And like in the case of hypertension limits and lipid standards, the limits are being continuously revised over a long time only to sustain the drug industry. I am sure diabetes is also one. Like the new GLP-1 drugs. Repurposing them for diabetes, is an icing on the cake for the drug industry for these new class of drugs. They will instantly double the profit margins on these expensive drugs and as they last, it is a windfall for the industry. Keep labelling most people as diabetic.
I don’t post on Substack and have been content to actively participate in the comments and conversations. Have been reading quite a bit of postings on diets, macronutrients and insulin resistance etc. In my way of putting, I also talk of easy carbs and hard carbs, e.g. rice and lentils respectively. Whether one is a diabetic or not, if actively working, he would need both carbs. Easy carbs for that initial burst of energy and hard carbs for sustaining the energy availability. In that context, I also believe that carbohydrates consumption in a well distributed way is absolutely fine. I feel strongly vindicated about my personal opinions after reading a very well written essay like this one. My best compliments to the author for this effort.
I am 80, from India, a PhD in organic chemistry, long retired from process industry R&D. Except for a 5 year stint in edible oils decades ago, I have not worked in food and drug industry, two subjects I have taken to reading quite a bit in my retirement. Have been actively participating in Substack presentations on these topics. And I am on diabetic medications for the past 15 years - Metformin combinations basically. Whether fasting values or pp, I have been in the range of 120-180 mostly during the day and with an A1c of about 7. By present standards, I am diabetic. I am quite free about my food choices, but I am not indulgent. I am saying all these because, I have a feeling that sometime within my own life time, the limits to indicate diabetes will be substantially revised - something like fasting above 200, PP above 300 and A1c above 8. We are all eating largely only nature’s creations and nature didn’t create them to consign most of us as diabetic even on modest consumption.
Mr. Moro Balakrishnan, thank you for your comment.
The main problem with medical information, as I see it, is that the majority of people writing about health subjects in the internet are not interested in providing honest information to the public. Many are pushing made up theories lacking any evidence to back them up, or conspiracy theories claiming the “medical industrial complex” has hidden the real cure from us all and only THEY miraculously have it and willing to share it… for a price of course.
This is caused by the information vacuum left behind by the medical profession either not having the time, interest or knowledge to provide patients like you with the correct information — that is the reason I started this blog. The bottom line is simpler than what almost every health influencer out there is constantly pushing, there is only one bad food for you and that is the myriad of ultra processed industrial products so ubiquitous on every grocery store in America and around the world. Yes, they are convenient, but they are one of the main drivers of the dramatic rise of metabolic disease since the late 80’s.
Natural sourced foods is what your body has evolved over centuries to process and obtain nourishment from. There are no absolute good or bad natural foods, is just how much of each we choose to consume, and the total caloric intake relative to our level of activity.
I planned to release a new series on lifestyle modification two weeks ago but held to rewrite and make it more useful; it will finally drop starting this Monday and is 13 parts long. Is most everything you need to know whenever we tell you to modify your lifestyle without actually telling you what you are supposed to do.
That failure is entirely on us, the physicians.
Wish you the very best and thank you kindly for reading my work.
Thanks for your prompt response. You are right on many counts. Especially on the need for practising medicine professionals to keep themselves constantly update not only on their domain subjects, but also on the peripheral subjects. On the latter, food, nutrition and metabolisms come first. But they are not. It is the patients who have to take the brunt.
I liked your banana examples, how its nutritional and metabolic profile changes when it is converted into a packaged banana pudding. I feel the real concerns about the ultra processed foods (UPF) is not being properly explained to the public.,Like you explained on banana. Most of the writing is in the nature of scare mongering. All said and done, they are also convenience foods that cannot be wished away from everyday pantries and many of their ingredients do carry some value. Most of the writers even fail to name atleast one very widely consumed UPF as bought directly from a store. Some one like you must identify some 25 top selling packaged food items and strip their nutritional and metabolic profile totally. Only an aware consuming public can force the manufacturers to revise their product standards and features to the safe limits. People must also know the distinction between ultra processed foods and simply packaged food ingredients.
I have another point. UPF has come to dominate largely the West, particularly countries like the USA and Australia etc that were new and got created as modern nations by European immigrants first and others to follow. The downside has been that these nations didn’t have surviving and flourishing legacy cuisines to fall back on for their nutritional care and standards. Industrial food also developed heavily in these countries as also modern food science, with its still evolving nutrition guidelines. An area like the Mediterranean does not suffer from these draw backs. Food practices evolved over centuries continue to define their every day needs. Like Indian cuisine and a dozen other old cuisines that continue to serve their respective populations. It is not as though modern food scene has not enveloped these countries. They have, but largely as packaged or convenience foods. There is no domination of UPF here. I still eat 98% of what my forefathers three four generations ago ate, barring a chocolate bar or packet of processed cheese or a packet of ready to cook pasta as part of modern day offerings, here and there. Even restaurants do the same. From that angle, many modern food science guidelines may not fully be applicable to us. If anything our old living food scene provides a more correct food science template for us. Our metabolisms have evolved and stabilised to certain conditions based on our timeless consumption patterns and choices. Most of you in the West lambast seed oils for their high linoleic content and freely villainise them. There could be some science behind it. But we here in India have been consuming mainly only seed oils like peanut, sesame and mustard. With coconut oil and ghee added to the mix. We did not become civilisational wrecks as a result. Yes, linoleic acid had always carried its down sides even if not known until recently. But our metabolisms have figured that out. There is no need for us to follow the avoid seed oils guideline emanating from the USA. Such guidelines could even be counter productive to our populations. China, Japan, Korea, the Middle East are some other examples of ancient cuisines still supporting their populations in reasonable health.
“Most of you in the West lambast seed oils for their high linoleic content and freely villainise them.”, most of these is done by health influencer writers that provide non-evidenced backed information. They thrive in pointing to culprits and offer healthy “alternatives” they have for sale.
“There is no need for us to follow the avoid seed oils guideline emanating from the USA.”, there are no such official guidelines to absolutely avoid seed oils coming from either the USA government or science in general. There is concern that the omega content and proportion in some seed oils are not as metabolically beneficial as those found in fish such as salmon or extra virgin olive oil.
“Food practices evolved over centuries continue to define their every day needs. Like Indian cuisine and a dozen other old cuisines that continue to serve their respective populations.”, completely agree here. Many of the cultural food traditions are intuitively aligned with metabolic health needs, something we have lost over the past few decades.
“Some one like you must identify some 25 top selling packaged food items and strip their nutritional and metabolic profile totally.”, that seems like a good idea for future articles, I’ll add it to my list of topics.
This is a really important distinction.. thanks for breaking it down!
And like in the case of hypertension limits and lipid standards, the limits are being continuously revised over a long time only to sustain the drug industry. I am sure diabetes is also one. Like the new GLP-1 drugs. Repurposing them for diabetes, is an icing on the cake for the drug industry for these new class of drugs. They will instantly double the profit margins on these expensive drugs and as they last, it is a windfall for the industry. Keep labelling most people as diabetic.
I don’t post on Substack and have been content to actively participate in the comments and conversations. Have been reading quite a bit of postings on diets, macronutrients and insulin resistance etc. In my way of putting, I also talk of easy carbs and hard carbs, e.g. rice and lentils respectively. Whether one is a diabetic or not, if actively working, he would need both carbs. Easy carbs for that initial burst of energy and hard carbs for sustaining the energy availability. In that context, I also believe that carbohydrates consumption in a well distributed way is absolutely fine. I feel strongly vindicated about my personal opinions after reading a very well written essay like this one. My best compliments to the author for this effort.
I am 80, from India, a PhD in organic chemistry, long retired from process industry R&D. Except for a 5 year stint in edible oils decades ago, I have not worked in food and drug industry, two subjects I have taken to reading quite a bit in my retirement. Have been actively participating in Substack presentations on these topics. And I am on diabetic medications for the past 15 years - Metformin combinations basically. Whether fasting values or pp, I have been in the range of 120-180 mostly during the day and with an A1c of about 7. By present standards, I am diabetic. I am quite free about my food choices, but I am not indulgent. I am saying all these because, I have a feeling that sometime within my own life time, the limits to indicate diabetes will be substantially revised - something like fasting above 200, PP above 300 and A1c above 8. We are all eating largely only nature’s creations and nature didn’t create them to consign most of us as diabetic even on modest consumption.
Mr. Moro Balakrishnan, thank you for your comment.
The main problem with medical information, as I see it, is that the majority of people writing about health subjects in the internet are not interested in providing honest information to the public. Many are pushing made up theories lacking any evidence to back them up, or conspiracy theories claiming the “medical industrial complex” has hidden the real cure from us all and only THEY miraculously have it and willing to share it… for a price of course.
This is caused by the information vacuum left behind by the medical profession either not having the time, interest or knowledge to provide patients like you with the correct information — that is the reason I started this blog. The bottom line is simpler than what almost every health influencer out there is constantly pushing, there is only one bad food for you and that is the myriad of ultra processed industrial products so ubiquitous on every grocery store in America and around the world. Yes, they are convenient, but they are one of the main drivers of the dramatic rise of metabolic disease since the late 80’s.
Natural sourced foods is what your body has evolved over centuries to process and obtain nourishment from. There are no absolute good or bad natural foods, is just how much of each we choose to consume, and the total caloric intake relative to our level of activity.
I planned to release a new series on lifestyle modification two weeks ago but held to rewrite and make it more useful; it will finally drop starting this Monday and is 13 parts long. Is most everything you need to know whenever we tell you to modify your lifestyle without actually telling you what you are supposed to do.
That failure is entirely on us, the physicians.
Wish you the very best and thank you kindly for reading my work.
Thanks for your prompt response. You are right on many counts. Especially on the need for practising medicine professionals to keep themselves constantly update not only on their domain subjects, but also on the peripheral subjects. On the latter, food, nutrition and metabolisms come first. But they are not. It is the patients who have to take the brunt.
I liked your banana examples, how its nutritional and metabolic profile changes when it is converted into a packaged banana pudding. I feel the real concerns about the ultra processed foods (UPF) is not being properly explained to the public.,Like you explained on banana. Most of the writing is in the nature of scare mongering. All said and done, they are also convenience foods that cannot be wished away from everyday pantries and many of their ingredients do carry some value. Most of the writers even fail to name atleast one very widely consumed UPF as bought directly from a store. Some one like you must identify some 25 top selling packaged food items and strip their nutritional and metabolic profile totally. Only an aware consuming public can force the manufacturers to revise their product standards and features to the safe limits. People must also know the distinction between ultra processed foods and simply packaged food ingredients.
I have another point. UPF has come to dominate largely the West, particularly countries like the USA and Australia etc that were new and got created as modern nations by European immigrants first and others to follow. The downside has been that these nations didn’t have surviving and flourishing legacy cuisines to fall back on for their nutritional care and standards. Industrial food also developed heavily in these countries as also modern food science, with its still evolving nutrition guidelines. An area like the Mediterranean does not suffer from these draw backs. Food practices evolved over centuries continue to define their every day needs. Like Indian cuisine and a dozen other old cuisines that continue to serve their respective populations. It is not as though modern food scene has not enveloped these countries. They have, but largely as packaged or convenience foods. There is no domination of UPF here. I still eat 98% of what my forefathers three four generations ago ate, barring a chocolate bar or packet of processed cheese or a packet of ready to cook pasta as part of modern day offerings, here and there. Even restaurants do the same. From that angle, many modern food science guidelines may not fully be applicable to us. If anything our old living food scene provides a more correct food science template for us. Our metabolisms have evolved and stabilised to certain conditions based on our timeless consumption patterns and choices. Most of you in the West lambast seed oils for their high linoleic content and freely villainise them. There could be some science behind it. But we here in India have been consuming mainly only seed oils like peanut, sesame and mustard. With coconut oil and ghee added to the mix. We did not become civilisational wrecks as a result. Yes, linoleic acid had always carried its down sides even if not known until recently. But our metabolisms have figured that out. There is no need for us to follow the avoid seed oils guideline emanating from the USA. Such guidelines could even be counter productive to our populations. China, Japan, Korea, the Middle East are some other examples of ancient cuisines still supporting their populations in reasonable health.
“Most of you in the West lambast seed oils for their high linoleic content and freely villainise them.”, most of these is done by health influencer writers that provide non-evidenced backed information. They thrive in pointing to culprits and offer healthy “alternatives” they have for sale.
“There is no need for us to follow the avoid seed oils guideline emanating from the USA.”, there are no such official guidelines to absolutely avoid seed oils coming from either the USA government or science in general. There is concern that the omega content and proportion in some seed oils are not as metabolically beneficial as those found in fish such as salmon or extra virgin olive oil.
“Food practices evolved over centuries continue to define their every day needs. Like Indian cuisine and a dozen other old cuisines that continue to serve their respective populations.”, completely agree here. Many of the cultural food traditions are intuitively aligned with metabolic health needs, something we have lost over the past few decades.
“Some one like you must identify some 25 top selling packaged food items and strip their nutritional and metabolic profile totally.”, that seems like a good idea for future articles, I’ll add it to my list of topics.
Freelee says glucose spikes are normal and good. The issue is when levels stay elevated due to fat slowing absorption.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP_y-9n8LnI