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I wish they'd stop with the lifestyle line


Yeh I agree with you.... weight is often a symptom of what is happening to our bodies. I also don't think getting rid of weight will fix our health problems, although it may help in some way. I'm not convinced weight is the real issue though as you say.

I had a tough childhood myself with several abuses against me by several people in my life. I'm from the poor part of my city where I live. Our diet when I was growing up was whatever my mother could heat or cook extremely quick so she could get out the door to see her boyfriend.... so it usually consisted of some high GI carb food and occasionally some sort of fatty meat. An vegetables we had were the frozen ones..... no time to cut up fresh stuff for her kids and cook. Although what she did have time for is cooking for the boyfriend... us kids weren't allowed to eat what she cooked for him. We weren't allowed to do a lot of things... too long a story. But basically I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason I got diabetes young is because of my diet when I was growing up too. Although on saying that my brothers should also be as ill as I am.... but they're not. So that's not really the answer. I guess we all like to try and find a reason. I think the biggest precursor for me was the PCOS, and also the fact that it's just the ladies in my family that get diabetes... the men don't get it for some reason. As I've said before the others are all slim so goodness knows how they got T2... it wasn't from lifestyle.
 
"Lifestyle" is also an interesting one. Lifestyle as a generic term is the likely reason why we see a much greater incidence of full blown T2 now than we ever have. In that context, the increase in foods that replace fats with sugars, processing, more sendentary lives, etc, and possibly the election of these forms of food and lack of activity lead to the genetic predisposition to T2 being triggered more regularly. There has certainly been a massive macro "lifestyle" change.

The diabetes prevention programmes (DPPs) that are out there focus on changing lifestyle in order to remove these triggers and limit the effects on those who are predisposed. Or to put it another way, if you are genetically likely to suffer hyperinsulinemia, does it not make sense to adjust your diet to remove foods which require massive amounts of insulin, and to take exercise steps to reduce the risk of visceral fat build up as a result?

Whilst this isn't going to work for everyone, and even the researched DPPs agree with this, the studies where these types of intervention have taken place have seen a hugely reduced progression from Pre-D to D.

The argument about lifestyle isn't really that "An individual has done this to themselves" (although we know full well that for a long time this is how it's been portrayed), it's that modern lifestyle has flicked a switch in many people with a predisposition to T2 that never used to be flicked and somehow, this needs to be reversed. It seems that adjusting lifestyles for all in general is a sensible approach to take to do this.
 
tim2000s said:
the election of these forms of food and lack of activity lead to the genetic predisposition to T2 being triggered more regularly.
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Agree! Someone (I wish I could cite the originator) made the observation that "genetics loads the gun but lifestyle pulls the trigger". But sitting around worrying about which particular lifestyle factor it was after the event is pretty futile. And blaming people for things they did in the past is just pointless. I wish the media would stop doing it
 
Well, shucks, thanks , I am indeed VERY happy, but I wouldn't want you to think badly if you didn't do quite as well, I've found it easy, but everyone's metabolism is different and I've had many advantages - my wife joined me on the LCHF, we both do a lot of cooking and love experimenting, I can afford the extra cost of the more interesting food and gym membership, kit and washing powder - which many people can't.

I also responded really well, with barely any problems - I think I've got a happy combination of gut bacteria and I suspect the reason for my type 2 was too much fat in the liver, causing insulin resistance, as losing weight has caused my fasting BG to drop massively and my recovery from a carb load is massively improved too. Others won't be as lucky to see such drastic improvements.

I do feel a fraud when people, my doctor and diabetic nurse and people here congratulate me on my hard work, when it was anything but - I've absolutely loved the LCHF diet - the only hard part is resisting cakes. I haven't really struggled, and I know many on here really do, with various combinations of other illnesses, allergies and intolerances.

I really hope you have an easy a time of it as I have, but if you do struggle, it's still worth it, you'll find rewards you weren't expecting as you improve - I've had a number of niggling little health problems disappear, stopped meds for them and found other - possibly related - issues going then. My knees no longer play up for instance, enabling me to move more --- and you find yourself in a virtuous circle.
 
Indy51 said:
I wish the media would stop doing it
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The next target of the media in the ongoing campaign will be those who made the recommendations that have resulted in the T2 outcomes. If you go a bit freakonomics on the data, the T2 incidence growth starts pretty much ten years after the introduction of low fat guidance to a population.

The image below shows the US data for number of type 2 diabetes diagnoses. In the early eighties, it remained flat. From about 1985 we see the numbers starting to rise (data from US CDC) and really taking off from about 1990 onwards:


In the US, the low fat dietary guidelines were implemented by the government in 1977. It all starts going pear shaped around 10 years later....
 
However easy you may have found it, it's still good to hear success stories. I quit drinking 4 years ago and like you found it very easy which made it hard to see people struggle, but we're all different and it's great to receive help and advice from those who have walked before you.

Again, well done
 
When I quit drinking, I had to be put on medication so my body didn't freak out. I was hospitalised for the worst of the withdrawal which helped.

I find my sobriety mostly straight forward now.

I quit smoking at the same time to give myself an extra challenge..lol
 
I think lifestyle is a POSSIBILITY with regards to the onset of diabetes? At the end of the day does it really matter? I feel some members are in denial and it is better to think about controlling the diabetes rather than wondering what caused it?
 
I agree to a point where i wonder how long can a human alienate themselves from modern lifestyle (stress, using cars and huge varied diet)?
Are we setting ourselves up for a fall? Time will tell.
I think sometimes diet only isn't the only modern lifestyle the press should concentrate on.
 
bobrobert said:
I think lifestyle is a POSSIBILITY with regards to the onset of diabetes? At the end of the day does it really matter? I feel some members are in denial and it is better to think about controlling the diabetes rather than wondering what caused it?
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If the people who have the diabetes doesn't know why their lifestyle didn't cause their diabetes how can specialist and researchers, ever know? I had diabetes at 6yr old. What lifestyle could have caused mine? Same diet as whole family and extended family, still. I'm only diabetic and they do get checked, regularly. Because of me.
Actually @tim2000s Is right. I was stressed at 6yr old due to being aware and alert of danger in my home. Alcoholic father and arguementative mother. Stress caused my diabetes, other family members are like sheep, where as ive always been adventurous and questioned everything ( nothing has changed there...i hear you say ha ha)
 
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So the recession didn' t play a part? Stress of losing their homes and jobs.
 
When i was diagnosed T2 a few years ago i had a 'friend' who is an optician tell me that it was a lifestyle choice - at which point i decided never to have anything more to do with her.... yes i had weight problems but overweight not obese etc and tbh that gain tied in with antidepressants....
 
ickihun said:
So the recession didn' t play a part? Stress of losing their homes and jobs.
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If it was a recession, doing it you'd expect a one off hump not an exponential growth that has been consistent year on year.
 
tim2000s said:
If it was a recession, doing it you'd expect a one off hump not an exponential growth that has been consistent year on year.
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Yes, I see that. Wow, it looks very likely. I wonder what happened that shifted it from a few years of low fat to diabetes?
Awareness. Incorrect awareness by using low fat as solution and awareness by medics to test or pick up on the diabetes symptoms. I wonder what instigated the low fat push? Obesity? So obesity diagnosed first, then diabetes? I was not diagnosed at 6yr old but had the symptoms, not even a blood test. We cannot assume obesity came first, just lapse diagnosises? God knows.
 
The most stupid question I have ever been asked was did I get diabetes because I ate to many chocolates. My grandmother,my mother and her sisters were diabetic and for that reason I was always careful to eat a healthy diet never took sugar and when i was a child sweets were rationed so we did not get any. when I was diagnosed as diabetic I weighed eight and a half stone. My G.P told me it was quite expected I would develope it due to my genetics like most people I get very angry with media reports about all of the fat lazy slobs with diabetes
 
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