Yeah, I have a strong believe that for people with a strong genetic component in their Diabetes (as when it runs in the family) as myself, the lifestyle is part of the problem, but certainly not the whole picture. Insulin resistance is in us since we are born I believe.
And It is so hard to lose weight on low calorie diets for me, that I always felt been blamed in an unjustified way for being overweight.
I think it should be addressed since you are a child, but I don't think anybody cares until we are in our mid twenties and bad stuff starts to flare up to surface, and messing up with our lives.
As far as I can remember I have always had problems with my weight and fat in my belly area. I have never been big on sweets of candies, or chocolates, I ate normally.
My biggest problem has always been carbs in the form of wheat and starches in general. But I can't say I abused them in the way I feel people imagine me eating... I just don't react well to them. As somebody has said in another thread, it pretty much is like an allergy.
I lost track of how many people can have pretty much the same amounts of carbs than me and not put a single pound on...
My PCOS started in my mid twenties and that's when I started taking metformin (missing periods, never had acne as a teenager... hirsutism), a few times I have managed to lose weight and keep it off for a while, and sometime when not being great with diet I've stopped metformin, but in general I've been on it for about 11 years and I believe that plus not eating sugar helped to reach my mid thirties without diagnosed diabetes.
But the last year has been a very stressful and complicated one for me and that plus another medicine that creates even more insulin resistance and weight gain ended up pushing my diabetes to the surface.
However I am thinking now I should have been treated like a diabetic from day one, pretty much since I was child. I suspect that if I would have had a glucose meter I would have been able to see the effects of food in my body and the story would be different... just a thought...
And of course once in the vicious circle of eating wheat products for example (bread) I find it hard to get out as I crave them and get very hungry.
At the mo, I am low carbing and trying to follow Dr. Bernstein's advice to keep constant BG's of around 4.6 - 5.6 all day long. And it has been working, those are non diabetic BG levels so I am happy about that.
It hasn't been difficult, it took me three weeks to get back into normal levels, until now, when I've been really wore down due to flu and an infection and I'm in the mid 5's...
My only concern, as I said, is the cholesterol levels and how to bring them down while eating low carb. As for so many people while they lose weight and improves all the other numbers, cholesterol goes up... and although it doesn't bother me, I feel concerned it will bother my GP and play havoc with my family plans... we will see...