When is it alright to get half your daily calorie intake from saturated fats? Answer: When you follow a new diet for diabetics promoted by Dr. James Hays, and endocrinologist in Wilmington, DE. Dr. Hays and others are conducting new studies into diabetes treatment and the results are now making the rounds on the Internet, in journals, and special reports.
Let us back up a little so you will get a brief background of where I am going with this. As you know, diabetes mellitus is a condition that results from either a lack of hormone insulin in the body (type 1 diabetes) or where the body has sufficient insulin but the body cannot use it (type II diabetes).
Conventional wisdom among medical practitioners who treat diabetes, has been to reduce sugars in the patient's diet, but keep a steady intake of starches such as bread, potato, rice, pasta and so on. Fruits and fruit juices are usually recommended because it is thought that the fructose from fruit sugar does not raise insulin levels. Now here comes Dr. James Hays from the Limestone Medical Center in Wilmington, Delaware with proof that practically drags conventional wisdom kicking and screaming out the door.
Dr. Hays contends that diabetes mellitus is a chronic disorder of carbohydrate metabolism. For people with diabetes, this spells relief in their treatment and certainly, a major shift in their diet. His results differ dramatically from those achieved from the long-promoted diets of reputable sources such as the American Diabetes Association and DiabetesUK. These are umbrella bodies for the treatment of this disease.
In the case of diabetes treatment, Dr. Hays's study seem to throw a wrench into the wheel of often-quoted instructions to diabetic sufferers regarding diet. This report has the "audacity" to suggest that a person with type 1 and type II diabetes should eat a diet of very high fat, and very low carbohydrates. In promoting the use of fats in the diets of diabetics, Dr. Hays even includes saturated fats, as found in meats. His results from his study group which whose members were monitored for one year were impressive. Here are a few extracts:
1. Patients experience a mean decline in total cholesterol.
2. LDL (bad cholesterol) fell by over 25 mg/dl
3. HDL (good cholesterol) increased by 3 mg/dl
4. Triglycerides declined by over 44 mg/dl
Here is the funny part of this report. I don't mean funny in the usual way; just a little strange. Most doctors preach to their diabetic patients that they MUST maintain low-fat diets with no departure from their instructions, or else! Not so with this group. They maintained their high-fat diet and this group of patients included at least 3 cardiologists to boot!
People will always gravitate towards a good thing when they see it. The conclusion of the study, of course is that this diet resulted in weight loss, lower cholesterol, and better lipid profile in each patient. There goes conventional wisdom flying out the door again. If you have a diet that results in weight loss, lower cholesterol, and a better lipid profile, eventually, every other diabetes patient will be eating that way. Conventional wisdom is not always sound, and in this case could probably send a diabetic patient to the grave earlier than necessary. It certainly seems like a second opinion is always a good thing.
Anthony Chambers writes articles for today's net-connected users who need quality information fast! Get vital diabetes information at: diabetes treatment info [http://mylifestyletips.com/health]
No comments:
Post a Comment