance means that the levels of insulin in our blood grow higher and higher because our cells are resistant to it. They can't sense the insulin at normal levels anymore because the insulin receptors are clogged with fat. Insulin causes our bodies to make more of another hormone called insulin growth factor (IGF). IGF causes our cells to grow, including cancer cells and including our fetus. This is why one of the complications of diabetes in pregnancy is abnormally large babies. This is also why adults on insulin injections complain they have difficulty losing weight.
Moreover, with all the attention focused on sugar, patients are instructed to wage war against carbs, including fruit. The idea that anyone got diabetes from eating too much fruit is crazy. This war on carbs leads people to eat more and more protein and fat. Thus they continue to clog up their cells with fat, the very substance that is causing their diabetes in the first place.
We see that as far back as the 1930s, scientists noticed that people from Southern Italy and Okinawa had much lower rates of diabetes than American businessmen. They discovered that the diets in Southern Italy and Okinawa were much lower in fat and much higher in carbohydrates than the diets of American businessmen. McGarry’s research confirms what history has shown us. So if you have diabetes or want to avoid getting diabetes, stick to a low fat diet. The easiest way to do this is with a whole grain, plant-based diet. Eating lentils regularly helps. Walking every day or getting in 10,000 steps a day helps.
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