is it your own fault

You won't find anyone on this site who thinks it is our own fault apart from newbies.

And we put them right pretty darn quick.

What purpose does blame serve? All that matters is that I have the condition, and I have the choice of either finding a way to manage it, or risking the complications.

I can second guess my lifestyle choices all I want to. And maybe it makes the top 5 of things I'd do differently in life, with hindsight. But blaming myself won't change a thing.

And without the genetic predisposition, I could have eaten whatever I wanted and never become diabetic. So it's certainly at least partly in the hands of fate.

Nicole T said:

What purpose does blame serve? All that matters is that I have the condition, and I have the choice of either finding a way to manage it, or risking the complications.

I can second guess my lifestyle choices all I want to. And maybe it makes the top 5 of things I'd do differently in life, with hindsight. But blaming myself won't change a thing.

And without the genetic predisposition, I could have eaten whatever I wanted and never become diabetic. So it's certainly at least partly in the hands of fate.

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What purpose does blame serve? I quite agree with you. It doesn't help anyone. It doesn't help those who have been diagnosed and it doesn't help those who think it won't happen to them because they follow NHS guidelines. We sometimes have newbies saying 'Why me? I'm not fat' They have been misled into thinking it's the patient's own fault and it's an awful shock when they find out the truth.

I'm in two minds about this.

Knowing what I now know I can see that for the most part I was responsible for ending up here.
As a morbidly obese, bread loving carbaholic I was entirely responsible.

That when I was diagnosed the advice was effectively to continue as I was I find a rather sad indictment of the poor quality of care that "our" NHS provides for quite a few chronic conditions.

What I'm very glad to be able to say is that by taking charge of my own health and not sub-contracting it to the medical profession it has improved remarkably, for which I will be forever grateful to Dr Jason Fung and the many members of this forum who pointed me in the right direction when I first joined all those years ago.

Even though I have immediate family history of Type 2, I always thought I'd dodge the bullet because it was all about sugar, and I didn't have a particularly sweet tooth. Over the last couple of years, I'd started to indulge in too many chocolates and sweets, and it got really bad during lockdown, but with hindsight, I don't think that's what tipped the balance.

It's carbs being carbs, whether they're sweet and sugary or bland and starchy, that's the huge shock to me. That the 125g of rice I just had 'being good' with a meal has done just as much 'damage' (sugar wise) as two whole Terrys Chocolate Oranges, four 2 finger Kit-Kats, or ten cans of Carling. That the crispbreads with a smear of marge were just as bad as stuffing my face with sweets.

My grudge, if I have one, is that my records show I was pre-diabetic back in 2010. But either this wasn't highlighted to me at all, or it wasn't stressed as a serious problem. Nobody told me to cut down on carbs (rather than just sugar.) Nobody, apparently, thought it was a good idea to annually test someone who'd registered on the pre-diabetic scale. It was only by chance (sugar found in a urine sample when diagnosing a urinary tract infection) that I discovered I was Type 2. I wonder how much longer I'd have gone undiagnosed if a new GP hadn't insisted on that test.

Some of it could be described as self-inflicted, but by no means all of it. Mismanagement by the NHS is definitely an issue. Poor education of the nature and metabolism of carbohydrate is another. I got to 52 years old without realising the pancreas and liver were involved in dealing with carbs in general, rather than just the sugary ones. But we're still back in the position of being in a situation, having to deal with it, and blame not really getting anyone anywhere.

Sixty pounds a week?
How many are you feeding?

Partially.
My fault: eating a whole bag of jelly bellys, good and plentys, bags of licorice, a couple of chocolate bars a week. Lazy was my middle name.

Not my fault: believing in the food pyramid, low fat stuff.

Now, I’m a new man, Dan 2.0, no longer connected to the matrix

I agree that blame is not very helpful. If we ascribe blame we continue the cycle where people keep their condition secret. This means the knowledge of what will help isn't passed on and more people go on to develop diabetes. It allows the medical profession to continue to recommend an inappropriate diet to diabetics which results in the illness being progressive which just confirms the doctors opinion.

I absolutely agree that the way I ate lead me into diabetes. The thing is I basically ate a 'healthy' diet. I couldn't lose weight and no doctor believed me about my diet. My current doctor knows that low carb has lowered my blood sugar levels but when she told me I was too low of sodium and to eat more salt- I mentioned pork crackling and her response was no- not that too much fat. so absolutely not on board with what I have to do. even though I've lost weight. Even though my asthma is gone (and during the fires here in Australia I would have been hospitalised normally) so the more of us that spread the word the more likely that someone will find out what suits them earlier and they may not have to go quite as low carb. But even more important maybe my asthma could have been taken away even earlier and basically I would be healthier.

Just as an aside maybe some food companies would get on the low car bandwagon quicker and there would be even more options allowing even more people to find it easier.

Type 2 is environmental. You can be genetically predisposed, as is everyone to anything, but in the end it's how you express your genes in your environment that matters. I absolutely believe with cast-iron certainty that my diabetes was caused by what I ate, but what I ate was what governments tell us is healthy. In that sense you could call it a failing of government, but I realised ages ago that dietary guidelines are there to prop-up industry and benefit individuals' finances. They have nothing to do with public health. Never have and never will.

When the dust settles, I caused my diabetes, and I fixed it. I can blame whomever I wish but the Earth will keep turning regardless, so I don't spend too much time worrying about it. The majority, including a lot of folk even on here, regard type 2 as a disease of gluttony and sloth. If that helps them sleep at night then it's fine by me. Meanwhile I go about my days happy and healthy by eating an appropriate diet. I fixed my diabetes with food, so of course I caused it by what I put in my mouth to begin with. Whether that's my fault or someone else's is largely semantics, in my mind.

Keep calm and carry on.

The lack of education is what i would blame in my own situation, I had a few health issues early 2017 high BP, overweight etc and was told by the nurse I was close to being a diabetic, was given a print out of what to eat which showed wholemeal bread, low fat etc etc we all know the type of diet recommended and a BP machine to take my own readings for 2 weeks so I started the 5:2 diet and lost 4kg went back to see the nurse 3 months later and she said everything wasn't perfect but acceptable.

I started to get gout which I now know fasting can cause this and this lead me to getting an episode that lasted over 6 months and subsequently eroded the joint in my big toe, so diet and exercise went out the window and I piled the kgs back on and before I knew it was diagnosed with diabetes.

Never at any point was I told I was pre-diabetic I didn't even know it existed until diagnosis and my own research. I had never even give diabetes a thought, no cases in my family, I know people who do have it but never understood what they had to go thorough to manage it as it always looked they eat normally to me.

When I got told by the Dr I was diabetic I felt completely let down because if I was educated about what diabetes can do and how it could have been avoided when I was pre-diabetic, I didn't even know what a hba1c was but I know I would have certainly pressed on in changing everything like I have now, I suppose I could have researched it all my self but going back to the beginning I didn't know how big of a problem I was facing due to just being told I was close to being diabetic and going on a diet would change it.

Andy_Warlow said:

Me and My Partner,
If you buys fresh veg, salad, Fresh meat from a butcher.
Sixty pounds is easily spent.
That's only 8.50 a day.

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I suppose it depends on the choices but we eat meat, fish and seafood, eggs, cheese, nuts, fresh and frozen veges/salad and berries, with extra carbs for my husband - though we do not have a proper butcher any more, the greengrocers have closed. My shopping is mostly at supermarkets as it is the only option.

I think if it was simply down to food then most of the world would have diabetes, there is definitely a DNA/propensity factor. There is an argument for 'blame' after a diagnosis I suppose if the wrong things are chosen and even then what good does it do to shame people. I also think that we should distinguish between 'junk food' which we all know is rubbish for everybody and includes the obvious items such as sweets/crisps/1000 calorie lattes etc, and 'healthy' food such as wholemeal/fruit/veg. Anybody eating solely junk food most likely know their general health won't be good but how many people know the similar effects of the 'healthy' stuff on a body, I've noticed that the reference is always to 'sugary rubbish' implying that if it's not white & sweet it must be ok. ? When I was first diagnosed I thought well I'll stick to good old beans on wholemeal toast for now (a go to favourite) and cringed when I saw the effects on my glucose levels. I could applaud myself on diagnosis with the 'well I won't have to change my diet at least, I don't eat rubbish'......boy was I in for a rude awakening.

I must admit I don't agree with the "it's not your fault" line for my personaly.

If I had only eaten healthily, just what the NHS said to eat and still got I'll I would feel blamelessness. But I didn't, I ate my fair share of junk food, I didn't excersise enough and took in more calories then I used.

The last few years where I put on much more weight I think I can say wasn't my fault as I was always hungry even not long after eating which I can put down to sugars.

I can't put down the 10 years before that...

Now I am more active and listening more closely to advice about eating I'm much healthier, feel better in every way. I knew what I was eating before was not good for me, but I did it anyway so I won't be hiding from that blame

xfieldok said:

You won't find anyone on this site who thinks it is our own fault apart from newbies.

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You're overgeneralising. Knowing what I now know I blame myself for my T2.
Same as I blame myself for my other problems through smoking.
It's partly this anger / frustration with my own behaviour that keeps me healthier now.

Great question. Technically for "regular" Type 2 it is "our" fault from a responsibility perspective. By regular I mean none drug induced or similar Type 2.

The accountability lies with Governments who did not allow a factual choice, to the same level of education as to the harms of smoking. Take for example my choice of buying dates as the healthy option in supermarkets, bananas, grapes, orange / apple juice, oats with cinnamon, muesli, unsweetened home made bread / rice pudding and similar, famous brand yogurt with berries - clearly I / we tried in the wrong way.

Easy to say in hindsight, but I know what I am like, if I understood carbs, blood sugar and insulin levels my choices would have been different, its not like I was doing daily crisp, sweets, alcohol, pizza etc binges. "They" need to move away from calories and tell the truth about food.

Once you know the facts and have a choice, in my view the accountability becomes yours.

sno0opy said:

I must admit I don't agree with the "it's not your fault" line for my personaly.

If I had only eaten healthily, just what the NHS said to eat and still got I'll I would feel blamelessness. But I didn't, I ate my fair share of junk food, I didn't excersise enough and took in more calories then I used.

The last few years where I put on much more weight I think I can say wasn't my fault as I was always hungry even not long after eating which I can put down to sugars.

I can't put down the 10 years before that...

Now I am more active and listening more closely to advice about eating I'm much healthier, feel better in every way. I knew what I was eating before was not good for me, but I did it anyway so I won't be hiding from that blame

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I might say that if you followed the NHS diet which is certainly not a healthy diet you would have gained weight anyway. Ignore the Eat Well Plate and Calories; just keep the carbs down.

I find it interesting that obesity is blamed for the onset of T2, yet it's more likely in most instances that it's the other way round - the onset of T2 causes obesity.

Then there's emotional eating. We learn this from birth, a baby doesn't just obtain nutrition when it is fed, there's much more to it than that. Some of us have an emotional void which we fill with food (or other addictions). Most of the time we don't even know why we do it. Is it our fault? Perhaps, but it's an eating disorder like any other. It's so easy to blame the fat person and tell them to eat less and move more, but would you tell an anorexic to eat more and move less? They are 2 sides of the same coin, an eating disorder, yet one is generally treated with gentleness and the other by blame. Why does the world love to hate fatties?