Cause of Diabetes

What causes type 2 Diabetes?

While type 1 diabetes is a genetic issue where the body doesn't produce enough or any insulin, research and experience is showing that Type 2 Diabetes is a preventable and reversible illness.  The cause is insulin resistance, and insulin resistance is a result of poor dietary and activity choices. When your cells have too much fat in them, and not enough activity to burn that fat, they turn away insulin trying to get more stored in there. The receptors are literally turned off. Conventional medicine still treats the symptoms instead of the cause with medication and insulin injections, but this is a bandaid solution and does not reverse the problem.

Trying to reverse insulin resistance by lowering your carbohydrate intake may seem intuitive, but is not the only answer. Reducing sugar intake gives your insulin a break, and may reduce some of those unnecessary fat stores, but your body also needs to move,and needs plant based food for fiber, antioxidant, and complex carbs rich in macro and micro nutrients. Carbs are getting a bad rap, but we need carbohydrates! High intake of fatty foods can cause just as many issues as too much candy and soda. We need to get back to an intuitive way of eating: what makes me feel my best and what do I need to be healthy?

If you think of your body as a car and your cells as the gas tank, you are going to need to burn up the gas before putting more gas in the tank, Also if you find out you're putting bad gas in the tank you wouldn't take a pill to make more room and continue putting in bad gas. You would put in the right amounts of the right kind of gas, right? Let's take the same amount of care of our bodies as we do our cars!

End type 2 diabetes, solve the dietary problem with a better diet, not pills! 

Intuitive Eating

Wonder: what does my body need?
Whole: replace refined carbs with whole foods and eliminate excess fat
Wait: eat slowly, as you eat be mindful of what makes you feel good and when you feel satisfied
What you gain: wise food mind and healthy body

Gut neurons give insight

Pain translating to what we "think" in our gut.

In his book "The Second Brain," Michael Gershon talks about how the gut works automatically without our brains telling it what to do next, like it has its own neuron function that works in tandem with the actual brain. What our "gut neurons" are saying can tell us a lot about what we need. In reading what I imagine to be a discussion between my gut neurons, what do you think my second brain is trying to communicate to me?
Neuron 1: She's eating again, at the usual fast pace.
Neuron 2: Sounding the red alert, what's the content?
Neuron 1: Incoming particles contain red meat cells, swiss cheese, mushrooms, mayo, and some lettuce.
Neuron 2: Thrice blast it she's eating a mushroom swiss burger! Calling all troops--stomach acid, enzymes, bile, insulin--we need every available digestive aide!
Neuron 3: Sir, due to high stress levels this week we are low on stomach acid, and these particles were not chewed long enough in saliva enzymes. We are going to have to send some of this in the duodenum undigested.
Neuron 1: That will wreak havoc on the microbiome balance, where are the pancreatic enzymes?
Neuron 3: Already depleted the supply, the meal is too high in fat content for the capacity of our pancreas.
Neuron 1: Haven't we signaled to her to stop eating red meat and dairy?
Neuron 2: Sir, we have but the higher brain over rides our signals saying due to erratic and unstable insulin production we need protein to keep blood sugar levels stable. Also upstairs brain needs fat for optimal production.
Neuron 1: She's in constant pain, we need to lower stress levels in the environment in order to contend with our biological issues.
Neuron 2: Upstairs brain seems to override our signals to rest and relax more, apparently there is a steady flow of clients, troubled teenagagers, a friend moving, company in town, and her grandma to take care of.
Neuron 1: Signal extra blood flow to the brain to cause a migraine, we need to shut the system down. I'm going to be swamped with bacterial complaints tonight.
Neuron 2: copy that, setting things in action to cause migraine.
Neuron 3: 10-4, signalling fatigue.
From this imaginary gut brain conversation I hear my body signal to me that I need three things: to eat more slowly, limit the content of my fat intake but not eliminate it, and take more time to rest. Listen to your gut neurons, what are they saying you need for a wise food mind?

Food Addiction

Addiction

I have had the opportunity this summer to teach a class on addiction at two Education Conferences, and I'd like to share with you a brief nutshell of what I taught.
When does substance abuse become addiction? When it causes bio-psycho-social damage, and the person continues to use despite increasing negative consequences. In short, a person would rather risk death than give up their substance use or behavior. Their "drug of choice" has become the number one survival need, and all other meaning in life disappears in pursuit of the drug or behavior that makes them feel, no longer euphoric, but as close to normal as they can get.
This is because of the limbic system and the dopamine pleasure system. The limbic system, or mid brain, has a simple job: keep you alive and avoid pain/seek pleasure. Its not the mid brain's job to be rational or help reach long term goals, its job is to eat, defend, reproduce, and avoid pain. In a person who has an over reactive limbic system, meaning they have a hard time regulating or controlling their emotions and live in fear, stress, sadness, or anger most of every day, drugs and behaviors that create a euphoric feeling will go straight to the mid brain, and dopamine will be released in huge amounts to say "remember this for survival, its important!" (even though alcohol, pornography, and even sugar do not deserve that assignment of survival value). The brain becomes hijacked, and no amount of prefrontal cortex power will stop the person's midbrain from doing its job to keep you alive.
So addiction is a disease of choice, and the more the person uses drugs or addictive behaviors to cope, the more bio-psycho-social damage occurs, and the harder to recover. But recover they can! The brain can change, and the spirit or others can tell it what to do even if your mid brain is hijacked, it just takes external help, admission of the problem, and acceptance of pain to overcome it. No simple task. So lets avoid addiction in the first place, right?

Food Addiction
So when does eating become addiction instead of sustenance? A problem well stated is a problem half solved! And I'm afraid most people in the USA today are food addicts without even realizing it.  The hallmark of addiction--the addict simply can't see there is a problem because their brains are just trying to survive. One thing I have tried to caution my readers on is sugar intake, and Dr. Lustig does a great job of explaining why it is addictive and harmful.
What is sugar? Sugar is a combination of three molecules. These three molecules are essential to feeding animals, they are not essential to feeding us. These 3 molecules are glucose, fructose, and galactose. They will appear in food as combinations of anyone  of one of those three put together.
The combination of glucose and fructose is called sucrose, that's cane sugar beet sugar, the [white] stuff you put in coffee. When you combine glucose with galactose you get lactose or milk sugar and that is of course what you find in dairy products. Now fructose is the sweet molecule, High Fructose Corn Syrup, agave, maple syrup, or honey, [also called "fruit sugar"]. These are our caloric sweeteners and they all have one molecule of glucose and one molecule of fructose.
So different kinds of sugar will be found in different kinds of food. The question is what detriments could any of these do? Glucose is the energy of life. Every living cell burns glucose for energy. Glucose is so important if you don't consume it your body makes it.  Fructose is the molecule we seek, it's the molecule that makes sugar pleasurable and addictive. Turns out there is no biochemical reaction in the body that requires it, it is completely vestigial, and when consumed in excess it causes cellular metabolic human damage and death. In fact, fructose is metabolized in the liver exactly the same way as alcohol, and that is why children today are getting the diseases of alcohol without the alcohol because we just gave them a substitute.
Robert M Lustig explaining "What is Sugar" on the Tech Insider Website  April 12 2017

So if you have a hard time staying away from anything with fructose in it, you eat/drink compulsively despite negative consequences (overweight, feel sick/tired/constipated) its time to look in the mirror. You may be a food addict!

Food Fighters

I am a Food Fighter Have you seen Moana? The scene when Moana tells the ocean to choose someone else was how I felt at the beginning of April when I was faced with writing this newsletter again. I think many people come to that point where they feel like they are figuratively trying to hold back a river with one hand, no one else cares, and it's just not doing anything. I didn't know what more to say about wise eating. Yet I still come across those willing to carry on as a "food fighter," and I admire what they say and what they are trying to do. So today I will echo what some of them are saying. The link below is one of my favorite concise video explanations of the "sugar excess crisis" of our day. Check it out! Another person I discovered was Dr. M.K. Strydom from Zimbabwe, who wrote a book called Healing begins with Sanctification of the Heart. He included a few chapters on food and states: "Processed sugar of any kind is the first and most important substance to completely eliminate from your diet because it is fertilizer that feeds disease and impairs healing." Then he further points out that  despite it being a documented medical fact that sugar feeds disease, oncologists serve cookies and sweets in their waiting rooms, and hospital food menus include five pages of desserts. How can we change that? Well he's trying. I know who I am. I can't take the things I have learned and been given lightly. Like Moana, even if no one out there at all listens, or helps, the call is inside me, and I will keep trying to make a difference. Sugar is Killing Us Food Revolution Summit I subscribe to Dr Tom O'Bryan, and this month he is promoting this effort to inform people of wise food choices: "Once each year, my friends and colleagues, John and Ocean Robbins, bring together hundreds of thousands of people, and 24 of the top food experts on the planet, for the Food Revolution Summit. This is THE place to get the latest breaking insights about how you can unleash the power of food to fight cancer, heart disease, diabetes and dementia – and to stand up for a better world. Never before in the history of the world has safe and healthy food been a more important topic. Our lives are on the line.By taking action to get involved, you’re standing for the food revolution we all need to ensure our health and the health of future generations. I’ll see you during the Summit! Dr. Tom O’Bryan" One last thing. A friend of mine sent me the following message that made my day: "I finished your book Very well written! It's a huge change--but we are going to take it in baby steps. Thanks!" Happy to help. For more information, go to www.wisefoodmind.com

A Cause Worth Fighting For

Fight for a Healthy Appetite "I'm happy to live in this period [because] we have been forced to a point where we're going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn't force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them." I See The Promised Land By Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. April 3, 1962  A friend of mine called me last month, her daughter's anemia forcing her to grapple with the problem of nutrition, and asked if there was anything she can change in their diet to help her daughter get more nutrients and calories. Knowing some of the emotional regulation history of this little girl, I knew she was one of us who has a weaker digestive systems and the the many food corruptions of our Standard American Diet were already affecting her brain and gut so that her genetic weaknesses were amplified. However, I hesitated to give my friend advice, not wanting to overwhelm her with the daunting reality that some changes need to be made that will require time, money, and work. I gave her some general ideas, and when I hung up I realized I held back. I was not standing for a cause I know is right because it will be hard. I recalled a sermon I heard by Martin Luther King, Jr. that he gave shortly before he died at age 38, about how we as individuals need a cause worth fighting for in life, otherwise we aren't living, we are merely waiting for our death. Healthy eating is my cause worth fighting for! It has transformed my life and helped my brain and body in numerous ways, and I know it can help others. If you have come to a point where you are 'forced to grapple with the problem," remember that every struggle in history worth fighting for came with a cost, and was only accomplished through courage, sacrifice, and perseverance. That is the nature of living! "We need to recapture something that the early Christians had. They went out aglow with a radical gospel...They never allowed their actions to be shaped by the mundane patterns of this world. They were willing to sacrifice fame or fortune or life itself for a cause they knew was right. "In these days of world-wide confusion, when the forces of evil have risen to gigantic and ominous proportions, there is a dire need for men and women who will gird their courage and do battle with all their hearts, souls and minds. We need Christians who will say as John Bunyan said to his jailor when, after he had spent twelve years in jail, he was promised freedom if he would agree to quit preaching, 'I am determined, Almighty God being my help and shield, yet to suffer if frail life shall continue so long, even until the moss grow over my eyebrows, rather than to violate my faith and make a continual butchery of my conscience.' The challenge faces us today more than ever before. Be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.”  Martin Luther King, Jr. "Transformed Nonconformist" Chapter II, March 1963 Now for a mini nutrition lesson. I make salmon, green beans/carrots, and brussel sprouts for breakfast because... Basic Blood Sugar Regulation Macronutrients: Calorie carrying components that make up the foods you eat. Protein, carbohydrates, and fat are three macro- nutrients. Calorie: a simple unit of measurement that indicates how much energy you can expect to derive form the macronutrients you eat Micronutrients: non-calorie-carrying components that are found in foods, i.e. vitamins, minerals, organic acids, and phytochemicals. (nourish cells and enable them to create energy and metabolize consumed macronutients with ease) Glucose: the simple sugar into which all carbohydrates you eat are broken down in your body; it is absorbed into your bloodstream during digestion Glycogen: the stored form of glucose in your liver and muscles Glucagon: the hormone responsible for signaling the release of stored glycogen into the bloodstream Insulin: actual job is to be your energy storage hormone; anabolic hormone, meaning it stimulates growth, promotes fat formation and retention, and encourages inflammation. There is a difference between helpful carbs and unhelpful carbs: Unhelpful carbs are macronutrient and calorie rich, but micronutrient poor. Helpful carbs are fibrous and micronutrient dense Refined and enriched foods are stripped of micronutrients, they have nutrients added back in but are not assimilated by the body because they are not in their natural form. Example of helpful carbs: squash, sweet potato, green apples Example of unfhelpful carbs: sugar, white bread, cereal, pasta, candy

Task vs Ego Oriented Performance Mindset

Focus on the task, not your "worth." I've been trying to help my son during his gymnastics competition season to train his mind for optimal performance, and the principles we are learning also apply to developing a Wise Food Mind. Changing eating habits is psychological as much as physical, as it can be overwhelming to know where and how to change, and daunting when you don't feel you are progressing or fall back into old habits. In a wonderful sports psychology book called "The Fearless Mind" by Craig Manning, he talks about how to train your mind to set a realistic objective, and then focus on the tasks it will take to get there (task oriented) instead of how others are better than you, or you are better than others, or how you messed up again (ego oriented). He encourages all who seek to improve their performance in anyway to say, "I can do this" during the task, and after think of three good things you achieved and one thing you can work on for continual growth. In his own words Manning explains:  "It takes time to develop good mental habits so our thoughts don't betray us at critical moments, or at least to know how to deal with unwanted thoughts that pop into our minds and not allow single thoughts to explode into crippling self doubt. "Anxiety is a normal component of our composition. We don't want to get rid of our anxiety, but we do need to learn to control it. "Research tells us that ego-oriented individuals typically have higher anxiety [as these] individuals usually set expectations that are not within their direct control. When ego-oriented individuals win, they think more of themselves; when they lose, they think less of themselves. Self worth becomes very fragile and is dependent on outcome when the outcome is often not within the direct control of the individual. Therefore, one's self-worth is contingent on variables outside one's immediate control, resulting in a significant rise in anxiety. "The most important way I have found to lower and control anxiety is through setting appropriate objectives and expectations. When we set appropriate objectives, fear has very little, if any room to exist in our daily mental processing. Focus on realistic skill sets you have direct control over that would lead to your objective, always just a little beyond your reach, motivating but not discouraging you. Setting task oriented objectives provides a mental framework where we are held accountable for what we have control over. "Once we have learned and have a deep understanding that high performance is about continual growth, the greatest battle has been won." Be confident, be positive, be realistic; make it about growth not worth. Reforming eating habits is just another way to train and discipline our minds to become the best we can be! For more information visit www.wisefoodmind.com

KEEP THE FUN IN FOOD! My brother-in-law has asked me on occasion during a family dinner or out to eat, "Heather I am surprised you are eating that." He seems to believe that I stay away from anything even remotely "bad" for me because I believe in establishing healthful food boundaries. I am careful about my intake but also careful not do deprive myself. Remember that there are drawbacks and benefits of almost any type of food, and only you can decide what drawback you need to stay away from according to your unique metabolic type. We still need to have food that is enjoyable, colorful, and brings us pleasure, or psychologically we set ourselves up for failure. I may not be able to have dessert, but I'll take the sweet potato fries!

PUSH: Persist Until Something Happens

Persistence makes Perfect

My husband decided it was high time we did something about the hard water deposits building up on our bathroom faucet, so he did some research about baking soda and vinegar treatments. He followed the instructions on the ratio and application, let it sit a while and then scrubbed and scrubbed...and not much happened. It removed a little but not much. He was discouraged, but he decided since it did do something, he would try again. He let the vinegar and baking soda sit on it for much longer the second time and scrubbed again. More removed. He decided to let it sit for 24 hours and try again. Each time a little more came off until after a few days, the faucet looked like new.

No one wants to spend three days on cleaning a bathroom sink. We get our handy clorox wipes out and 10 minutes later declare the bathroom clean. This effort does nothing for the hard mineral build-up in the sinks and dirty grease build-up in the bathtub. We have to let it soak and then scrub. With persistence it will look like new!

You can probably guess where I'm going with this! It's an analogy for our intake. With so many food corruptions out there, our bodies can accrue a build-up of fat cells, unhealthy bacteria, and toxins. The result is bloating, gas, heartburn, at best, liver/kidney disease, diabetes, and heart disease at worst. The fatigue and weight gain make life inconvenient, but chronic disease makes life unendurable. Just like the hard water deposit build-up, we won't want to do the work to make it better, and it will take time and persistence in order to get back to our ideal health.

But you can be like new again! If we apply the same principle of patience and persistence my husband used in cleaning the faucet to our intake, eventually every function of our body can be restored. First identify the problem (every body is different), maybe its too much soda intake. Second, soak your body in healthful foods, make sure you are getting whole, nutrient dense meals three times a day so you have healthful eating habits in place.Third, scrub out the bad foods, aka stop drinking soda. Wait, repeat. Don't get discouraged if nothing seems to be happening at first, keep applying the treatment. Its a miracle you can make happen, but it's a miracle that takes time. I did it and so can you. Look better, feel better, live better!

Neuroplasticity is the concept that the brain is changeable and even when damaged, can regain function in almost any capacity. We used to believe that the brain was like a machine, fixed in its functions, and when damaged could never be regenerated. Research in the last 30 years has proven this idea false, and modern brain science, psychotherapy, and medicine is now practicing on the belief that the brain can change and recover.

This is good news for people who have been stuck in a certain habit and want to change the way they do things. It's also bad news for people who have habits because they have literally trained their brain to change in ways that enforce that behavior. If you want to change a habit or recover from a brain injury you have to do exercises on a regular basis that will enforce neural pathways to think and behave in different ways. A stroke victim has to use the hand on the side of the body that was unresponsive in order to stimulate and develop pathways in the brain that will make motor function possible again.

A person who has a habit of eating unhealthful foods has to practice eating more healthful foods in order to develop a taste and tolerance for it, and eventually it may even become enjoyable and something you crave. 
It is a deliberate effort to change the brain. You are not going to "feel like" changing eating habits, and sometimes only a health crisis is what will motivate people to change. Before you have a crisis, deliberately incorporate exercises or practice that will change how you think about food, how you eat food, and ultimately your diet lifestyle. It's never too late to change.
For more information on how to develop a healthful eating lifestyle, read Wise Food Mind or visit www.wisefoodmind.com.