Diabetes is a widely common disease that affects a lot of people. Looking at the US alone, 50% of Americans are diagnosed with diabetes or a form of pre-diabetes. While the majority of them are obese, latest estimates suggest that 16 to 25% of normal weight adults are also in a stage of pre-diabetes. You might not be affected yet or think it’s not relevant to you but here is a new view on diabetes and why it matters to everyone.

What is diabetes

Diabetes is a metabolic disease in which the body’s inability to produce any or enough insulin causes elevated levels of blood glucose.

When your body turns the food you eat into energy (also called sugar or glucose), insulin is released to help transport this energy to the cells. Insulin is the key that opens the cells and helps getting glucose where it needs to be. If your body is not able to use insulin properly for this purpose, you are in a state of insulin resistance.

 

Insulin Resistance & hunger

If your body is insulin resistant, it basically means your cells don’t react to insulin anymore the way they should as they are desensitized. In order to still get glucose out of your blood, your body produces more insulin.

The problem though is that the more insulin your body produces the harder your pancreas (where insulin is produced) has to work. You can “support” by injecting insulin but that’s only a temporary solution. In addition, insulin is also responsible for making you feel hungry and for fat storage. High levels of insulin in your body can therefore lead to a state where you constantly gain weight and despite eating you always feel hungry.

Last but not least, insulin resistance is the biggest single risk factor for coronary artery disease. It is responsible for 40% of heart attacks every year. And while most people who suffer from type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance are obese, you might be affected even if you are not obese (yet).

General Recommendation

The general recommendation by the American Diabetes Association is to consume 40-65g of carbs per meal. That doesn’t sound like a lot but firstly, it still adds up over a day and secondly, that’s exactly what originally caused the problem. There is no conclusive evidence to set carbohydrate limit recommendations for diabetes patients at all.

So the vicious cycle is you eat carbs, your glucose level goes up, insulin goes up, fat storage is triggered and you feel hungry again. Doesn’t seem like a solution at all. Question is, what’s a better approach?

How to reverse diabetes

Macros have a very different effect on insulin levels. As you can see from the graph below, fat has almost no effect on insulin levels and protein only has a limited effect too. The strongest effect on insulin is coming from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates is the single most important factor in blood sugar levels and therefore insulin levels.

 

But the truth is we do not need carbs! There are essential fatty acids and essential amino acids (protein) but there is no such thing as essential carbohydrates or essential sugars. Humans and other animals can create their own glucose – a process known as gluconeogenesis – by breaking down amino acids (proteins) and lipid acids (fat).

Now, that doesn’t mean you should eat only protein but what it actually means is, you significantly reduce your carb intake and increase your fat intake. Fat contains a lot of energy but also a lot of other nutrients. On top of that is tastes very good and is extremely satisfying. It is also the only macronutrient that almost doesn’t impact your blood sugar and therefore doesn’t trigger insulin.

 

Basic rules

In short, if you are suffering from insulin resistance and/or diabetes too, give a low carb diet at least a shot. Here are some basic rules:

1. if it says “light”, “low fat”, “fat free” etc. don’t eat it – If they took out the fat, they had to replace it with something else to make it taste good. That means they either added carbs/sugar or chemicals or both
2. eat real food – stay away from highly processed food that has an ingredient list you don’t understand.
3. eat when you are hungry, don’t when you are not – just because it’s time for breakfast, doesn’t mean you should eat. If you are not hungry, skip and eat later. Listen to your body.
4. no grains, no potatoes, no sugar – this one is a big one and the most difficult. While it might be relatively easy to cut out pasta, grains and potatoes, cutting out sugar is a real challenge because it’s in so many products we consume everyday. Start by simply avoiding it as much as possible and fine tune from there.

If it’s that easy, why is it not the norm?

You might be thinking “wait, so after all that, you tell us to cure diabetes all we have to do is cut carbs?! Sounds a bit too easy. And why is it not the norm? Unfortunately, the low fat mantra from the 1970’s is still strong despite very conclusive evidence that the whole “low fat” movement was a huge failure.

On top of that, the sugar and corn industries are extremely influential and financially powerful. For more insights into this, you can check the documentary King Corn.

Lastly, the drug manufacturers are even more influential. They can’t make money off of healthy people. Completely curing people is not in their interest as they would lose a paying customer. For them it is about getting people healthy enough so they can keep milking them. Sad but true.

 

Below is a TED talk that inspired this article.

 

Disclaimer

I am not a doctor. If you are seriously suffering from insulin resistance and/or diabetes, please consult your physician first before changing to a low carb diet or following any other recommendation I make.