In this article I want to look at our fat-loving habits, and the new research about diabetes. That fat is the main cause of Type 2 diabetes – not sugar, as was once believed.
How does Type 2 diabetes start?
In 2013, the Banting Memorial Lecture delivered new research on the cause of Type 2 diabetes. The Banting Memorial Lecture is the highest award bestowed by Diabetes UK. The lecture is awarded to a person internationally recognised for their eminence in the field of diabetes.
Professor R. Taylor showed that, for about a decade before a diabetes diagnosis, fat builds up inside muscles; this leads eventually to ‘fatty liver’ which, during the next ten years, leads to fat around the pancreas. All of this time, the hormone, insulin, has struggled to get blood sugar into cells as the cell receptors are ‘gummed up’ with fat. They are becoming ‘insulin-resistant’. After 7 – 10 years of this abuse, the pancreas can no longer produce enough insulin (itself being clogged with fat). At that time blood glucose levels skyrocket rapidly to diabetic levels.
Type 2 diabetes, rather than being a problem of too much sugar in the diet, is actually a reversible condition of intra-organ fat excess.
Prof. R. Taylor
Where does all this fat in diabetes come from?
We now know that when a person eats excess fat, they are circulating more free fatty acids in their bloodstream than they need to build cell walls and make steroid hormones in their bodies. This fat gets shunted into cells and eventually causes ‘insulin resistance’ – by ‘gumming up’ muscle cells and the liver also. When the liver is affected, we call it ‘non-alcoholic fatty liver disease’.
We also know that when a person becomes overweight, free fatty acids from fat cells actually spill out into the bloodstream, causing even more free fat in the blood.
So eating fat and getting fat BOTH cause insulin resistance – and ultimately, Type 2 diabetes.
How much fat in foods is enough?
How much fat do you need to eat and what type exactly?
If you are very lean, as long as you have cut out almost all processed foods including vegetable oils, just a little of the Omega 3 and 6 fats is all you need.
If you are not so lean, you should need next to no dietary fat. When your body needs fat to build something, it will begin a process called lipolysis. Here it breaks down the stored triglycerides into their component parts of 3 fatty acids each (plus a glycerol backbone). It then dismantles those free fatty acids and reassembles them to make whatever type of fat they are needed for. You’ll never be short of needed fats while you have fat on your body.
What sort of disease is diabetes?
Diabetes is a systemic chronic disease. By the time it has been diagnosed, it has been affecting your whole body for at least ten years. Many organs have already been affected. Some damage has begun or is well underway. The longer you have had it, the more far-reaching the damage.
The inflammation caused by diabetes affects blood vessels all over the body. This is why diabetics have double the risk of heart disease. It affects nerves – and can cause severe ongoing pain and numbness. Diabetes slows down the digestive tract. Type 2 diabetes typically affects eyes causing eventual blindness. It can affect kidneys and cause sexual problems. It can also cause hearing loss, and lead to dementia as brain cells are affected.
The traditional diabetes and sugar approach
If you have diabetes, you will probably be on Metformin. You may also be on insulin as well.
You will, no doubt, have been told to exercise more and eat healthier. Perhaps you have seen a dietician for this or joined a gym.
Unfortunately, the recipes on government diabetes websites have too much fat in them though to allow you to actually ‘get over’ diabetes. They merely help you manage it, so it progresses a little slower. These recipes usually restrict sugar or ‘carbs’, but it is FAT that must be restricted in order to end the insulin resistance. Restricting sugar may get you better readings on the glucometer, but it isn’t helping the CAUSE of diabetes, which is fat. Many of these recipes are lower in fat than the average Australian meal and the portions are a much better size, however, even lower fat is needed to actually turn this disease around.
Getting over Type 2 diabetes
Ultimately you must lower your body fat so the liver and pancreas can work better, and so that insulin can again get glucose into the cells adequately. This is why exercise helps. You cannot lower body fat if you continue eating too much fat.
Why would your body break down your own fat to build things if you have enough fat in the bloodstream from a recent meal that it can use?
Once you are eating an adequately low-in-fat diet which is sufficiently high in micronutrients to heal your body, you may be looking at as little as a few weeks to several months to put diabetes behind you. This depends on your commitment to the new diet and lifestyle and the extent of damage already done by the disease.
If you are confused about fats and have heard conflicting advice to this, please read <this post>. It explains the reason for the confusion, and what the real facts about fat are.
If you are taking insulin, don’t change your diet without working closely with your doctor and a nutritionist. Otherwise, your blood glucose may dip too low causing a diabetic coma.
If you have Type 2 diabetes and want support to change your diet and lifestyle and turn your condition around, please contact me – and watch the magic begin. Please take advantage of the consultation discount (above) to do so.
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