It's sad hearing that there has been a lack of willingness to even engage in any process of meaningful discussion on the issue to advance a deeper understanding of how people can treat diabetes. The more options available for a diverse diabetes population to treat their condition, the better.
The situation Sam faces is frankly ridiculous, but then it's not too surprising. Without wanting to sound like a conspiracy nut, dietary advice is largely based on economic interest. In fact, every decision made politically at any level is first of all a question based on economies. We had the news today of the professor recruited by the government to write recommendations on dietary sugar intake, who has admitted receiving a direct sum from coca cola to advise them on dietary advice. He then, allegedly, also receives money from Mars to help him conduct his university 'research'. This is by no means an isolated incident. The very notion of a 'balanced' diet, based on calories, was ingenuously created to allow consumption of nutritiously poor foods into our every day diets. The idea that 500 calories of cola and chocolate has the same metabolic effects on weight and body composition as 500 calories from vegetables and lean meat is ridiculous; yet this is what most people are brainwashed into thinking.
Bottom line is that people are getting sicker. Type 2 diabetes is skyrocketing. Diagnosis of type 1 is increasing year on year. Rates of autoimmunity of all conditions are increasing. Our food environment is becoming more and more toxic, and every year food companies are allowed to engage in 'voluntary regulation' to help reduce the very conditions that their products promote.
Despite this, I still have hope. People like Sam are doing tremendous work and should not become despondent. We live in an age where everlasting change comes from the bottom up. We now have places like this forum and other social media to provide the platform to inform the masses of other alternative ways of living with their diabetes, should they choose to do so. We don't have to listen to these people anymore. Just keep doing what you're doing and fight the good fight. What more can you do?