Reverse diabetes with carbs
By Dr. David Gutman, Cleveland Nutrition
I know what you’re thinking. Of course you can’t reverse diabetes with carbs. Everyone knows that diabetics need to avoid carbs to prevent their blood sugar from spiking. Well, that’s not quite the whole story.
If we compare diabetes to a clogged sink that is overflowing with water, cutting carbs is like turning off the faucet. This might help prevent water from spilling onto the floor, but it does nothing to clear the clog in the drain. In other words, even if blood sugars improve, the underlying disease does not.
What, then, is clogging the sink in diabetes? The problem is insulin resistance—the body’s inability to effectively move sugar from the blood into cells. That’s why blood sugar gets too high. But what causes insulin resistance? It’s the accumulation of fat droplets inside muscle cells, called intramyocellular lipotoxicity.
What causes fat to accumulate inside muscle cells? Well, fat, of course, especially the saturated fat in your diet. In order to clear out this muscle fat so that diabetes can reverse itself, you need to cut the fat, not the carbs.
When people cut carbs from their diet, they typically replace those carbs with fat, which makes the underlying problem worse. This is true even if blood sugars appear to improve. The clog still gets worse. It is also important to distinguish between healthy carbs and junk food carbs. Healthy carbs in fiber-rich plant foods actually improve insulin sensitivity, while processed, fat-rich carbs like cake and cookies do not.
Just be aware that diabetes often improves so rapidly on a diabetes reversal diet that medications have to be weaned very quickly, so your blood sugars don’t drop dangerously low.
If you’re ready to safely become diabetes-free, call me. I’d love to help.
To reach Cleveland Nutrition, call 216-328-8086. There are two office locations: 25200 Chagrin Blvd, Suite 109, in Beachwood; and 2660 W. Market Street, Suite 250, in Fairlawn. To learn more, visit ClevelandNutrition.com.