Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin & Successful Treatments

[Demi]

A new book by Gary Taubes
Publication Date: January 2, 2024

Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin, and Successful Treatments

An eye-opening investigation into the history of diabetes research and treatment by the award-winning journalist and best-selling author of Why We Get Fat

Before the discovery of insulin, diabetes was treated almost exclusively through diet, from subsistence on meat, to reliance on fats, to repeated fasting and near-starvation regimens. After two centuries of conflicting medical advice, most authorities today believe that those with diabetes can have the same dietary freedom enjoyed by the rest of us, leaving the job of controlling their disease to insulin therapy and other blood-sugar-lowering medications. Rather than embark on “futile” efforts to restrict sugar or carbohydrate intake, people with diabetes can lead a normal life, complete with the occasional ice-cream cake, side of fries, or soda.

These guiding principles, however, have been accompanied by an explosive rise in diabetes over the last fifty years, particularly among underserved populations. And the health of those with diabetes is expected to continue to deteriorate inexorably over time, with ever-increasing financial, physical, and psychological burdens. In Rethinking Diabetes, Gary Taubes explores the history underpinning the treatment of diabetes, types 1 and 2, elucidating how decades-old research that is rife with misconceptions has continued to influence the guidance physicians offer—at the expense of their patients’ long-term well-being.

The result of Taubes’s work is a reimagining of diabetes care that argues for a recentering of diet—particularly, fewer carbohydrates and more fat—over a reliance on insulin. Taubes argues critically and passionately that doctors and medical researchers should question the established wisdom that may have enabled the current epidemic of diabetes and obesity, and renew their focus on clinical trials to resolve controversies that are now a century in the making.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0525520082

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0525520082

[WereBear]

Yay! There are so many people who change their diet and are not diabetic any more.

I suspect many in the health field are also addicted. Thinking diabetics "can eat like everyone else" when NO ONE should be eating that way, for instance.

It's the normalization of snacking replacing eating meals. Marketing pressure. People dismiss it because we're soaking in it.

[WereBear]

Metformin, now Ozempic: I've heard these hailed as "miracle drugs" when they are about distorting, or even paralyzing, the digestive system.

I see this as trying to compensate for eating so much stuff that isn't actually food. And I don't think we can come up with that much of a miracle.

[JEY100]

Will be interesting to see if he explains The Carbohydrate-Insulin Model in the same way he has for 20 years or adds the more nuanced explanation by adding the impact of energy toxicity.
"Although stable and lower blood glucose levels are a positive marker of metabolic health, merely treating the symptom (i.e. elevated blood sugar) rather than addressing the cause (i.e. insulin resistance, energy toxicity and excess body fat) doesn’t help."

[Calianna]

Will be interesting to see if he explains The Carbohydrate-Insulin Model in the same way he has for 20 years or adds the more nuanced explanation by adding the impact of energy toxicity.
"Although stable and lower blood glucose levels are a positive marker of metabolic health, merely treating the symptom (i.e. elevated blood sugar) rather than addressing the cause (i.e. insulin resistance, energy toxicity and excess body fat) doesn’t help."

The same could be said for many other medications that merely cover up a symptom: If you put makeup on a pimple, it only hides the pimple, instead of eliminating the pimple. Underneath the makeup, that pimple is still festering.

The reason antibiotics work to alleviate infections is that they work with the body to eliminate the infection. They don't just cover up the infection.

[WereBear]

The reason antibiotics work to alleviate infections is that they work with the body to eliminate the infection. They don't just cover up the infection.

These are the drugs that really were breakthroughs. And now, the pharma industry doesn't care. A drug which suppresses symptoms, like arthritis drugs and cortisol, doesn't fix the problem.

But that means a lifetime on the drug, does it not? For their bottom line, THIS is the breakthrough.