Back when I was at the very naive age of 19-ish, and having grown up in our very cultured, but safe life, I had a riding instructor tell me the naughtiest joke I had ever heard in my entire life. Holding her fingers roughly three to four inches apart she asked me, “Why women are bad a math?” I was a little flabbergasted and offended. I was in college, taking advanced math classes. I was not bad at math. What was this? So I answered that I didn’t know. Raising those fingers, still held three to four inches apart in front of my face she answered, “We spend our whole lives being told this is nine inches!” In my very sheltered existence I stared at her for a bit and she finally explained the joke to me. I think I blushed for a week straight. So is the life of the young woman who has attended four high schools and moved every two years.
Wait, wait! This has a point! I was discussing insulin resistance(IR) and cereal with a friend earlier today. With IR and T2DM like I have, a serving of her chosen brand of cereal is a virtual death trap to me. Even at a quarter cup suggested portion size it’s guaranteed to raise insulin and blood glucose. This got me thinking into how many other things we take for granted that are silently killing us, even as they look good on paper. As definitive evidence is reappearing and growing related to glucose drive insulin toxicity, and all of it’s commodities-cardiac disease, NASH, anxiety disorders, PCOS, and T2DM-I wonder how may of these issues and cases could have been avoided if carbohydrate portions were acknowledged and followed. Like how many people realize you’re getting close to 30 grams (roughly 8 teaspoons of sugar) of carbs in a sandwich with two slices of bread? It takes about 1 gram (quarter teaspoon) of sugar to raise blood glucose (BG) four points. That four points requires insulin to push that sugar back into your body and your cells. Thirty grams of sugar can spike your BG 120 points. So, if you’re a relatively healthy person, sitting at a comfortable 85, you have now spiked your sugar to 205. But who eats just a sandwich for lunch? Doesn’t lunch come with chips, an apple or a baguette? And a tea to wash it all down? Yeah…so what right? Well, insulin is what stores fat. Elevated insulin levels places your body into constant fat storing mode. Especially in your liver, causing NASH, which just makes this insidious cycle in which you will always want carbs, and you will always gain weight. And this is where I am so grateful that I have a T2DM diagnosis.
Because I know I have IR. I can look back at my life and tell you exactly when IR started affecting my life. But with Alzheimer’s as the new Type 3, I worry about the rest of you. How many of you are TOFI (thin outside, fat inside)? I have so many friends that have normal BMI’s and have PCOS, and anxiety disorders and suffer from depression–all of which are related with causative factors to IR. My gram was a woman always concerned with her appearance, and always “thin and pretty”…and she lost her mind to pretzels, white bread, and the low fat, high carb way.
In a country that is screaming for health care, why are we killing our neighbors softly? With a directive of 65% of their diet to come from carbohydrates? When we know that dietary carbohydrates are deadly, and the direct cause of atherosclerosis? Ancel Keys is dead. Why are we letting his bunk science still lead us?
Riding While Fat 
*cackles at the trainer* We really were innocent, sheltered little children back then. I think a lot of it comes down to money and people not thinking any farther down the road than today. So many different layers of businesses make money off carbs: the farmers, the factories, the transporters, the grocery stores, various health industries from insurance companies to lose weight businesses of all shapes and sizes. It’s kinda like a cancer in a huge part of our society. Plus people never seem to be able to do the smart, common sense health things. I’m learning that a lot this past month. I’ve managed to cut out soda and most junk chocolate, except for special occasions. So much can be a carb nightmare, I couldn’t believe the carbs in orange juice! It really becomes a case of needing to think and really plan your food, and it seems like more and more, food is an inconvenience that’s squished between this thing and that thing that we absolutely have to do. A lot of people just don’t keep track what they’re putting in their bodies. It takes work and knowledge to really eat right.
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There is definitely a push from corporations because many carbs can be easily shelf stable and are cheap to mass produce. Orange juice is a great example- a cup of oj has the equivalent sugar of three oranges! How many people can sit down and eat three oranges in a 15 min period? I know I can’t! The fiber in the orange makes it hard, but when that’s eliminated for juice that natural appetite suppressant is removed and we eat more! I always cringe a little at the concept of “noncompliance” or people just not “wanting” to do what they need to for their health. Just yesterday I was in a new doctor’s office and he asked if I had tried dieting. (WTF?!) Of course I have. I have been on a diet, both by choice and as guided by a medical professional since I was 9. The hardest part is that the diets often prescribed are extremely wrong! The low fat fad that started in the 70’s is what is the driving factor behind so many illnesses we see today, not just weight gain. I have had other doctor’s even today tell me that eating low fat yogurt is better than whole milk yogurt-which is bs! When you take the fat out, you have to put the sugar in. Sugar-not fat-raises insulin levels, which cause weight gain, hormone imbalance, atherosclerosis, and brain chemistry imbalance. MyPlate and the food pyramid, and the USDA/FDA and the AND guide people towards sickness, and your doctor and RD use these government driven pillars to guide your health. Humans knew that the low fat paradigm was bunk, and that’s why our ancestors had better health than we do today. It’s so glaring when you have studied animal nutrition, and then you look at the franken food, chemical crap we feed humans with no regard to how humans ate in the wild.
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Amen.
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