Grain Based Diet Dangerous for Everyone, But Especially For Diabetics

Diabetes mellitus, is a chronic disorder of carbohydrate metabolism. Diabetes impairs the body’s ability to use food properly such that blood sugars are not oxidized to produce energy. This is due to a malfunction of the hormone insulin which is produced in the beta cells of the pancreas.

Insulin is a hormone that helps to regulate blood sugar levels by taking excess glucose out of the bloodstream and putting it into body cells, either to be used as fuel or to be stored as glycogen and fat. An accumulation of sugar in the blood leads to a build up in the blood called hyperglycemia and then to its appearance in the urine. Symptoms include thirst, excessive production of urine and weight loss.

In people with diabetes, either the pancreas doesn’t make sufficient insulin or the body is unable to use insulin properly. For either reason diabetes is characterized by raised levels of sugar in the bloodstream as blood glucose is not controlled. This can ultimately lead to diverse problems including blindness, gangrene, kidney disease, nerve damage and impotence

Although diabetes cannot be cured, it can be controlled. And research has shown that maintaining good control of blood glucose levels can prevent long-term complications of diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is not found in the animal kingdom either in meat or plant eating animals, where those animals live in their natural habitat. Neither does type 1 diabetes exist amongst peoples who have not had extensive contact with the industrialized societies: the Inuit, Maasai, and Hunza, and other indigenous peoples whose diets are typically low in carbohydrates. (1) While not a single case of type 1 diabetes has been found among the meat- and fat-eating Inuit population of Alaska, there have been cases of the maturity onset type of diabetes. (2) These appear to be the result of increasing carbohydrates in the modern Inuit diet.

As diabetes is wholly restricted to peoples of Western industrialized civilization, it cannot have a genetic origin, although family dietary traits and lifestyle can play a major part in its appearance within families.

Type 1 is caused by any condition that damages the pancreas’s beta cells. One major cause today may be maternal diet. If a pregnant woman eats too much carbohydrate, this will raise her insulin levels. It is not thought that insulin itself crosses the placenta from mother to unborn child. However, insulin produces antibodies that do. (3) Once in the fetus these increase glycogen and fat deposits resulting in an abnormally large baby. It may also predispose that baby to type 1 diabetes.

That diabetes is a result of environmental and lifestyle factors is demonstrated when people emigrate and adopt the eating habits of their new country: Populations who migrate to westernized countries with more sedentary lifestyles have greater risks of type 2 diabetes than their counterparts who remain in their native countries. But it is not just the change in exercise patterns that causes the greater susceptibility to diabetes, populations undergoing westernization in the absence of migration, such as North American Indians and Western Samoans, also have experienced increases in obesity and type 2 diabetes.

There have been suggestions that particular dietary constituents are involved in the onset of NIDDM. Excessive fat, sucrose (sugar) and other carbohydrates, and inadequate dietary fiber are those particularly discussed.

Today, one frequently hears in the medical world, expressions such as ‘the causes of diabetes have not been clearly identified’, or ‘we do not know what causes diabetes’. However, this is not so: we have known for almost three-quarters of a century. In 1935, a Dr H D C Given pointed out the correlation between carbohydrate intake and diabetes.

This has since been confirmed many times and it is now known beyond doubt that diabetes is caused by an excessive intake of carbohydrates – just as obesity is.

Fortunately Type 2 diabetes is easily treated with a low-carb, high-fat diet.

More recently, several epidemiologic studies have measured insulin levels in populations. These noted higher insulin levels in subjects with high blood pressure and other vascular disease. For this reason, insulin resistance is now also considered a risk factor for heart disease. These studies have added a great deal of confusion to the field because many individuals with insulin resistance do not have diabetes.

Diseases of insulin resistance, particularly NIDDM, occur with greater frequency in populations that have recently changed dietary habits from hunter-gatherer to Western grain-based regimes, compared to those with long histories of such diets. This is why obesity and diabetes is so much more common among Americans of African and Asian origin than among those whose ancestry is European. It has been suggested that insulin resistance in hunter-gatherer populations may be an asset, as it may facilitate consumption of high-animal-based diets. The down side of this is that when high-carbohydrate, grain-based diets replace traditional hunter-gatherer diets, insulin resistance becomes a liability and promotes NIDDM.

The cause of type 2 diabetes via insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, and pancreatic beta-cell failure, largely explains the worldwide increase in this disease.

Whatever the precise nature of the diabetes, eating a diet that helps to keep blood-sugar levels on an even keel is of obvious importance. Until recently, the traditional view has been that sugar, because it causes surges in blood-sugar levels, should be limited in the diet. On the other hand, starches such as bread, potato, rice and pasta are recommended by doctors and dieticians because of the long-held belief that they give slow, sustained releases of sugar into the bloodstream. Fruit is also recommended because it is believed the sugar fruit contains — fructose — also does not raise insulin levels. And this approach shows better than anything just how little the diabetes establishment understands about diabetes — because, biochemically, it makes no sense whatsoever.

Let me give you a short chemistry lesson.

Sugars - The first and most important point to make is that all carbohydrates are sugars , although we do not normally call them that, but differentiate between those that taste sweet, which we call ‘sugar’, and those that don’t, which we call ‘starch’.

The simple sugars in foods that are most important to human nutrition are called sucrose, fructose, lactose, and maltose. But the body is only interested in the simple sugar called glucose, so these other simple sugars break apart in the digestion to become glucose.

Next we need to understand how the current recommendations are actually based on what I can only describe as dietary nonsense.

Q: What are diabetics told to eat?

A: "5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day"

Q: What carbohydrate do fruit and vegetables contain?

A: FRUCTOSE — which is a sugar!

Ah, yes . . . but . . . glucose raises blood levels very quickly (Fructose is preferred to glucose because it is thought to take longer to raise blood sugar).

Diabetes mellitus is a disease of incorrect nutrition.

The disease develops as a result of a high intake of carbohydrates — the ‘healthy’ diet.

Since ‘healthy eating’ was introduced, type 2 diabetes has become epidemic to such an extent that it now affects children.

This increase at such a time is NOT a coincidence — it is cause and effect.

The reason conventional treatment of diabetes fails is because authoritative bodies such as the American Diabetes Association promote the very diet that caused the disease in the first place — a diet that actually makes the condition worse.

Fortunately Type-2 diabetes is easily treated without the need to resort to drugs by:

A strategy that offers the prospect of cure or successful treatment for diabetes is one that limits hyperinsulinemia by restricting carbohydrate intake — the exact opposite of the conventional approach.

The correct diet for a Type-2 diabetic, (or treatment without drugs)

Let’s start from scratch and pull all the evidence together.

Why Do Adults Become Diabetic?

Adults and children develop Type-2 diabetes as a consequence of eating a high-carbohydrate diet — and for no other reason.

As a diabetic, there is only one way to ‘cure’ the condition and lead a normal drug-free life again: stop doing the thing that caused the disease. Diabetes is caused by a chronic high intake of carbohydrates — sugars and starches. The current "healthy" dietary recommendation advise a chronic intake of carbohydrates.

The evidence says that a low-carb diet is healthier.

The Balanced Diet

There is nothing so dear to a nutritionist’s heart as the idea of a "balanced" diet.

DiabetesUK say: "Foods can be divided into five main groups. In order for us to enjoy a balanced diet we need to eat foods from these groups."

And the ADA say: "No single food will supply all the nutrients your body needs, so good nutrition means eating a variety of foods."

Here is my definition of a balanced diet: A balanced diet is any diet that supplies all the nutrients the body needs in the correct proportions.

If you accept that definition, then a diet entirely of meat — so long as the organs (liver, kidney, etc) and fat are included — is a balanced diet.

Don’t believe me? Then consider what the Inuit (Eskimos) eat, as conveyed in the Eskimo food "pyramid" cartoon above.

Main Points

Diabetes is not caused by obesity; both conditions are caused by the same thing

Dietary carbohydrates cause obesity

Dietary carbohydrates cause diabetes

Obesity is merely evident before diabetes

To reduce disease, reduce carbohydrates.

A high fat diet is best for weight loss!

Why? It’s really quite simple. It’s because that is our natural diet!

Q. What have all wild animals got in common?

A. None is overweight and none gets diabetes

Q. What have all primitive humans got in common?

A. None is overweight and none gets diabetes

Q. What have westernized industrial humans got in common?

A. Many are overweight and many get diabetes

Q. What have westernized industrial humans’ pets got in common?

A. Many are overweight and many get diabetes

Do you see the pattern?

What Is Our Natural Diet?

Summary of Evidence

Agriculture very recent in history.

For 2.5 million years — diet high-protein, high-fat, low-carb.

99.9% of our genes formed before advent of agriculture.

We evolved eating an animal sourced diet.

The current concept of a "healthy’ diet quite different — and unnatural.

All this isn’t new. Before 1984, diabetics were treated with low-carb, high-fat diet. Think about it: a low-carb, high-fat diet reduces postprandial (after meals) glucose spikes. If there are no glucose spikes there’s no hyperinsulinaemia and with no hyperinsulinaemia there’s no weight gain and no diabetes.

For diabetics, carbs should be reduced to around 30-40 grams a day.

The amount of calories lost through cutting down on carbs must be made up in some way from other foods. It is important that you do not go hungry.

It is equally important that these calories come from dietary fat — NOT from protein. The aim is to reduce blood glucose and insulin levels. Our bodies will make glucose from protein — they don’t make glucose from fat. And fat is a much better fuel anyway.

Below is a list of foods to avoid. Some will be obvious – others less so.



Sugar and artificial sweeteners, including honey. The only allowed sweetener is stevia. (Sugar is a problem as it is addictive. I suggest you cut down gradually until you can do without. The other option is to go ‘cold turkey’ and stop it altogether. This will give you withdrawal symptoms, just like stopping any other addictive drug. But this will wear off within about two weeks.)

Sweets and chocolates, including so-called sugar-free types. (If you want a chocolate treat, say once a week, then eat Continental dark chocolate with 70% or more cocoa solids, not the American stuff where sugar is the first named ingredient.)

Foods which contain significant proportions of things whose ingredients end in -ol or -ose as these are sugars (the only exception is cellulose, which is a form of dietary fiber)

"Diet" and "sugar-free" foods (except sugar-free jelly)

Grains and foods made from them: wheat, rye, barley, corn, rice, bread, pasta, pastry, cakes, biscuits, pies, tarts, breakfast cereals, et cetera.

Starchy vegetables: potatoes and parsnips in particular; and go easy with beet, carrots, peas, beans, et cetera and packets of mixed vegetables which might contain them

Beans with the exception of pole beans

Milk

Sweetened, fruit and low-fat yogurts

Cottage cheese

Beware of commercially packaged foods such as TV dinners, "lean" or "light" in particular, and fast foods, snack foods and "health foods".

Fruit juices, as these are much higher in carbs than fresh fruit. (If you like fruit juices as a drink, dilute about 1 part fruit juice with 2-4 parts water.)

Given this, the ratios you should adopt for your daily meals are:

10% — 15% carbohydrate

20% — 25% protein

60% — 70% fat

The amount of fat might seem too high to manage. In fact, it isn’t too difficult if you fry as much as possible, buy the fattiest meat you can find — and don’t cut the fat off, and spread butter on cooked vegetables or fatless meat.

As an example, here is an actual menu for meals for one day:

Breakfast 8:00 am 2 extra large egg 3 slices fat bacon 1/2 cup mushrooms (these soak up fat) 15g organic butter or coconut milk 75g banana Lunch 1:00 pm 6 ounce fat pork chop 1/3 cup carrots 1/2 cup kale 1/2 cup yellow squash 1/3 cup onion Butter on vegetables

Evening 6:45pm

7 ounce sirloin steak, cooked in coconut oil

1 medium size beet, roasted, with butter

2 cups beet greens cooked with onions and butter

plus 2 litres of water as plain water or in green teas

That is an example of what I use as a slimming diet — Does it really look so difficult to live on?

Do you need exercise to burn off all these calories? Not really, you won’t gain weight eating this way.

Now that you think there is nothing left to eat, these are foods you can eat:

All meat , ALL ORGANIC, FREE RANGE – lamb, beef, pork, bacon, etc

include the organ meats: liver, kidneys, heart, as these contain the widest range of the vitamins and minerals your body needs (weight for weight, liver has 4 times as much Vitamin C as apples and pears, for example)

All poultry: organic chicken (with the skin on), goose, duck, turkey, etc. But be aware that turkey is very low in fat, so fat needs to be added.

All animal and meat fats – without restriction – never cut the fat off meat.

Cold water fish and seafood- once a week only

Organic Eggs (no limit, but avoid "omega-3 eggs" as these have been artificially fed which upsets the natural fatty acid profile)

organic (preferably raw butter (put butter on cooked veggies instead of gravy.;

Vegetables and fruits as allowed by carb content. You want them low on the glycemic index.

Condiments: pepper, salt, mustard, herbs and spices

Soy products are allowed but, as they are highly toxic, I don’t recommend them

Here is a list of the lowest glycemic Vegetables;

Artichoke, asparagus, broccoli, bell peppers, celery, cauliflower, cabbage, green beans, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, kale, beet greens, Swiss chard, collards, turnips, spinach, Bok Choy, fennel.

NOTE: There are two points from a diabetic point of view:

A diabetic should cut out the fruit at breakfast time if he/she notices the "Dawn Phenomenon" (higher blood glucose levels on waking than before going to bed).

The small meal in the evening will ensure that blood glucose overnight and in early morning does not go too high