The Common Currency
Currency (money) is useful because it represents mutually agreed upon means of measurement and exchange. That is, if we all accept American dollars as our currency of exchange, then items as disparate as a bus or an onion can be all measured in the same units. The bus is expensive and costs more dollars and the...
A New Paradigm of Insulin Resistance – T2D 13
Our current paradigm of insulin resistance is that of a lock and key. Insulin is a hormone that acts upon a hormonal receptor on a cell surface in order to have an effect. This is often referred to as lock and key model. The lock is the insulin receptor which keeps the gates to the...
Power: Fasting vs Low Carb – Fasting 26
What's the difference in power between fasting and LowCarb High Fat (LCHF)? Sometimes it feels like arguing whether Batman or Superman is more powerful (Superman, of course). But they're both superheros, and the point of both these dietary superhero regimens is to lower insulin. This stems from a rational examination about the causes of obesity and type...
Cephalic Phase Response and Hunger – Fasting 18
The relationship between fasting and hunger is, without doubt, the #1 concern we hear. Overcoming hunger seems a daunting task, stemming from a misunderstanding of actual hunger. This is mildly ironic, since my guess is that 95% of us have never, truly been hungry in the sense of starvation, where we did not know when...
Samantha – Polycystic Ovary Patient Profile
Here's a story from a reader with Polycystic Ovarian syndrome (PCOS). She writes: In 1999, I was diagnosed with PCOS, a condition caused by insulin resistance, which includes other horrible symptoms such as weight gain, hirsutism and acanthosis nigricans, and early development of diabetes. I tried lots of things to fix the PCOS, natural herbs,...
Surgery Reverses Diabetes – T2D3
Could Type 2 Diabetes really be a disease that reverses? We’ve outlined in our previous post how most specialists, doctors and researchers view T2D as a progressive chronic disease. That means that once you have it, it will eventually progress no matter what you do. However, in truth, T2D is actually a reversible, curable dietary...
Inflammation and T2D – T2D Part 1
This week I’d like to discuss type 2 diabetes (T2D) and inflammation. Usually I try to follow topics sequentially, but I was reviewing an article about type 2 diabetes and inflammation and thought it was quite interesting. The results of a large trial (TECOS) were released in June 2015 and illustrates once again the futility...
Why Can’t I Lose Weight? – HTLW 12
Why can't I lose weight? I hear this question all the time. It's usually followed by something like "my best friend SkinnyBitch used this internet diet and lost 30 pounds. Why can't I?" The basic question is something like this. If their friend uses a LCHF diet to lose weight, why doesn't it work for...
Nutritionism’s Great Blunder
Dr. Ancel Keys has been accused of many great nutritional crimes, but his greatest blunder was the inadvertent triumph of nutritionism. Dr. Keys was one of the great proponents of saturated fat as one of the main determinants of the epidemic of coronary disease in the 1950’s and 1960’s. This led directly to the low...
LCHF for Type 1 Diabetes
I spend a great deal of time in my clinic dealing with the problems of type 2 diabetes. But occasionally, people ask about type 1 diabetes (T1D) as well. The reason why it is so rare for me is that I treat adult patients where T2D outnumbers T1D by at least 9:1. I was looking...
Do All Diets Fail? – How to Lose Weight XI
All diets fail. Long term dieting is sheer futility. After initial weight loss, the dreaded plateau appears, followed by the even more dreaded weight regain. What do I mean? Weight loss follows the same basic curve so familiar to dieters the world over. Whether it is the Mediterranean, the Atkins, or even the old fashioned...
Fibre reduces Insulin – How To Lose Weight X
When we consider the nutritional benefits of food, we think about the vitamins, minerals and nutrients they contain. We think about components in the food that nourish the body. Fibre is completely different. The key to understanding fibre’s effect is to realize that the benefit lies not as a nutrient, but as an anti-nutrient. Fibre...
