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Anti-LCHF Screed

Grateful

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,399
Location
Kent, United Kingdom
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
When I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in February, and prior to seeing my doctor, I read several books about "ending diabetes" with extreme diets of one kind or another. Frankly, I was in a very dark place and just wanted to find something, anything, with a positive message.

One was a book by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, "The Eat To Live Plan: The End Of Diabetes." It was a best-seller in America a few years ago. The gist of his system is to consume gigantic quantities of vegetables. I remember reading an Amazon review by someone who had adopted this diet and said they had to buy a second refrigerator to store all of the veg!

Anyway, here is what he said about the Low-Carb, High-Fat lifestyle that many of us are on. (I am on something similar, but more like "low carb, moderate fat").

Carbohydrate-restrictive diets that are rich in animal products can offer some short-term improvement in glucose control and can potentially aid weight-loss in some people, but because those diets are too rich in animal products (which do not contain phytochemicals or antioxidants) they incur significant risks such as cancer, heart disease, and kidney disease. [snip] Even though a protein-dense diet might offer some marginal weight loss benefits compared to a diet with lots of processed carbohydrates, it still does not allow the substantive weight reduction that diabetics really need to rid themselves of the disease.

Emerging evidence also suggests that carbohydrate-restrictive, also called ketogenic, diets "create metabolic derangement conducive to cardiac conduction abnormalities and/or myocardial dysfunction." In other words, it may cause other potentially life-threatening heart problems. [snip] ... deaths have occurred from cardiac arrhythmias induced from the electrolyte derangement.


This goes on for an entire chapter and anyway I don't want to abuse the "fair usage" copyright rule.

I think this is total guff, but millions of copies of this book (or other books by the same author pushing the same giga-vegetable plan) were sold.

It is yet another example of how hard it is for the average Type 2 diabetic to make head or tail of the conflicting advice.
 
"consume gigantic quantities of vegetables" is not a bad option, provided they are above ground veg and don't include any processed suger cane. It is starting to look like unproccess high fibre carbs are not an issue for lots of people, the results are slower then a true very low carb diet. but I expect it would work for lots of people.

"protein-dense diet" do have risks, these risks are a lot higher if the fats are cut off the proteins. It seems that we need lots of natural fats or above ground vegetables.
 
One assumption that seems to be made is that low carb means a diet almost exclusively of meat this of course is erroneous for most low carbers, my diet contains foods rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals such as fruits and vegetables, cereal grains, nuts and legumes some more so than others and there are also supplements that can be taken.
 
One assumption that seems to be made is that low carb means a diet almost exclusively of meat this of course is erroneous for most low carbers, my diet contains foods rich in antioxidants and phytochemicals such as fruits and vegetables, cereal grains, nuts and legumes some more so than others and there are also supplements that can be taken.

Whereas mine contains very few of those things and is mainly composed of meat fish and fat with a few veg thrown in (usually one portion per day).
Drs Fuhrman, Greger are Barnard and the three main Whole Food Plant Based propagandists who make fairly wild claims with little evidence.
 
My take on any diet, particulatly those attracting labels like “extreme” from their detractors and / or “mircal / cure ” from their advocates is to treat all claims with caution. Unless large numbers of the populace are seen as being intrinsically stupid or dishonest, then both classes of diet must work for some people, but neither work for all.
I try ro take the bits that work for my body and simply ignore the rest
 
To some extent these diet gurus are just disappearing up their own orifices.
  • Fat = Bad
  • Carbs = Bad
  • Protein = Bad
???? OK, let's feast on a refrigerator-full of vegetables. That will do the trick.
 
There are a substantial group of these vegan doctors promoting a plant based diet and the debate gets very heated. However they never satidfactorily explain how it works. How does animal fat cause diabetes? If you eat the SAD (standard American Diet) then I imagine you will benefi from this but eating low carb definitely does not rule out non starchy veg. What all parties agree on is treating with minimal medication, no sugar and no processed carbs! And be your own experiment .But yes agree about how confusing it is for the newly diagnosed!
 
There's a lot of money to be made in some quarters especially in the weight loss industry. Just sayin'.
 
I am a vegetarian and eat a low carb diet. You don't need to eat meat to be on a LCHF diet.

There are many evangelists who claim certain diets can "cure" diabetes. It appears that the LCHF and Newcastle Diets seem to produce good results as exhibited in the Success Stories on this forum. Other diets may be beneficial, but I don't see much evidence of them working on here. It is better believe actual results from people who have used a diet to successfully manage diabetes than hype used to sell books.
 
My low carb "diet" is actually more varied, better quality, and hopefully better balanced than the high carb one I was expected to eat previously. Cutting out high carbohydrate foods doesn't have to mean you eat a bad diet although that's possible, as it is for any diet, if you make poor food choices.

And I have absolutely no faith in "miracle" diets of any kind - if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

Robbity
 
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