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Are most of us Type 2 Diabetic or Pre Diabetic?

Blood testing

The medical profession and Diabetes Australia will come out of their ‘coma’ one day and wake up to the science.

Are most of us Type 2 Diabetic or Pre Diabetic?

I think we are as long as we consume the amounts of carbohydrate and processed food in the ‘average’ diet.

The massive glucose load of sugar and carbohydrate combined with low grade inflammation over a long term puts the pancreas in a state of exhaustion.

http://www.nofructose.com/introduction/nutritional-model-of-modern-disease-2/

The beautiful thing is that it can be avoided and often reversed by change. Cutting way back on that sugar and carbohydrate load allows the pancreas to ‘recover’. Less insulin needs to be produced each meal and day.

Current guidelines for people with diabetes that recommend 50 to 60% of daily energy to come from carbs is flogging a dead horse. It can only mean a spiralling of poor health.

Dr Andreas Eenfeldt sums it up in this summary.

http://www.dietdoctor.com/diabetes

My Hospital Food

Bulging hospital

Are you in hospital and trying to get better?
Is the hospital food helping or hindering your progress?
Please post your hospital food pictures and stories here.
We can make a difference.

Join me on Facebook at My Hospital Food

Gary Fettke
Orthopaedic Surgeon
M.B.,B.S.(University NSW), F.R.A.C.S.(Orthopaedic Surgery), F.A.Orth.A

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Is a zero response from the Minister of Health negligent?

shutterstock_221805196Our elected officials are supposed to lead and if they don’t lead then they should be responsible for their actions or in this case their inactions.

I have written to the Honourable Michael Ferguson regarding hospital food and public health policy on more than one occasion. Zero response from him and zero action.

Does this make him responsible for the next limb I need to amputate? Should he be responsible for the next complicated diabetic patient with poorly controlled blood glucose? My patients this week think he should be responsible. A well-controlled patient managing his diabetes outside of hospital has been out of control the moment he only had choices of high carbohydrate foods that the hospital provided. He asked me why, how come hospitals do not lead by example?

We need to reduce our sugar consumption and guidelines are recommending that, but our hospital food remains hopelessly overloaded with sugar (and carbohydrates).

The kiosks, cafeterias and vending machines are negligently stocked with junk food that are outside the Occupational Health and Safety guidelines. Continue reading

Sorry!

Gary Fettke No Fructose's photo.

I used to believe that eating too much on the path to obesity was primarily a lack of self-control. I used to judge people accordingly. I now know why that self-control is difficult.

Like most people in the health industry, I have been frustrated by patients who put on weight, can’t lose it when recommended and come up with the same excuses of ‘I can’t exercise like I used to’, despite the fact that their bodies are failing under the progressive problems associated with obesity.

I used to judge people harder than I do now. It took me a long time to work out why I had poor control over eating and yet stubborn willpower over most other things.

I realise now that food and particularly Fructose has a profound effect on me chemically. Add upon that the environmental factors and it is nearly impossible to NOT succumb to the ‘convenience’ food industry that bombards us every hour of every day. We are rushing along exposed to passive and active advertising and surrounded by the ‘short term’ benefits of processed food and lifestyle. It takes a lot of work and time to prepare and eat properly.

I have had another month of seeing patients and operating on them with their diabetic and weight related issues. More failing organs, infections and pain for people whose systems are deteriorating as a result of their diets.

I heard 2 quotes recently by Peter Attia:-

‘Scientific truth is not final but constantly evolving’ and

‘I cannot afford the luxury of certainty.’

They struck a chord with me as there continues to be commentary in the literature and media which blurs the debate about processed food and sugars being responsible for our obesity issues as a society. There is a call by some to await further research before blaming our food intake for our situation. It reminds me of the ‘smoke screen’ put up by the tobacco industry for decades.

My interpretation of the biochemistry and association literature is that our current western diet is to blame. Fructose and polyunsaturated oils combine to give us inflammation in every vessel and organ in the body. The refined and processed flours just add to this with spiking insulin effects. I am ‘certain’ of this. Is this completely proven without doubt in the scientific literature? No. But there is enough information there for me to advise the NoFructose concept – Low Carb and Healthy Fat living.

I know that the science is yet to prove beyond a doubt which part of our food intake is responsible for our health issues. It will be a combination of factors and the sugar industry will blame someone else and the seed oil industry will push it away from them. The convenience food industry will say it is a lack of exercise and our governments remain exposed to all of these vested interests.

To me there is no cost and no side effects to going back to eating real food. This involves cutting back dramatically on our sugar and particularly Fructose consumption as well as avoiding the polyunsaturated oils and processed foods which inundate the food aisles.

The individual has a choice. I have a choice. The choice for me was to make a change. The benefits I am seeing around me from others taking a major interest in a LCHF diet propels this concept on.

I am sorry it has taken so long for me to change my way of thinking. I am sorry that the medical profession is taking its time to confront the food industry. I can see that they are waiting for ‘certainty’ but it may be a long time coming. I am not waiting.

 

Trans Fats – Good or Bad?

Gary Fettke No Fructose's photo.

The first response is bad. That’s what we hear. That’s what the Heart Foundation propagate. But is there a difference between the industrial hydrogenated trans fats and the natural ones found in butter and meat? Of course there is.

This came through from Dianne and she was concerned when our ‘peak’ body comes out with their misinformation, again.

“The Heart Foundation have on their web page that “…butter is around 50% saturated fat and 4% trans fat – the unhealthy fats that raise our cholesterol levels”. I read this information about trans fat in butter with some concern”

The industrial trans fats are harmful, but that’s not the ones found in butter.

The amounts of trans fats found in butter are high at around 4%. Alarming if you are from the Heart ‘less misinformation’ Foundation. If they did some further reading then they would learn that there are different forms of trans fats.

Natural ruminant trans fats are quite different to the processed ones and appear to be protective from a cardiovascular perspective.

Stick with the butter.

Chris Kresser does a nice summary of them.
http://chriskresser.com/can-some-trans-fats-be-healthy/

Articles
http://advances.nutrition.org/content/2/4/332.long
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/6/1118.long
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat

Heart Foundation ‘ideas’
http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/…/P…/butter-margarine.aspx

https://www.facebook.com/393958287365295/photos/a.407869679307489.94446.393958287365295/822951584465961/?type=3

Trans Fats – Good or Bad?

IMG_2016
The first response is bad. That’s what we hear. That’s what the Heart Foundation propagate. But is there a difference between the industrial hydrogenated trans fats and the natural ones found in butter and meat? Of course there is.

This came through from Dianne and she was concerned when our ‘peak’ body comes out with their misinformation, again.

“The Heart Foundation have on their web page that “…butter is around 50% saturated fat and 4% trans fat – the unhealthy fats that raise our cholesterol levels”. I read this information about trans fat in butter with some concern”

The industrial trans fats are harmful, but that’s not the ones found in butter.

The amounts of trans fats found in butter are high at around 4%. Alarming if you are from the Heart ‘less misinformation’ Foundation. If they did some further reading then they would learn that there are different forms of trans fats.

Natural ruminant trans fats are quite different to the processed ones and appear to be protective from a cardiovascular perspective.

Stick with the butter.

Chris Kresser does a nice summary of them.
http://chriskresser.com/can-some-trans-fats-be-healthy/

Articles
http://advances.nutrition.org/content/2/4/332.long
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/6/1118.long
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat

Heart Foundation ‘ideas’
http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/healthy-eating/fats/Pages/butter-margarine.aspx

Smoke a ‘Fresh’ Cigarette and ‘Natural’ Sugar

1

If you are aware of the consequences of your actions then you can make an informed decision.

The medical profession and government used to promote the benefits of smoking. They were even used to relax children on long journeys. They were part of the rations for our soldiers, given an allocation in our pension calculations and tobacco remains part of our Consumer Price Indexation related to our cost of ‘living’.

Smokers nowadays know that it is bad for them with potential health consequences but they make that decision and that is of their own volition.

Health professionals and government authorities for the last 40 years have been encouraging people to have low fat diets supplemented with ‘natural’ sugar. There is nothing ‘natural’ about its production and our consumption. Continue reading

Coca Cola ‘Life’ or Death?

coke life

Coke Life and smaller cans remind me of the ‘Light’ cigarette promotions of the last 30 years.

Keep having the poison but just a bit less of it. Hmmm

That didn’t change the equation when it came to causing respiratory disease and lung cancer.

Coca Cola is experiencing a decline in profits. Coke Life is a death throw option. Throwing stevia in with the sugar just doesn’t cut it with me. It’s not the taste. It’s a marketing ploy.

More and more resistant organisms in our society. Where to now?

Balds leechbook - Royal 12 D XVII   ff. 20v-21  British Library

This is significantly related to the antibiotics overused in animal husbandry and in particular chicken production in Asia.

Ciprofloxacin is an antibiotic used carefully in humans but is a feed additive for chicken production. The widespread use in the food production places a massive load into our society increasing the risk of antibiotic resistance developing.

Modern medicine does not have new antibiotics in the ‘pipeline’.

This is a major concern as we are encountering more and more resistant organisms each year. It has been a pet topic of mine for some time. Continue reading