[al_borland]

When my dad told me he had type 2 diabetes, I told him to go on a paleo diet, basically low carb. He gave me a bunch of reasons why that was a bad idea, and had already read some books recommended by the ADA, which he felt backed him up. He spent over 6 years trying all kinds of stuff (everything except low carb and no sugar). Eventually he found a doctor doing a program that puts type 2 diabetics on an extreme elimination diet, no solid food at all for several months… way more extreme, and way less sustainable, than what I suggested. He eventually kicked it with that, but it took a long time, a lot of money, and an extreme intervention.

During that period my dad was fighting with this, my mom was also diagnosed with type 2. I told her the exact same thing. She did it, and 3 months later she was fine, for the cost of some meat and vegetables.

The ADA is a joke. I’ve found books from over 100 years ago talking about avoiding carbs/sugar to fix diabetes. This isn’t new stuff, there’s just no money in it I guess.

[throwawaysleep]

People also wouldn't be willing to do it. Trying to fix obesity with diet has been a disaster at the population level.

[al_borland]

My dad was willing to do stuff, he went vegan for 6+ months and various other things. Pretty much anything a popular diabetes book would tell him. He could be compliant, he just needed the advice to come from an accredited medical professional.

I get that most people won’t make lifestyle changes, so a big part of the medical system is about medicating people so they can not die, while living something close to the life they had before… but that should not be the assumed course for every patient.

Doctors should be presenting and pushing for the lifestyle changes they can lead to what is effectively a cure. It should not be assumed the patient knows all this stuff. If the patient is unwilling or unable to make those changes, then other courses of action should be used.

Type 2 is caused by having chronically high blood sugar levels. It would stand to reason that removing the sugar would allow the body to return to normal function. Continuing to eat sugar, using insulin to handle the levels, is just going to make things worse and worse over time, it will never get better. It makes 0 sense for this to be the default way to handle it, without even mentioning the lifestyle change and why it would work to get a person’s system back to normal functioning (assuming they aren’t too far gone and don’t have something else going on).

[wslh]

Could you please add references to the > 100 years old books? Genuinely asking.

[al_borland]

I think it was this book, but I think there was another I saw in the past as well.

The Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus, published in 1923

https://archive.org/details/treatmentofdiabee3josl/mode/1up

> (pg 427) 2. Carbohydrate.— The total carbohydrate in the diet of diabetic patients is almost invariably restricted, and even with insulin the quantity prescribed seldom exceeds 100 grams

There is more stuff, but I’m on my phone now, so it’s hard to go through.

I also ran across this:

https://www.wfmp.ca/post/diabetes-a-short-history

>In the 1700s & 1800s, physicians began to realize that dietary changes could help manage diabetes. Patients were advised to do things like eat only the fat and meat of animals. During the Franco-Prussian war, Dr. Apollinaire noted that his diabetic patients' symptoms improved due to war rationing.

[hilux]

Google: Banting Diet