by Eleanor Patrick (Mon Mar 15, 2010)
This Easter, for the first time, I will not be eating
chocolate eggs and Simnel cake, just as last Christmas I didn't eat Christmas
cake and roast spuds. In between, I have eaten so few carbs you could fit them
in a nutshell.
The reason? I was diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic. What angered
me was that the nurse told me to stoke up on starchy carbs every day. Excuse
me? Science is supposed to be scientific.
If our bodies can't cope with carbs,
why eat them? With a world explosion in Type 2 diabetes, the obvious should be
stated loud and clear: excessive carb intake causes insulin problems, high
blood sugar and dire complications down the line. Talk about ignoring the
elephant in the room.
The people dishing out this flawed advice are studiously
ignoring the dangerous pasta dish on the table, and tripping over the pizza
under the carpet. Hundreds of us are now finding that to control blood sugar in
the absence of a decent insulin supply, or in the face of insulin resistance,
you have to NOT toe the official 'eat plenty of carbs' line. It doesn't work.
So why won't anyone admit it and change the advice? Why not say, 'Look, your
body doesn't need carbs, so give it a break and eat something else.' This would
avoid the 100 leg, foot and toe amputations each week in the UK. No wonder
people despair of trying to control their diabetes. I'd feel that way too, if I
hadn't discovered that the carb lifestyle kills off your pancreas faster than
you can eat a Mars Bar.
I love baked beans and bread rolls, truly I do, but not
nearly as much as I love my toes and eyesight. It's a no-brainer. When are we
going to be told the truth?
