I have had type 2 diabetes for over twenty years. It has been a long road, reading many books trying to find the truth about diabetes, and how to lessen the effects of this diet disease.
A few years ago I read a book titled – The Diabetes Code – by Dr. Jason Fung, from Toronto. He provided the best explanation of how diabetes works, that I had heard.
The Type 2 Diabetic Cycle goes like this –
In his book Jason says Diabetes is a Diet Disease. You eat fattening carbs and sugar for years, which turns into glucose in the body. The body produces insulin to take care of the glucose, and over time the liver becomes stuffed full of glucose. The body’s production of insulin can’t keep up.
Over time, the liver is stuffed full and Fatty Liver develops. The liver then dumps the glucose into the blood, and this is when your Doctor diagnosis diabetes.
Generally, you start being treated with pills. A few years later, the diabetes usually has progressed, and the doctor will often puts you on insulin. I hesitated to start insulin, and my doctor said, – you will be on it eventually anyway.
Taking insulin pushes the glucose out of the blood, and into the other cells of the body. After taking insulin, you may find your blood the blood sugar readings are good.
Understand that taking insulin does not cure the problem. The insulin is really making the problem worse, as the body pushes the glucose into other cells, of the body.
Over time, taking insulin causes Insulin Resistance, as the body can’t use the insulin your are injecting very effectively.
The body pushes the glucose into the pancreas, and then into the muscles. This causes high blood pressure and obesity.
Type 2 Diabetes Affects Every Organ of the Body
Over years of too much glucose in the blood, the body begins to rot – eyes, kidneys, heart, brain, legs, nerves. No part of the body is spared.
Jason says , you can`t use drugs to cure a dietary disease. Again, Diabetes is a diet disease.
Type 2 Diabetes is Reversible and Preventable
Jason says, only diet and lifestyle changes and not medications, will reverse this disease. The most determinant factor is weight loss. Taking Insulin causes weight gain. Drugs will not cure a dietary disease.
Treat the Cause Not The Symptom
He says the problem is the way we treat the disease.
We are treating the symptom, the high A1C blood readings, not the real cause, which is the diet.
The remedy is to – Put less sugar in, and burn off the remaining sugar, with exercise.
Diet Changes
Jason’s diet instructions are – To put less sugar in the body, stick to whole, natural, unprocessed foods.
Eat a diet low in refined carbs, moderate in protein, and high in natural fats.
Good fat is does not spike blood sugar, and is very satisfying.
Rules for Reversing Type 2 Diabetes
Rule 1 – Avoid Fructose
The most important rule without exception, is to eliminate all added sugars from your diet. Recall that insulin resistance is the result of fatty liver becoming overfilled and unable to accept more glucose. The most important determinant of fatty liver is not just carbs, but the fructose contained in sucrose and high fructose corn syrup.
Rule 2 – Reduce refined Carbs and Enjoy Natural Fats
Hyper-insulinemia and fatty liver are the key problems leading to the development of the metabolic syndrome, including obesity. Refined carbs of all food groups cause the highest rise in insulin levels.
Replace the carbs with fatty fish, olive oil, avocados and nuts, eggs and butter.
Avoid refined oils – sunflower, corn, canola, safflower, & vegetable.
Avoid deep fried foods and all hydrogenated ( trans ) fats.
Rule 3 – Eat Real Food
There are good and bad – carbs and fats. The key difference is the refining and processing.
Processed food spikes sugar in the blood, but natural foods allow for lower glycemic loads on the body.
Rule 4 – Do Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent Fasting
Fasting, the voluntary abstinence from food, has been known to cure diabetes for close to 100 years.
Dr. Elliott Joslin a famous diabetes specialist wrote about this in 1916.
Bariatric surgery is enforced fasting. A study directly compared the two approaches, and showed that fasting is actually better than surgery at lowering weight and reducing blood glucose.
Fasting produces almost twice the weight loss of bariatric surgery. As you lose weight, type 2 will disappear.
The core cause of type 2 is too much sugar in the body. Reversal depends on two things –
Stop putting sugar in and burn off the remaining sugar.
Fasting is the most powerful natural therapy available for type 2 diabetes.
Reducing 300 calories a day is not the same as reducing 2100 calories in a single day. Each scenario provokes profoundly different hormonal responses in our body. The difference between the two is literally the difference between success and failure.
Intermittent fasting succeeds because it produces beneficial hormonal changes that caloric deprivation does not. Most importantly, it reduces insulin and insulin resistance.
Intermittent fasting prevents the development of insulin resistance by creating extended periods of low insulin that maintains the body’s sensitivity to insulin. This is the key to reversing type 2 diabetes.
Intermittent Fasting was not associated with an increased risk for weight regain.
Great news if you have ever tried to lose weight.
You can lose weight on virtually any diet, but maintaining this weight loss is the real battle.
During fasting, we burn glycogen stored in the liver. When that is finished, we use body fat.
Fasting is the quickest and most efficient method.
The low carb diet gives you 71% of the benefits of fasting, without actually fasting.
A dietary disease requires a dietary treatment, and I have found Intermittent Fasting to be the best tool in the Diabetic Toolbox.
For more info see Dr. Jason Fung’s YouTube channel with a few dozen videos on the diabetes.
https://www.youtube.com/user/drjasonfung
You can also purchase his book – The Diabetes Code.
