What's Wrong With Our Diet?
Treatment of diabetes is individual as everyone has different needs, according to their condition, stage of the disease and other health complications. The classical approach to diabetes treatment is based on a combination of diet adjustments, carbohydrate counting and medication. This approach can affect people's lives quite profoundly.
Most professional health advisors are likely to prescribe a diet that limits carbohydrate and calorie intake, recommends cutting down on certain types of fat and encourages the consumption of high-fibre and low glycemic index (GI) food. It might improve the condition temporarily by inducing weight-loss but it does not bring blood glucose under longterm control, and sooner or later medication is needed.
People with type 1 diabetes are usually required to learn the approved method of carbohydrate counting because their insulin doses are based on the amount of carbohydrate eaten.
Recommendations to use food exchange lists (combining certain types of food at every meal), counting carbohydrates or restricting portion sizes have serious shortcomings. All this, combined with medication, focuses mainly on glucose management and weight-loss but does not bring about any meaningful changes in metabolism. Whilst it might keep blood sugar under control, it does not limit animal products - the main sources of fat in the diet - and still allows the body to feast on saturated fats and cholesterol. The outcome is that the kidneys continue to work hard to cope with animal proteins, the fat drops accumulated in muscle cells stay exactly where they are and the condition gradually worsens.