A friend of 40 years, who used to follow my blog, thenutritiondebate.com, recently
emailed me to ask, “Does the Vedda Blood Sugar Remedy have any credibility?”
I’d never heard of Vedda before so I looked it up. It’s a Sri-Lanka herbal
product and diet program that’s being promoted here in a new book.
The website Contra Health Scam says the Vedda
Blood Sugar Remedy is a scam. Quoting from their conclusion, “Vedda Blood Sugar Remedy is
nothing but a well-produced scam, complete with paid actors, stock photos,
stock videos, twisted scientific studies and outright lies.” So, I sent
the link to my friend and suggested instead that he look up the Virta Health program (see the name
similarity?) for managing his weight and blood sugar.
My friend thanked me and later emailed me, “The Keto rage sure
evidences your research! The weight loss results are phenomenal. This is
totally counter to the food pyramid we grew up with, or Michelle Obama’s
new school she tried to promote.” I replied, “Yes, that’s all true,” and asked if he would
like to be added back to my distribution list.” He replied, “Yes, I am
definitely still struggling to get to my goal weight. Thanks.”
Later, while working in the garden I got to thinking about this
“conversation.” I found it very depressing. I’ve been proselytizing about how
to manage weight and blood sugar about ten years and have written almost 500
columns (472 published with this one), and even my long-time friends (and my
own wife!) pay no attention to me. How frustrating is that? So, I told my wife
about the conversation and she said, “You have no bona fides.”
I understood what she meant, of course. I’m not a medical doctor. But,
with exasperation, I replied, I have personally lost 170 pounds (and maintained
most of the loss) BY DIET ALONE, WITHOUT EXERCISE, AND WITHOUT HUNGER. Not
only that but I have turned my diabetes health around, from a progressively
worsening disease to the point where, from a clinical standpoint, I am “cured,”
and in complete remission.
In
addition, my lipid (cholesterol) profile is also completely reversed, I’m no
longer on a statin, my blood pressure is “normal” (with meds), and my
inflammation non-existent (hsCRP ≤1.0). I am so full of energy and so much
healthier and happier than I was 17 years ago when my doctor first suggested I
try a Very Low Carb diet to lose weight. He didn’t call it LCHF or Keto, but
that is what is was and IT WORKS!
So, it seems, my personal example only
works for me – “you’re not like other people,” my wife says – until you read
somewhere in the mass media about “the Keto rage” with “weight loss results
[that] are phenomenal.” And then you realize that it’s “totally counter
to the food pyramid we grew up with,” the one our
government has been promoting for more than half a century.
My wife said I should be grateful that my friend has come back into the
fold. I said I was, but still, I was stunned at the resistance of some
people…by which I mean most people, not my friend in particular…to rational
change. We just don’t want to change, until perhaps we reach a tipping point in
our personal life. For me it was the shock of learning that I weighed 375 pounds. My doctor’s scale only went to
350, so one morning before an appointment, I
stopped at the Fulton Fish Market in New York City and weighed myself on a commercial
scale. I thought I was going to die. I looked around and I didn’t see any
really fat, old people. I didn’t want to die.
What will it take for you? What combination of fear, courage, and a
glimmer of a chance that changing your diet could work? That it might be easy to lose weight and improve all the
markers associated with death?
What will it take for you to realize you became overweight because of what, you ate? To realize the way to reverse that condition is to change
what you eat – to eat in a way “totally
counter to the food pyramid we all grew up with,” that we’ve been following our whole lives and that got us into this
mess in the first place. Think about it. If that’s what it takes, then
maybe you’ll become a follower too, and we can grow old together…
I totally understand your frustration. I have tried to help my brother who is diabetic and obese. His blood sugars run in the 300 range and he has already had a triple bypass on his heart. He is the same age as my son and has a young daughter he wants to live for BUT cannot change the way he eats. I have given him Dr. Bernstein 's book and shared my journey with diabetes. No change in his part and it scares me, his wife and his daughter that we will lose him too soon. I myself struggle with weight but I always come back to low carb and IF because I know it works.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's really sad, but all we can do is to continue trying. I think the message is beginning to work, given the remarks my friend made that I quote in this piece. And if people are starting to question what we've been taught, then reinforcing our "alternative" message will help create and push the needed wave.
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