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Another View: Choosing the right diet to combat diabetes

The Auburn Journal - 8/11/2017

In October 2015, I was in Dr Keith Smith's chiropractic office for an adjustment. One of his comely daughters ushered me into Room 2 while he was working on a patient in Room 1.

Usually, when Keith comes through the door, he's all smiles and says something like, "Boy, am I glad to see you! I've got a kink in my neck, and I thought I was going to have to beg you to come down off the mountain to trade adjustments."

But this time Keith was subdued and a bit gloomy. Small wonder: He was on two diabetes drugs, Metformin and Glucophage, was strictly following the American Diabetes Association diet, his blood sugar was continuing to climb, and the latest measurement was 135. Since normal is around 90, that was seriously bad news. It meant he was tracking to die about 10 years early, just like his father had.

Usually, people don't actually die of diabetes, but diabetes causes heart attacks, cancer and kidney failure, all of which are frequently fatal. Keith's father had died in his sleep of a heart attack at 69; not a bad way to go, but not nearly as good as living another 10 years.

I mentally took a deep breath, as I often do in situations like this, and told him that the American Diabetes Association exercise and weight control advice was good, but the ADA diet was wrong. Avoiding carbohydrate foods and eating high fat and protein, so as not to overwhelm his body's very weak ability to process the carbs that the body turns into blood sugar, makes logical sense and generally works in the short run. But in the long run the ADA diet often makes diabetes worse.

I explained that when insulin in the blood locks into the insulin receptors on the cell membranes, the insulin recep

tors send messages to the glucose receptors, telling them to open up and let the glucose sugar come in out of the blood. But fat dissolved in the cellular fluid impedes the insulin receptors' messages from getting through to the glucose receptors. Since the amount of fat dissolved in the cellular fluid mirrors the amount of fat in the diet, a high-fat diet like the ADA recommends prevents the sugar from coming into the cell, so the sugar stays in the blood and keeps going higher, damaging the heart and kidneys, and feeding cancer.

The ADA diet sometimes works for seriously overweight people who get lean and exercise a lot. But Keith was only slightly over ideal weight. He's active but not an exercise addict, and the ADA program obviously wasn't working for him.

So I told Keith: "Look, just get a copy of Dr. Neal Barnard's 'Program for Reversing Diabetes,' follow his advice, and you'll be fine. He explains it better than I do, he has a whole bunch of tasty recipes in the back, and he's the world authority on the subject."

People often don't follow my advice, and I've just learned to get used to that fact.

Why would Keith listen to me, a chiropractor, on a medical problem, when the American Diabetic Association is telling him that Metformin, Glucophage and the ADA diet are the best way to treat diabetes? So I just gave Keith my advice and mentally washed my hands of the outcome.

However, Keith, being a chiropractor, has had first-hand experience with how willing the medical establishment is to mislead the public on issues - like using chiropractors -where large amounts of drug company money are at risk. So my advice may have weighed a bit more than usual with Keith.

Nevertheless, I was surprised four months later when Keith thanked me for recommending Barnard's book, and told me he had been able to quit taking Glucophage, his blood sugar was down to 110, he had his energy back, and he was recommending Barnard's book to his diabetic patients.

A year later, 16 months after starting Barnard's program, his blood sugar was in the 90s and he wasn't taking any diabetic drugs. Keith still has the genetic weakness, so he has to stay on Dr. Barnard's diet and exercise plan for the rest of his life. But he no longer has diabetes and now has a full and vigorous life span ahead of him.

Dr. Barnard's diet consists of eating only whole foods, avoiding all animal products, and avoiding fatty plant products like nuts, avocados and olives. Many people would say that they would rather die than give up their steaks and swordfish and Swiss cheese, but really, it isn't all that bad. I eat that way by choice a lot of the time. One of my favorite quick meals is to lay a banana on a slice of whole grain bread, sprinkle on some raisins, roll it up like a taco, and start at one end.

It just gets down to how much you love life. Do you live to eat or eat to live? If you truly love life, you will do what it takes to stay healthy so you can continue enjoying being here.

Dr. Gordon Ainsleigh is a graduate of University of Western States, College of Chiropractic in Portland, Oregon, and has postgraduate certification in clinical nutrition.

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