values had also continued to improve, with triglycerides of 109, total cholesterol of 143, HDL of 56, and LDL of 65. —M ARY V ERNON
While the c-peptide test does reflect insulin production in the body, unlike the GTT performed by Dr. Atkins, it does not measure the glucose response to the insulin that is present.
DIET OR DRUGS?
If you are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the chances are good that your doctor will immediately prescribe at least one drug to control your blood sugar. If you’re not already taking medications for high blood pressure and high blood lipids, chances are good you’ll be prescribed those drugs as well. And then your doctor will probably hand you a booklet that describes the American Diabetes Association (ADA) diet for people with Type 2 diabetes. You’ll be urged to follow this low-fat, high-carb approach—in fact, your health insurance company may even pay for you to attend classes that teach you all about this “healthy”diet.
In Dr. Atkins’ opinion, nothing could be better designed to turn you into a perpetual patient destined to face increasingly severe health problems as time goes by.If you have diabetes,your body can’t process carbohydrates normally. Does it make any sense at all to prescribe a diet that is 55 percent or more carbohydrate? Of course not. The logical treatment is a low-carbohydrate regimen that uses protein and fat to stabilize your blood sugar and preserves your pancreatic function.
Dr. Atkins battled the medical establishment on this issue for decades. In the few years before his death, he was heartened to find that mainstream research was increasingly bearing out his ideas, and that some of his colleagues had spoken out on the folly of high-carb diets for those with blood sugar abnormalities. Dr. Gerald Reaven, who first defined syndrome X (now called the metabolic syndrome), is one of them. In an important article written for heart doctors in 2001, he plainly stated that “in the absence of associated weight loss,the usually recommended low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet makes the manifestations of syndrome X worse.” 1
In the end, only you can decide what’s best for your health—in concert with your physician. You can choose to use the Atkins approach, or you can choose the ADA approach. If, despite everything you’ve read so far in this book, you make the ADA choice, be aware that your odds of doing well on it are low.
That’s not just our opinion—it’s the result of an important study that appeared in that most mainstream of medical publications, the Journal of the American Medical Association, in January 2004. Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases looked at 12 years’ worth of diabetes data from national cross-sectional surveys. What they found is that only about a third of all adults with Type 2 diabetes were meeting treatment goals for their blood sugar, their blood pressure, or their blood lipids. How many were meeting their treatment goals for all three risk factors? A mere 7 percent. 2
Could there be a more clear illustration of the fact that putting people with Type 2 diabetes on the ADA diet and bombarding them with drugs is a complete failure? Their inability to meet treatment goals is putting these patients at greater risk for the multiple complications of diabetes, not to mention other health problems and side effects from the arsenal of prescription drugs.
There are several possible reasons for these appalling statistics. The main one, of course, is simply that people with diabetes should not be eating a high-carb diet.A second reason is that many people undoubtedly find it impossible to comply with the ADA dietary guidelines— this diet seems designed to cause hunger and cravings in patients with this metabolic pattern. The third possibility is that many people mistakenly believe that their diabetes medications
While the c-peptide test does reflect insulin production in the body, unlike the GTT performed by Dr. Atkins, it does not measure the glucose response to the insulin that is present.
DIET OR DRUGS?
If you are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the chances are good that your doctor will immediately prescribe at least one drug to control your blood sugar. If you’re not already taking medications for high blood pressure and high blood lipids, chances are good you’ll be prescribed those drugs as well. And then your doctor will probably hand you a booklet that describes the American Diabetes Association (ADA) diet for people with Type 2 diabetes. You’ll be urged to follow this low-fat, high-carb approach—in fact, your health insurance company may even pay for you to attend classes that teach you all about this “healthy”diet.
In Dr. Atkins’ opinion, nothing could be better designed to turn you into a perpetual patient destined to face increasingly severe health problems as time goes by.If you have diabetes,your body can’t process carbohydrates normally. Does it make any sense at all to prescribe a diet that is 55 percent or more carbohydrate? Of course not. The logical treatment is a low-carbohydrate regimen that uses protein and fat to stabilize your blood sugar and preserves your pancreatic function.
Dr. Atkins battled the medical establishment on this issue for decades. In the few years before his death, he was heartened to find that mainstream research was increasingly bearing out his ideas, and that some of his colleagues had spoken out on the folly of high-carb diets for those with blood sugar abnormalities. Dr. Gerald Reaven, who first defined syndrome X (now called the metabolic syndrome), is one of them. In an important article written for heart doctors in 2001, he plainly stated that “in the absence of associated weight loss,the usually recommended low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet makes the manifestations of syndrome X worse.” 1
In the end, only you can decide what’s best for your health—in concert with your physician. You can choose to use the Atkins approach, or you can choose the ADA approach. If, despite everything you’ve read so far in this book, you make the ADA choice, be aware that your odds of doing well on it are low.
That’s not just our opinion—it’s the result of an important study that appeared in that most mainstream of medical publications, the Journal of the American Medical Association, in January 2004. Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases looked at 12 years’ worth of diabetes data from national cross-sectional surveys. What they found is that only about a third of all adults with Type 2 diabetes were meeting treatment goals for their blood sugar, their blood pressure, or their blood lipids. How many were meeting their treatment goals for all three risk factors? A mere 7 percent. 2
Could there be a more clear illustration of the fact that putting people with Type 2 diabetes on the ADA diet and bombarding them with drugs is a complete failure? Their inability to meet treatment goals is putting these patients at greater risk for the multiple complications of diabetes, not to mention other health problems and side effects from the arsenal of prescription drugs.
There are several possible reasons for these appalling statistics. The main one, of course, is simply that people with diabetes should not be eating a high-carb diet.A second reason is that many people undoubtedly find it impossible to comply with the ADA dietary guidelines— this diet seems designed to cause hunger and cravings in patients with this metabolic pattern. The third possibility is that many people mistakenly believe that their diabetes medications
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