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Eating for Diabetes Reversal: Part 2
A Spectrum Of Options
I have proposed that the "Modern Human Diet" has reached the nutritional breaking point, as a result of excess deviation from the "Natural Human Diet", an unintended consequence of modern technology.
The diabetes, obesity, and heart disease caused by modern food is a result of the way it has been altered by modern technology. Problems include high caloric density, excess unhealthy saturated fat in meat and dairy, low fiber, high glycemic load, high added sugar, trans fats, and the list goes on.
There is general agreement that we are NOT going back to eating mostly wild food like hunter-gatherers, but there has been considerable debate about how to eat in order to avoid the nutritional breaking point caused by the modern diet.
Put another way, the modern diet differs from the natural diet in many ways, and therefore there are many potential directions in which to backpedal away from the nutritional breaking point.
Anyone who has spent any time looking at the "Diet Books" section of the bookstore or library has noticed there are hundreds of different perspectives on how to eat for good health. Most, if not all, argue that the modern diet is problematic, and that their strategy will work well for disease prevention or recovery if followed. Sometimes the authors claim their strategy is best, and that other strategies are flawed. Some focus on diabetes, others focus on weight loss in general, and others focus on other conditions.
I refer to this phenomenon as the "Popular Diet Spectrum", because, with few exceptions, the eating strategies proposed by these popular diet books fall neatly along a nutritional spectrum ranging from very low in carbohydrate to very high in carbohydrate (or very low in fat to very high in fat). Also with few exceptions, authors provide "science-based" rationales for why their eating strategy will work well to reverse or prevent disease, and these rationales are reasonable and plausible. In a few cases, the rationales are clearly pseudoscientific meaning just plain incorrect (or incompatible with current knowledge), but even in these cases the eating strategy may work well, for reasons other than what the authors propose.
Although the diets fall along a continuous spectrum, I believe it is useful to categorize the popular diet strategies into 4 types. I call them low-carb, moderate carb, moderate fat, and low fat. Each has strengths and weaknesses, and each can work for diabetes reversal, in large part because they all reduce daily caloric intake and produce weight loss.
I'm happy to report that the past 5 years of scientific research has dramatically improved our medical knowledge of popular diets and various eating strategies.
In January 2005, my research group published a research study comparing the effects of four popular diets (Atkins, Zone, Weight Watchers, and Ornish vegetarian) on weight loss and heart disease risk factor reduction, and it is a privilege for me to share the results of this study with you.
Which eating strategies work best for diabetes reversal? Stay tuned for Part 3 of "Eating for Diabetes Reversal"
- Michael Dansinger, MD
Read the entire series:
Related Topics:
I have proposed that the "Modern Human Diet" has reached the nutritional breaking point, as a result of excess deviation from the "Natural Human Diet", an unintended consequence of modern technology.
The diabetes, obesity, and heart disease caused by modern food is a result of the way it has been altered by modern technology. Problems include high caloric density, excess unhealthy saturated fat in meat and dairy, low fiber, high glycemic load, high added sugar, trans fats, and the list goes on.
There is general agreement that we are NOT going back to eating mostly wild food like hunter-gatherers, but there has been considerable debate about how to eat in order to avoid the nutritional breaking point caused by the modern diet.
Put another way, the modern diet differs from the natural diet in many ways, and therefore there are many potential directions in which to backpedal away from the nutritional breaking point.
Anyone who has spent any time looking at the "Diet Books" section of the bookstore or library has noticed there are hundreds of different perspectives on how to eat for good health. Most, if not all, argue that the modern diet is problematic, and that their strategy will work well for disease prevention or recovery if followed. Sometimes the authors claim their strategy is best, and that other strategies are flawed. Some focus on diabetes, others focus on weight loss in general, and others focus on other conditions.
I refer to this phenomenon as the "Popular Diet Spectrum", because, with few exceptions, the eating strategies proposed by these popular diet books fall neatly along a nutritional spectrum ranging from very low in carbohydrate to very high in carbohydrate (or very low in fat to very high in fat). Also with few exceptions, authors provide "science-based" rationales for why their eating strategy will work well to reverse or prevent disease, and these rationales are reasonable and plausible. In a few cases, the rationales are clearly pseudoscientific meaning just plain incorrect (or incompatible with current knowledge), but even in these cases the eating strategy may work well, for reasons other than what the authors propose.
Although the diets fall along a continuous spectrum, I believe it is useful to categorize the popular diet strategies into 4 types. I call them low-carb, moderate carb, moderate fat, and low fat. Each has strengths and weaknesses, and each can work for diabetes reversal, in large part because they all reduce daily caloric intake and produce weight loss.
I'm happy to report that the past 5 years of scientific research has dramatically improved our medical knowledge of popular diets and various eating strategies.
In January 2005, my research group published a research study comparing the effects of four popular diets (Atkins, Zone, Weight Watchers, and Ornish vegetarian) on weight loss and heart disease risk factor reduction, and it is a privilege for me to share the results of this study with you.
Which eating strategies work best for diabetes reversal? Stay tuned for Part 3 of "Eating for Diabetes Reversal"
- Michael Dansinger, MD
Read the entire series:
- "Natural Food" versus "Modern Food"
- A Spectrum Of Options
- The Tufts Popular Diet Trial
- Dating the Diets
- Caloric Density, Glycemic Load, and Saturated Fat: Key Players In Diabetes Reversal
- Dr. Dansinger's Eating Strategy for Diabetes Reversal
- Sample Meals
Related Topics:
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