Type 2 Diabetes, a Dietary Disease #331: Dear Max: Don’t Eat Oatmeal for Breakfast!

(Note: This is a Universal Fill-in Form. Just change the name of the person and the carb food as appropriate.)

I know you’re busy, Max, but…your health is at stake, so pay attention: You’re Pre-Diabetic, and in all likelihood, you’re will become a full-blown Type 2, unless you change what you eat. Type 2 Diabetes is a Dietary Disease.

Doctors treat Type 2 Diabetes by treating one symptom, high blood sugar. They give you vapid advice (lip service, really) to undertake “lifestyle changes” like “eat less and exercise more,” to lose weight! Then, for your high blood sugar, they treat it (you) with meds. They follow up by monitoring your blood sugars at intervals to see that they are “well controlled” (by Diabetic Association standards), and, when they are not, they add meds.

Their response, to treat you with more meds (too little, too late, and all wrong!), will only result in wearing out your pancreas, the organ that makes insulin. In the end (literally), you are likely to have to inject insulin. You will eventually die from one of the micro or macrovascular complications of the disease.

Doctors should advise you to treat the cause of your Type 2 Diabetes, which is Insulin Resistance (IR). If they advise you with respect to diet, the advice you get is likely to be just plain wrong. If you follow it, you will do so at your personal risk. They are also treating your disease to much too lax a standard. They will regard your blood sugars as “well controlled” at a level where they are doing you harm. To repeat, if you don’t change what you eat, your Type 2 Diabetes will progress, with increased risk for all the attendant complications.

Insulin Resistance means that insulin receptors in your cells are refusing to take up the glucose that is being transported in your blood by the carrier insulin. Glucose is the fuel that your body makes from digesting carbs, (and to a lesser extent from excess protein returned to the liver). Result: your blood sugar rises. Solution: eat fewer – many fewer, carbs. Did you know, there is no (zero) nutritional requirement for carbs? And your IR means you are becoming, or have become, Carbohydrate Intolerant. Insulin Resistance = Carbohydrate Intolerance.

Your body needs some glucose (not carbs).  Some glucose is so essential to the body that the body has multiple ways to make it from protein and fat. And your body does need both protein and fat, and that is what you have to eat if you want to treat the cause of your Pre-Diabetes. Takeaway: Eat mostly fat and protein.

Hunger is the principal (but not the only) biological driver of eating. It is both intrinsic and autonomic. Your conscious will pales by comparison. You are a slave to your hunger – especially if you are carb dependent. If you eat carbs at every meal, and between meals eat carbohydrate snacks, your body will come to biologically expect that since carbs are abundant, you can depend on them as an easy and quick source of energy. In today’s world, carbs are abundant, and ubiquitous. And they are a quick and easy and cheap source of energy 24/7/365.

Biologically, when your body becomes dependent on carbs, it blocks access to an alternate and totally complete source of fuel that everyone has: stored body fat. Stored body fat is packed full of energy: 9 calories per gram vs. 4 for carbs and protein. But, your body can’t access that dense stored energy source because added insulin, accompanying the glucose still circulating in your blood, sends a signal to the brain that you don’t need to use your body fat to maintain the body’s steady energy state (homeostasis). The fact is, as a Pre-Diabetic, because of your Insulin Resistance, both your plasma glucose and your plasma insulin are continually elevated.

Translation: when the carbs you last ate are quickly digested, your body tells you that you are hungry again! You crave carbs. It tells you to eat more.

SOLUTION: After an overnight fast, just eat protein and fat (with ‘zero’ carbs) for breakfast. That means: no juice, no cereal, no bread, no jelly. You will feel full. After a few days, your body adjusts its internal metabolism and you will never be hungry again in the morning, mid-morning or even at lunch. If you continue with protein and fat for lunch, you will not be hungry again until the cocktail hour. And if you eat a small supper of mostly protein and fat, with a serving of low-carb veggies, you will not need to eat again until breakfast (or lunch). Repeat this every day and before long your fasting blood sugars will drop back into the “normal” range, and after a few months, your A1c’s will too. And your doctor will be happy because you lost weight. He or she will also likely reduce or eliminate your meds! And all you did was change what you ate!