I write about a courageous woman, Megan Whelan, Head of Content at Radio New Zealand, who was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, late in 2021. She took the best officially approved advice, and she worked hard. 12 months later her diabetes is “well managed” which means inevitably getting worse, because officially Type 2 Diabetes is a progressive disease.

Megan Whelan had a grand plan, to write about herself, to learn as much as possible, and to do what she could to remove the stigma associated with Type 2 Diabetes and being fat. (Megan has previously supported the “Fat Acceptance” group, and she’s previously been damaged by the negative attitude of medical doctors when they see how fat she is.)

Megan describes herself as an adult with Google, but she carries a burden, a millstone around her neck. Megan Whelan is Head of Content at Radio New Zealand, and she has some relationship also with Diabetes New Zealand. This places her in an invisible prison of the mind. What she can say is limited to official policy from the Ministry of Health, and the Diabetes Association of New Zealand. She is a smart woman, she’s the sort of person who follows the rules, she’s a professional decision maker, she knows how to contact and talk with knowledgeable people.

“This I know how to do,” she said.

So she starts with Google. She searches maybe; “Diabetes Care, NZ”. The first six responses are:

Results 1 & 3 The Ministry of Health

Results 2 & 4 Diabetes New Zealand

Result 5 Diabetesinfo.org.nz

Result 6 Health Navigator, NZ

All of these sites promote the same FALSE message, as simply stated in the diabetesinfo.org.nz website.

“Diabetes is a chronic condition – this means that there is no cure, and it will remain with you for the rest of your life. … The aim of diabetes care is to enable you to live your life to the maximum, in spite of having diabetes. This means helping you to function on a daily basis, and protecting your long term health at the same time.”

Following that advice, Megan Whelan has apparently got stronger, she is going to the gym, and her blood glucose is under some control, but she hasn’t lost any weight in 12 months. She says; “I can, after all this, live well.”

Open Future Health thinks that the official advice is completely wrong-headed. It creates the metal prison that will forbid Megan Whelan from reversing her diabetes, restoring her best weight, and adding several years, perhaps as many as 20 years of good health to her life.

On the 1 June, Megan Whelan writes about “Filtering Out Unsolicited Diet Advice.” By now, she’s been told about low carbohydrate diets, and Type 2 Diabetes reversal. She probably even knows about the University of Newcastle Study where they reversed diabetes using a low-calorie liquid diet. (Something I’m not recommending.) She probably has been told about the work of Virta Health in the USA, and the TED x Talk at Purdue University, in 2015, by Dr Sarah Hallberg.