Chris, there is one important you may not be aware of re low carb diets (apart from the obvious “dont feed glucose to a body that struggles to regulate it “) – for most people they reduce hunger. it is no coincidence that most effective weight loss programmes go down the high protein route – all the people I know who have genuinely tried low carb eating for over a week confirmed the same simple experience – carbohydrates make you hungry.

@Chris, “…the main thing is to eat a healthy balanced diet…” That’s like telling someone with a peanut allergy to eat peanuts as part of a healthy balanced diet. As Dr. Briffa pointed out, diabetics by definition cannot handle carbhydrates, so why eat them? Do you realize that you could reduce or eliminate your need for metformin (and possibly lose weight) by restricting carbohydrates to mostly non starchy vegetables?

Not surprisingly the sponsors page ‘does not exist’ or has been moved. What could they possibly have to hide, hmmmm?

It really is not over-medicalisation but over pharmaceuticalisation (I am sure that ought to be a word.) The physiology of over-appetite with relative tiredness is very much a medical matter which has significant implications for public health. Research is not funded in this area and over-Psychologising has been extremely lucrative as it provides more malleable explanations which are ultimately useless. Everyone has a Psychological frame of reference and the exclusively Psycho-Sociological perspective, therefor, offers something for everyone. Pharmaceutical companies , whose funding dominates research, have legal obligations to their share-holders. The one thing they must never do is risk the prevention of lucrative diseases. This means that they must never allow a ‘body’ of research (eg 11betaHSD / “stress-related hormones”etc etc) to stray towards, for example, understanding appetite for Carbohydrates. Diabetes treatment=lucrative, Diabetes prevention=catastrophic. NHS consultants can find their career path greatly enhanced by working ‘well’ with these companies and can gain power in their field such that they can dictate the direction of their subject for decades.

six reactive posts in one….wow LOL

and yet john barr GP is the voice of reason that done it for me 😉

just speaking from EXPERIENCE, I find that low(er) carb eating, and only then getting my carbs from fruit and veg, has been a turnaround for me and my hypothyroid related insulin resistance.

My experience of hospital food was the same’ with macoronni cheese, shepherd’s pie or a salad (rock hard tom, iceberg and a bit of cucumber) for lunch. I completed the food satisfaction survey with the addendum that it was statistically self serving as on the scale of 1-4 there were three options for acceptable or above (does anyone really think it’s excellent?). I believe that the food budget for hospital patients is substantially less than that for prisoners.

‘ It’s shocking.’ Sadly, it isn’t anymore.
I aliken diabetes drug treatments to a builder using scaffolding to old up a collapsing building instead of rebuilding it properly; a short cut that will fail in the end.

Anyone who has an Hba1c once or twice a year has their numbers recorded on the NHS data base. The sad part of it is they don’t record what nutrition plan you follow so the assumption is that you are doing the healthy plate unless your numbers are rising then its your fault. At my most recent last year my spec nurse was very amiable when I told her my approach she smiled and simply said well it obviously works for you. Of course it does !!!!
Diagnosed 2000, followed the advice and weight and numbers blossomed so the meds were sent in. Twice I got to 20 stone the 2nd time I was faced with insulin therapy. By chance I found out about LC and gave it a go for 3 months. I kept a record of my numbers, weight and blood pressure. I lost 2 stone so eased off and within 2 months it was going back on. So I got back on the treadmill for 6 months. 4 stone off and numbers on track. I took all my records at the next checkup. The GP was impressed with the weight-loss but didn’t want to know anything else. So from that moment I didn’t tell him. However my improved numbers are a matter of record on the NHS data base.

Keep at it !

You, or more likely someone not familiar with the HbAlc test, may find this interesting. Bear in mind that, as far as I know, this is one man’s opinion, but it’s a starting point. <a href="http://chriskresser.com/why-hemoglobin-a1c-is-not-a-reliable-marker&quot;.

Perhaps you could have mentioned that the link is to a video by Dr Neil Barnard, one of a group of US physicians who claim to be able to cure diabetes by eating “plants”, their word, not mine, instead of the more usual “vegan diet”. I don’t know whether they are just scared of the word “vegan” but when a number of people all start using the same unusual terms there is a good chance that some kind of cult or religion is involved.

Starting working life as a psychiatrist he now claims to research human diet whilst maintaining an interest in abolishing research on animals. Without wishing to denigrate a concern for animal welfare, might there not be a conflict of interests, a tendency towards confirmation bias? Interesting to notice how many of his cohort grew up on farms, perhaps they were traumatised?

5.0–5.4 is the lowest mortality, the lowest point in the U-shaped curve.