I'm Back

As of October 1, I am no longer blogging for Health Central, and I hope to use the increased time to revive this blog. I doubt that anyone is still reading it, but writing my thoughts down helps me to organize them, so I will try to do so.

I'm interested in new ideas, new ways of looking at type 2 diabetes, and new research, rather than flogging old ideas or getting involved in what I call Diet Wars. I think too many diet blogs tend to preach to the converted rather than trying to come up with new ideas that might help us all in the obesogenic diabetogenic environment in which most of us live.

Re diets: I believe strongly in low-carb diets for people with type 2 diabetes, but I also recognize that we all have different genes, different food preferences, different financial situations, and different family situations, and there are some patients for whom another diet might work as well. Nevertheless, I think the LC diet should be what Richard Feinman calls "the default diet." Unless there are strong reasons to start with something else, you start with a LC diet, and if that doesn't work for you, you can try something else.

Some people say no one can stick to such a diet for very long. I've been on one for almost 20 years, and Richard Bernstein for even longer than that. As I stack wood I'm listening to an audiobook about medical myths. He repeats this argument and suggests that to lose weight you should just "eat healthy." I don't know any overweight person who has managed to lose and keep the weight off by using such an approach. The people who use that approach are usually thin people who don't have diabetes.

In the next post I will discuss the idea that insulin resistance, as well as body fat, may be protective for our health.