A Picture is worth a 1000 words. These images (35) convey an important health message.
(Because the page is mostly images, they may arrive a little slowly.)
This is what we need to avoid. Is this man 70, or 80, or 90? In any case he should not be like this.
The right target may surprise you. To reverse the insulin resistance most of us have, that causes the chronic disease people have.
What you CHOOSE to think about yourself drives what’s possible. The ability to learn is critical.
We don’t think of Insulin Resistance as a disease, and it isn’t, unless it’s out of control. The cause of insulin resistance is normally dietary. The solution is to stop eating sugars, sugar substitutes and starches.
We are trying to avoid this. Shouldn’t ever happen at 70, or 80 or even 90.
Choose the right health target. But maintaining the focus is difficult, even then.
A fatty liver is usually the first (hidden) problem. All your internal organs slowly become fatty and don’t work as they should. Then weight control becomes difficult and depending on the situation, diabetes, cancer or heart problems occur.
If you understand this diagram, and you know how to reduce your own insulin resistance you can avoid all these common problems. HbA1c is the measure of the sugars stuck to the red cells in your blood.
Don’t worry if this all seems to be too much. You’ve got time, maybe 10 years to learn this stuff, unless you are already very old. Be interested. Your health can be improved.
In the last ten years, best practice has become clear. You, and everybody else can-do BEST PRACTICE.
But most people don’t.
Because; life gets in the way, sometimes it’s complicated. A Health Coach or Doctor might help.
If it’s not about you, but about the family, or your job, or a criminal record or drug addiction that can be complex. You might need the help of a team of people. We are trying to avoid the chaotic quartile.
Doctors and Health Coaches have ethical standards, that they must apply. You should too.
In particular be honest with yourself. Don’t “hope for better health” try to actively do something.
Best practice for reducing Insulin Resistance is to fast, or to restrict sugars and carbohydrates. Don’t worry about being hungry. If you eat “right” you’ll never feel hungry.
There have been disputes about the guidelines in the last 20 years. Some court cases, usually because some professionals don’t keep up with the latest science. Low Carb is well respected, but it’s not yet mainstream, and some doctors and many dieticians are reluctant to learn about this. This is particularly because most low carb people quickly learn that “plant based whole foods” are not a satisfactory diet. Quality proteins and animal fats are critical to a proper diet.
This is advice to doctors. They have short appointments, so as a strategy they give people handouts to read. I’ve created this website for the same reason. There’s lots to learn, and most people have two or three years to do that.
Dr Jason Fung says if the bowl is full, stop eating. He recommends fasting, and he’s been very successful.
There is hidden sugar everywhere, especially in fruit, drinks, sauces and in starches.
Sugar sticks to proteins in the blood. When your doctor measures your HbA1c, he/she is measuring that stickyness. Type 2 Diabetes develops slowly over many years and your doctor uses the HbA1c measure to diagnose Type 2 Diabetes. That’s 20 years too late. Damage has been accumulating for a long time. A fatty liver can hide for 20 years.
Type 2 Diabetes is best avoided. It’s created by your food choices, and leads to many health complications. People who have diabetes, suffer many unpleasant health issues, one of which finally causes death.
The burning of carbohydrates also causes inflammation, and that is also a concern.
You can see that inflammation feeds all these health problems.
The best way to STOP consuming sugars and carbohydrates is not to buy them. Almost every aisle in the supermarket is stacked with fake food-like substances you need not buy.
These foods you should avoid. They are causing insulin resistance and inflammation.
These animal based foods are the key to eating well, and never being hungry, losing weight and reversing insulin resistance.
It’s a bit hard to get your head around it, but breakfast can look like this. (below)
But after a few months, many people choose to do intermittent fasting, and skip breakfast altogether.
Dr Sarah Hallberg has a very well-known TED Talk that you should watch.
Try to avoid processed foods and drinks.
Don’t waste your time counting calories. If that worked nobody would become fat.
Don’t make the mistake of avoiding quality fat in your diet.
You can do best practice if you choose. It’s actually EASY, but it still takes a bit of getting used too. Maybe a year or two. If you are young you have many options, and you have time on your side. Once your weight becomes an issue, or your fitness declines, that’s when to get serious about this. What’s your HbA1c? Ask your doctor if he/she sees other signs of Insulin resistance.
These lab results are from 2008. At the time everyone was surprised, if this lab result was about you, your doctor would be thrilled.
Your body runs on several fuels, glucose, fatty acids, lactate, glutamine or on ketones. If your insulin levels are high, all the fat burning options are shut down, you can’t burn body fat and ketones will be at a very low level. Babies, breast fed before eating complementary foods, are always in ketosis. You can be too if you choose. It may be healthy to make that choice at least sometimes.
This is a respected researcher, Prof. Dominic D’Agostino, explaining how research into ketones and ketogenic diet applications to health are widespread. There are at least 700 current registered scientific studies now being investigated. 20 years ago, hardly any. Many teams are working in this area now, and developments are rapid.
Finally, let us avoid this, and Type 2 Diabetes, and Alzheimer’s disease. We have not mentioned exercise. Get your diet right and exercise won’t be a problem. You can’t expect to use exercise to lose weight, that’s another wrong idea most people still believe. Let’s get rid of that belly, and then we can talk about exercise.
TASK ONE is to make a PLAN for your own better health, based on the principles of health you already know. Measure what happens. Is this plan working, or not. If not do Task Two.
TASK TWO is to control INSULIN RESISTANCE, and get you into ketosis. That’s about your diet.
That’s a quick tour of the problem, and the BEST PRACTICE SOLUTION.
References in the Main Site.
These links will consume several hours of your time. We’ve chosen ten for you. (If you are new, avoid these for now.) These links are intended for tablet devices. There is an option to change the view at the top of each page.
Dr Peter Attia – How to live a long healthy life.
Prof. Benjamin Bikman – Expertise in Insulin Resistance.
Prof. Robert Lustig – The dangers of sugar in your diet.
Prof. Timothy Noakes – Put on trial in South Africa for recommending low-carb for a baby.
Dr Jason Fung – A kidney specialist, famous for recommending fasting.
Dr David Unwin – English GP who ten years ago began to change UK GP education.
Dr Sarah Hallberg – Sarah died of cancer but her early work on weight loss was inspiring.
Prof. Dominic D’Agostino – Dom began in military research with navy divers. Now a ketone researcher.
Dr Christopher M Palmer – Dementia is caused by a failure of brain energy systems.
Defeat Diabetes – An Australian initiative let by Dr Peter Brukner.