You CAN eat to beat diabetes – so why aren’t GPs telling you how?
The man behind the revolutionary 5:2 diet exposes seven ways doctors are failing to tackle the 21st-century epidemic – and reveals exactly what should be on YOUR plate
When I went to medical school, I learned lots about anatomy, biochemistry and physiology, but next to nothing about nutrition or exercise. As American holistic health guru Dr Andrew Weil pointed out recently: ‘Health professionals should be able to inform patients about the benefit of food, but they can’t because they are not taught the basics.’
This is happening against a backdrop of one of the greatest health crises of our age: ever-rising blood sugar levels. According to Diabetes Ireland, over 850,000 adults over the age of 40 in Ireland have or at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, the sort that’s usually linked to being overweight. A further 304,000-plus aged between 30 and 39 are overweight and not active enough and are highly likely to develop the disease.
In a VHI screening project carried out between 2009 and 2013, almost one fifth of those tested had abnormal blood sugar levels. This is known as prediabetes, and most will go on to develop the disease.
Many doctors still believe that type 2 diabetes is a progressive, irreversible disease and it’s best to start on medication as soon as possible. But I don’t.
Four years ago I lost 22 lb, reversed my own diabetes and, based on research by one of the world’s leading diabetes experts, have written a book showing how others can do likewise. The key to tackling this problem is rapid weight loss, and eating the right foods – which can be confusing.
So, if you are overweight, type 2 diabetic, prediabetic, or simply curious, here are the things you should know… but your doctor is unlikely to tell you:
1 Low-fat diets don’t work
Nutrition researchers at Harvard School of Public Health recently wrote: ‘Research has shown that low-fat diets are ineffective and eating healthy fats is beneficial.’ They point out that a big fall in fat consumption in the US over the past few decades (down from 45% of a typical diet to 33%) was followed by a dramatic rise in rates of obesity and diabetes. The Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial also failed to show any benefit from a low-fat diet. In this study, 49,000 women were randomly assigned to either a low-fat diet or continuing as usual. Those on the low-fat diet received lots of dietary support and managed to slash their fat consumption. But after eight years of followup, they were no better off than the control group, in terms of weight and rates of heart disease, cancer or stroke.
2 Healthy diets can be high in fat
One of the best diets for overall health, a Mediterranean-style diet, is relatively high in fat and low in carbohydrates. It includes lots of oily fish, olive oil and nuts but also wine and dark chocolate. Not much pizza or pasta.
Evidence for the benefits of this diet come from multiple studies including one titled Primary Prevention Of Cardiovascular Disease With A Mediterranean Diet – or PREDIMED.
Begun in 2003, this randomised controlled trial involved over 7,400 Spaniards, many of them type 2 diabetics. They were allocated either to a standard lowfat diet, with lots of starchy foods such as potatoes and pasta, or to a Mediterranean diet.
Both groups were encouraged to eat more fruit and veg and minimise processed foods including cake, biscuits, salami and bacon.
Only the Med diet group were encouraged to consume lots of olive oil, nuts, eggs and oily fish. Also on their menu was full-fat yogurt, wine with meals and dark chocolate.
At the end of the trial, compared to those on the low-fat diet, deaths from heart disease and stroke were down by 30% and the chances of becoming a diabetic were 50% lower.
I have devised my own ‘Eat Better’ plate, which shows roughly what you should be eating and in what proportions while on a lowcarb Med diet.
3 GPs are under pressure to prescribe medication rather than help patients lose weight
GP Dr David Unwin, who is passionate about spreading the word about nutrition and diabetes, has been recommending a relatively low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet to his patients for some time.
He has published studies showing that patients who follow his advice not only lose weight and keep it off, but are able to cut their medication. Yet this approach is still seen as faddy.
‘I’ve been told by other doctors what I do is dangerous,’ he says.
In some regions in Britain, GPs are financially penalised if they don’t put patients on medication straight away. One GP told me her practice had recently lost funding because, as she put it: ‘We are helping patients manage their high blood sugars through diet and as a result we are not prescribing enough drugs to hit our targets.’
Surely it would be better to give patients the chance to take control of their health, before starting a lifetime on medication?
4 Rapid weight loss can be a more effective than ‘slow and steady’
Standard advice is to lose weight gradually, about a pound or so a week. Yet as some of America’s leading obesity specialists recently wrote in the New England Journal Of Medicine, the evidence is that ‘more rapid and greater initial weight loss is associated with lower body weight at [in the] long term’.
Studies by Professor Roy Taylor of Newcastle University, whose research forms the basis of my new book, The 8-Week Blood Sugar
Diet, have shown that going on an 800-calorie diet for eight weeks leads to average weight loss of 30lb and can reverse type 2 diabetes in most cases. Even modest weight loss, particularly if it comes off the waist, can help.
If you are a prediabetic and lose, say, 7% of your body weight, this will cut your risk of becoming diabetic by 60%. If you are over 65, it’s over 70%. In fact, studies have shown that for every 2.2 lb you lose, you cut your risk by about 16%.
5 Exercise won’t help you lose weight
Doing exercise burns calories, so surely it will help you lose weight?
Unfortunately, that is not what usually happens. The trouble is that people underestimate how much exercise they need to do. To burn off a muffin, you would have to run at least four miles at a moderate pace. To burn 2 lb of fat, you would have to run at least two marathons.
We tend to reward ourselves for doing exercise by eating more, while unconsciously compensating for calories burnt by moving less. Exercise is great for the heart and the brain, and it is an important way to control blood sugar levels. But cutting calories and changing what you eat is a more effective way to achieve weight loss.
6 It’s good to go hungry
The standard advice is you should avoid getting hungry because otherwise you’ ll gorge on unhealthy foods. This is what I used to believe until I started researching something called ‘intermittent fasting’ for a science documentary called Eat, Fast, Live Longer.
This led to the invention of what I called the 5:2 diet, where you cut your calories to about a quarter two days a week (600 for men, 500 for women). On this diet, I lost 22 lb and reversed my diabetes. Many others have done so with similar success.
7 Drinking alcohol can be good for you
Drinking large amounts of alcohol is bad for you and helps pile on weight. A small glass of wine or a pint of beer can come to nearly 200 calories. Alcohol also lowers your inhibitions, so you are more likely to snack, also more likely to have another glass.
On the other hand, drinking a glass of wine with your evening meal is unlikely to do you much harm, and the evidence from a number of studies is it may do you good.