Dan, the plural of anecdote is not data . . . You know I like you personally, and I'm really glad you have found some things that seem to work for you. I'm not even going to argue that dietary changes prior to full-blown diabetes might not prevent the development of the disease, since we know it is heavily correlated with obesity, and that drug requirements can be dropped by even modest weight loss. But I will not accept that anybody has a panacea for diabetes, cancer or any of the other illnesses listed -- not until large trials support it. And do you not think that insurance companies would be interested in sponsoring such trials? Imagine the improvement in profits if they could eradicate all these chronic illnesses . . . Maybe some of Mercola's ideas work for some people. Maybe they work for you. But to suggest that someone forego traditional treatment in favor of his approach in the absence of good, properly executed scientific study is just plain irresponsible.
Hi Lynne,
Please don't take this as me arguing with you....I just want to re-phrase a little.... One aspect of good science is "Observation"....If you see something again and again, I think it warrants the forming of some thoughts about it....
A great deal of the Mercola bashing is from people that only got some of the surface talk, that appears very opposite the way most MD's view the world. If you read a lot of Mercola, the overwhelming message is that we have too much sugar in our diet, and he goes to great lengths to connect high blood sugar to chronic inflammation, and a range of diseases that typically have chronic inflammation as a precursor.
He is pushing the Advanced Glycation End Products aspect of how sugar directly causes the inflammations responsible both for muscle and arthritic issues, as well as for the lining in blood vessels. There is a great deal published on this, but as powerful as it seems, and as strong as the evidence would appear to be about the harmfulness of sugar, little is presented in our TV Medias to scare or shock the American population into changing it's eating behaviors.
This is just one major area of around a dozen I have found ways to "experience".....For this one, you can take a kid, an adult, or an older person that still works out.... Put this person through a more intense version of the workout they usually do ( each needs to do some form of workout, regularly, so as not to introduce a different form of soreness). After this workout, feed them massive, binge levels of sugar, whether in deserts, or with a 32 ounce serving of high sugar Gatorade, plus a high carb meal.....A typical result, will be sore muscles hours later, or the next day.....try this exact workout a week later, with just light carbs and electrolytes during the workout, and then a no carb, or very low carb meal after and for the entire rest of the day--low or no carb ( high protein and some fat).... Presto, no soreness, not the same day, not the next day....
There is a limit to how ridiculous you can make this intense version of the workout.... I am talking about what would result from a good interval day for a cyclist, or for a Track or Football team, if the coach decides to hit them with a tough workout day... There is a good sized range of workouts where all you need is to add a bunch of high glycemic response foods or drinks, and the A.G.E. reactions occur, inflammation becomes uncomfortable, and training the next 2 days can be compromised by this.
In actual practice, the athlete would want some complex carbs also....but to illustrate this AGE issue and the customary carb loading nature of our cultural response to a hard workout....this is what I have shared with many athletes, and each time, they see the same thing I do.
This would be an instance where the science should be looked into, but you have BIG SUGAR following in the footsteps of Big Tobacco in how Sugar can be advertised to the masses as NATURAL and healthy. Big money drives this. The legal system assists with various protections. We can see the results for ourselves, without waiting 2 more decades for Big Sugar to go the way of cigarettes.
Related to this ..for athletes... You will find research that indicates that athletes with many years of training, are actually very susceptible to insulin resistance, due to the very high levels of insulin that is produced during intense anaerobic threshold or interval type training.....and being an athlete for 10 year, or 20 years, or 30 and more may well SUGGEST that some extreme care needs to be taken to avoid problems with insulin sensitivty, or hyperinsulinemia, or a form of adult onset diabetes. See
http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/51/suppl_1/S271.full as an article that relates this high level training to insulin, in both diabetic athletes and non-diabetic athletes.
As I have been a competitive athlete since the 70's ( graduated highschool in 74....Football, Track, Ski Racing...College was mostly Kick Boxing and Weightlifting and Running....Then Cycling from the 80's on at a Cat 3 level) , I think I have had issues with blood sugar and insulin resistance over the last 10 years...most diets failed to help, and an extreme 6 meal per day body-builder diet, with a cup of rice included in half of the meals along with the 30 grams of protein, actually raised my body fat level, rather than decreased it as it does for most bodybuilders.
Mercola's ideas on blood sugar led me to experiment with a very low carb diet in the last 2 months, along with Vanadyl Sulfate ( as an insulin Mimic to remove sugar from blood, to remove the signal for insulin to be produced)....This has had dramatic effects on energy levels, and for the first time in 10 years, body fat levels are dropping nicely. As my cycling workouts have maintained a high VO2 max for me, losing 20 pounds of body fat will have a holy grail effect on my speed....However, even carrying the excess, I could still manage a 40k time trial in under an hour, even at the higher body fat I had over the last few years ( maybe 20%)... I want it at 10 % or lower, and that is where I am headed on the next few months
No bread..no pasta. No simple carbs, ever. No alcohol. 1 to 2 gallons of water per day, and Chia seeds as one or 2 meals per day, out of 3 to 4 small meals...all meals very low or no carbs, all with protein at 25 to 30 grams, except the chia meals which are lower.
Salad once per day, plenty of steamed spinach as a vegetable...very small baked potato at dinner only. This is working.
