I have type 2 diabetics in my family but the only time I see them eat is on holidays and birthday parties. They always have cake/ice cream/pie/cookies and I'd always assumed it was a treat.. a break from their regularly controlled diet. (They never choose my SF/LC desserts.) Maybe they just eat poorly all the time

I hear ya on the resistance. I remember telling my mom about coconut bark as a chocolate substitute on Atkins after I found the recipe. (She'd done well on Atkins years ago to regulate her hypoglycemia and lose weight, but eventually fell off the wagon.) I'll never forget her response... she sat in front of me, with a king-sized bag of peanut M&Ms and a large diet Coke - a treat after eating chili cheese fries at the truck stop for lunch - cigarette dangling from her lips... she rasped, "But coconut oil is so bad for you!"

Sadly, my father controlled his diabetes exactly the way they told him to for thirty years. He's no longer recognizing anyone because of diabetes related dementia.

They told him all the wrong things.

Diabetes is big business to doctors and hospitals. It is a boom-town at the expense of the sick. The medical profession is not interested in patients using diet to cure their sicknesses, even though it may be possible to do so. There is a lot of money to be made by people who are constantly sick because of a chronic illness. Sorry this sounds so pessimistic-- many diabetics really think they are doing the right thing when they take the advice of these people, but really-- look at it this way, what is in it for them if you get better?

I watched my mother, father, sister and brother all die of diabetes, and I know they were led astray. The sad thing is that they knew about low carb diets, and all the so called experts told them it was a dangerous thing to do. I will always trust a biochemist over a doctor in this matter.

It is very easy for me to eat in, because I hate restaurants. I have one place I like to go, and they have great roasted chicken and I can get an unadulterated salad, but I would not touch the remainder of the food they offer. I see all these overweight people buying meals of mashed potato, corn and Salisbury steak (whatever that is) and I just want to walk up to them and shake them. At the store, I see Obese people pushing carts of "Low Fat" cereal, cookies, and ice cream.

I am torn between thinking they are the victims of some nefarious scheme, or are ignorantly hastening their own doom because of a lack of education. Heck, I have spoken to people with medical degrees who have never made a connection between lowering of insulin using diet, and diabetes.

Sorry this has become a rant.

No need for the apology. FWIW, I welcome all ranting

You do not have to apologise for the rant, but I did take insult to the above. I am a women's healthcare provider and I can tell you this--my self and my collegues in all areas have made health maintenance a number one priority for our patients. I'm sorry that you feel like we're making money off the misery of our patients--nothing could be further from the truth.

I'm sure this was insulting to other health providers also who work hard to teach our patients the best that we know how to better their health and the health of their families. This in turn makes stronger communities.

No need to reply. I'm done.

Progress not perfection.

Lisa

I agree with this concept, but I think the problem is buried much deeper than the doctors and hospitals patients actually interact with on a regular basis. After all, these providers are only dispensing the advice they've been taught - but who did the teaching? Who decided what went into those textbooks? Who is funding the countless studies supporting drugs that treat symptoms, but not the studies supporting potential cures? Who was it that convinced the government that carbs should be the foundation of the food pyramid? It certainly wasn't any of my doctors, NPs, etc.

And, of course, there are medical providers who go beyond what they've been told. Like us, they go on to do their own research and offer advice based on what they've seen work well firsthand. I went to a new doctor last week, and she said she often refers her newly-diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients to a local diabetes education seminar, but she tells them to ignore the advice provided there about carb intake. So, she sends them there to learn about glucose testing, symptoms to watch for, precautions to take, etc., but she gives them lower carb intake goals based on her own research and experiences. Well, actually, she said she recently got a letter from one of the people who runs that seminar telling her that the carb goals my doc sets for patients are DANGEROUS because they're too low, so she stopped referring her patients there :P

I'm all about being cynical and pessimistic, but I prefer to place the blame on giant for-profit pharmaceutical companies, agricultural lobbyists, for-profit health insurance companies (there is a surgical procdure with up to a 98% cure rate for type 2 diabetes, yet I had insurance that would not cover the procedure at all for any reason. Of course, they would happily cover various diabetes drugs, insulin, supplies, etc.)...

I was watching a documentary last night on TV about obesity in America and a good portion of it talked about how big pharma is spending billions in research to come up with next pill to treat obesity. I couldn't help but think....here we go again...big pharma trying to treat symptoms rather than the root cause because they know their profits will be mind boggling.

They say the company that can come up with the best obesity pill will make more than Pfeizer's made on the cholesterol lie...maybe double what Pfeizer's made. So the incentive to perpetuate illness and only manage symptoms is compelling to big pharma.

Apparently their intended approach to treating obesity is no different than how we currently treat type 2 diabetes in this country....don't teach people to eat healthy and low carb...instead treat their symptoms with pills but for God's sake don't educate them in a way that they may actually get better and get off the meds!! Geesh! That is bad for profits!

The more research I do the more I clearly see how often big pharma is out for big $$'s and not so much about curing people. Not in all cases...but certainly in the case of diabetes, cholesterol, high BP and obesity.

I just find it so disheartening because so many people blindly believe and trust in the misinformation out there and we are a society of "give me a pill to fix it" mentality which isn't helping.

If people weren't looking for magic pills, pharma wouldn't do it. It is human nature, pretty tough to change, except in individual cases.

Diabetics used to be told to keep sugars (including fruits) and even complex carbs low (including potatoes and breads), but there was little advice on everything else. I clearly remember the point when it was announced that actually they should be eating the same as the rest of us - low fat was most important.

I really, really don't think that the low cal/fat thing is a machiavellian plot to keep us all fat, perpetuated by evil big pharma (and I'm not a big pharma fan), with the government in its pocket.

But it is a big idea that has history and momentum, an inertia, it is like an oil tanker, and until there is enough compelling evidence that the direction is the wrong one, it can't be turned round.

and right now there isn't enough compelling high quality research, and partially that is because a lot of research is funded by pharma, and of course they won't fund something that will make them no profit - why should they?

But at some point there will be - there will be a tipping point, and long after the research and scientific community have turned their thinking about, then the specialist medical community will (these are not the same thing) and MUCH later the public health medical field will turn round (always the last to the party) at this point, governments will change their advice, eventually the new nutritional texts will talk about the evils of carbohydrates. Nurses, nutritionists, dieticians, GPs will eventually cotton on.

someone, somewhere, will always be toting the virtues of low fat, probably as an "ancient wise-people's cure" for obesity and migraines. with wind chimes.

of course big pharma is about $$. They are a business, most of the individual people in it care profoundly and are happy that they are doing good, and very often they are. collectively as an industry they're no different to arms dealers, or automobile manufacturers or buildings contractors, why would you expect them to be otherwise?

none of this is surprising or wrong or evidence of a conspiracy to keep us overweight. It is just the way progress in knowledge happens.

and why shouldn't we have a "give me a pill to fix it" mentality? before that we had a "give me leech to fix it" or a "give me a god to fix it" mentality - this is what humans are - we want things to WORK and we'd rather chose the quickest way, and why not? the longest, hardest way often has no better results that the quick one, and at least you've a chance then to try something different.

I may think that on balance, the evidence is moving towards a low-carb way being confirmed but it isn't there yet and that doesn't mean I'm right. Once it is, most people will follow that advice, except the conspiracy theorists - they'll think its a government-big-pharma plot.

I'm not suggesting big pharma shouldn't make $$'s, I am a capitalist at heart. I'm saying that in some cases they are making those $$'s at the expense of people's overall health by promoting the only "fix" is to take their pill. Do I think big pharma are all in collusion to keep us all fat and sick? No, of course not.

But on the other hand, by far the biggest money maker has been cholesterol pills and when have you ever heard a commercial for a cholesterol medication explain that there are two types of LDL and you should find out which one you have before starting their medication?? When have ever heard one mention triglycerides? Never... and you never will...makes no sense to a big company like Pfizer to give out that kind of important information. All they want you to know is that if your doctor tells you that your cholesterol is too high, that you should ask your doctor for their pill to fix it.

So that to me is one example of big pharma slanting information in their favor and clearly saying in their advertising that high cholesterol is bad across the board and you must take a pill and lower fat intake to fix the problem. It makes people believe that must be the only solution to high cholesterol.

3 letters. FDA.

well never, because pharma aren't allowed to advertise products to the public in the UK.

I agree with your point, which is why free-market isn't a good regulator of pharma. it needs someone looking over it's shoulder on everything: government (in your case the FDA - and I used to work in big pharma).

My VA dietician's advice to this type2? Eat 300 carbs a day or be on dialysis in a year. When I told her that 100 carbs daily equaled 1 lb. gained a day she scoffed and reminded me that she had a degree. Supposedly I was delusional or didn't know how to weigh myself. That was 8 yrs ago and my kidneys are no better or worse for my low carb diet. I also explained what the carbs did to my sugar readings and this caused her to stare at the wall for awhile. That seems to be a technique they learn in their training, whenever a VA nurse or doc doesn't like what you say they become fascinated by the computer screen and when they revive they move on to a new topic. Quite effective. But not if you need help with something.
be well
Art

Art,

My husband had a blood draw sometime in early 2010 at the VA and it only took a year or so before they told him that his cholesterol was a bit on the high side and made him see a dietitian. Cut whole milk, cut half and half, cut red meat and eat more grains.. blah, blah, blah. He told her that his wife was on Atkins, so his diet had already changed to good fats and whole foods, but if I had to guess, I'd say this dietitian is likely of the opinion that I am trying to kill him by putting butter on green beans.

You should ask your dietitian to explain the kidney-low carb connection to you. That could be entertaining

I noticed when my mother was in the hospital on other issues, and she was diabetic, the hospital was feeding her complete carbs for every meal. I pointed out that she was diabetic to the nurses several times when her meals came, and they said that was the diabetic plate. It had a big mound of mash potatoes, gravey, breaded chicken, and glazed carrots! I will never forget that....