Modern medicine is constantly evolving to try and deal with the epidemics and the chronic diseases that seem to cycle around – from COVID-19 to cancer and even diabetes. Since 1975, global obesity rates have tripled, diabetes rates have nearly quadrupled and if you asked any Australian today, they would be able to name somebody that they knew who is affected, or has been affected by heart disease, high blood pressure and even strokes.
Dr. Robert Szabo from Diversa Health, who has been working as a GP for over 19 years, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at the age of 37. The common misconception with diabetes is how a person who gets diagnosed with diabetes is supposed to look like – overweight, unhealthy, in the late 50s or 60s. But Dr. Robert was none of those. He led an incredibly healthy lifestyle. He exercised six times a week, and followed the same diet that he prescribed patients, which is a low fat diet that is high in wholegrains, with lean meats and vegetables.
After his diagnosis, his endocrinologist, as well as a dietitian told him to stick to his ‘healthy’ diet, and to take medication to manage his diabetes. But Dr Robert was not happy with that. He wanted to take charge of his diabetes and went on a journey to figure out how to reverse type 2 diabetes.
While researching more about type 2 diabetes treatment and prevention, he found research that showed that diabetes was not due to dietary fat, or even a lack of exercise, but it was due to an excess of sugar and carbohydrates in your diet. This research further showed that the foods had an impact on a hormone in the body called insulin, and it was due to a disease called insulin resistance which was using his body as a playing ground and causing this type 2 diabetes.
Insulin’s main job in the body’s energy storage. It moves glucose out of the blood stream and into cells. Once the cells are full, insulin stores the excess glucose fat and it ends up in other places like arms, thighs, the liver or even the pancreas. More than just promoting the formation of fat, insulin also prevents the burning of fat. With each deposit of insulin, the more the risk of obesity and other chronic diseases.
Insulin is made from glucose, and we get glucose from carbohydrates. Dietary carbohydrates, regardless of whether it’s healthy or not, keeps insulin high, which keeps fat burning levels low.
This is why the typical, conventional advice for weight loss of following a strict calorie restricted, low fat, high carbohydrate diet is not a long term solution. This not only reduces the amount of energy intake, but also keeps insulin levels elevated which prevents the body from accessing any stored body fat for fuel. The body then goes into an energy crisis which would drop the basal metabolic rate (which is the amount of energy that gets burnt, moment to moment). This is why many people who are on a diet end up cold, hungry, overly tired and at the end of the day will binge eat only to gain all of the weight back.
This restrictive diet will only end up being a short term solution that will ultimately end up reversed and makes the dieter gain all of the weight back. At the end of the day we cannot starve the body of energy, because the body will end up fighting back.
Dr Robert came up with an alternative solution – if insulin is lowered, the body can access all of the energy needed from fat. The common misconception in diets is that eating fat will only make you fatter, which is completely untrue. Eating fat does not promote any insulin response, what it does is train the cells of the body to burn fat, including stored body fat, for fuel.
By eating a low carb, or even a ketogenic diet, you are optimising your hormones and your cells for burning fat. You should train your body to burn ketones, which are created by fat metabolism, rather than burn glucose. Ketones are a clean and efficient fuel source that can be used by every organ in the body.
In conclusion, there is plenty of research out there showing that there is an alternative way to tackle and even reverse type 2 diabetes. Find out more about how a positive lifestyle change as well as a step away from overly restrictive diets and medication can help change the way you live with diabetes.
