Monday 11 January 2016

Why do doctors prescribe a treatment that NEVER works well?

I have spent hundreds of hours scouring the internet. I have requested information from many different diabetes discussion forums in many countries around the world.

There is a lot of data there. There are tens of thousands of diabetics on diet forums, many posting about what they eat and what they do.

Yet I have been unable to find even a single person who meets the following criteria
1. Age and disease duration equal to or greater than me.
2. Complication free
3. Physical capabilities sufficient to enjoy a range of outdoor sports
4. Eats a low fat diet, uses low fat cheese etc on days when they are sedentary.

I am unable to find any evidence that low fat diets work really well in the long term for people with Type 1.
I do, however, find many very successful diabetics whose dietary fat to carb ratio far exceeds that recommended by Australian Government health authorities.

Doctors are no help. They consistently refuse to collect any formal data on the long term effects of various diets which might cast doubt on their pet theories. That leaves the internet as the current best source of information, even if it is far from perfect. Ignore it as your peril.




Additional notes

1. What athletes eat on training or competition days is irrelevant. 300 grams of carbs a day with little fat does NOT stop you achieving goals of normal blood sugar and low insulin levels if it is consumed during a long day in the mountains, on foot, skis or bike. This practice shouldn't be used as evidence to support a low fat / high carb diet generally.

2. Many people with diabetes claim to have an "individual" diet that works for them. How do they know it will work in the long term? Most of us will die from cardiovascular disease or cancer, not an abnormal HbA1c. How do they know that their current levels of consumption of sugar, fat and insulin are not increasing their individual cancer risk, or the amount of atheroma in their own cerebral arteries? Evidence of long term effect can only come from population studies.