The Carb-Sane Asylum

Bumping Again! New Article in BMJ:   Analysis: Beating type 2 diabetes into remission * The original posting of this was shortly after the first papers published on the success of a very low calorie diet -- essentially a 6-800 calorie protein-sparing-modified-fast, protein shakes + non-starchy veggies -- in curing diabetes in relatively short order.  You may also be interested in the following posts: The Diabetes "Crash" Cure Revisited  (a follow-up to this one) Diabetes "Crash" Cures: VLCal vs. VLCarb Check Featured Comment (if any) for further updates from me. *In light of commentary below, I'll add that I am not a fan of using the term remission here.  Cancer does seem to strike at random most times and recurrence seems to be equally random.  At best we have few if any ways to predict who will see cancer return etc.  But Type 2 diabetes doesn't work that way in most.  The source of the beta cell dysfunction is pretty well k...

I received some fanmail yesterday -- it was a nice email!! -- encouraging me to share Dr. Roy Taylor 's  presentation at the 2015 Diabetes Summit -- of Newcastle Diet aka "crash diet" for reversing diabetes.   It's too bad he ended the talk encouraging the host to keep spreading good information ... sadly his is a rare inclusion in this event. HURRY -- I thought these would be available through Thursday Noon, but it's saying 3 hours :(  -- hopefully they'll extend that.  SORRY!! This summit is the second annual event put on by the director of Sweet Life Diabetes Centers, a chiropractor turned nutrition expert and other things, Brian Mowll DC.  Last year he co-hosted the event with Jimmy Moore, and I dubbed it the Reversing Diabetes Knowledge Summit .   There are more of the same chiropractors, naturopaths, and such spreading their views on how you basically should eat a very low carb diet and avoid this or that bad food that is killing your pa...

A Randomized Pilot Trial of a Moderate Carbohydrate Diet Compared to a Very Low Carbohydrate Diet in Overweight or Obese Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus or Prediabetes We compared the effects of two diets on glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and other health-related outcomes in overweight or obese adults with type 2 diabetes or prediabetes (HbA1c>6%).  We randomized participants to either a medium carbohydrate, low fat, calorie-restricted, carbohydrate counting diet (MCCR) consistent with guidelines from the American Diabetes Association (n = 18) or a very low carbohydrate, high fat, non calorie-restricted diet whose goal was to induce nutritional ketosis (LCK, n = 16). We excluded participants receiving insulin; 74% were taking oral diabetes medications. Groups met for 13 sessions over 3 months and were taught diet information and psychological skills to promote behavior change and maintenance. At 3 months: mean HbA1c level was unchanged from baseline in the ...

In light of my post earlier today regarding treating diabetes, I thought I'd bump this post from around a year ago that compared the impact of acute caloric deficit to acute carbohydrate restriction.  If the results don't give one pause regarding low carb always being the best and forevermore necessary diet for diabetics, it's probably hopeless ... but I'll keep trying :-) Original Publication Date:  7/4/2011 As I was looking at the results from the VLCal diet that "cured" diabetes, I was reminded of the discussion of "curing" vs. remission of diabetes over at Dr. Davis' Heart Scan blog.   At the time I couldn't recall the thread in which it had occurred but just now stumbled across it.   The post was entitled The Westman Diet .   Westman being Dr. Eric Westman of Duke University whom most of my readers are probably rather familiar with. In that post Davis cites the following study: The effect of a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic...

I think there were some issues brought up in the comments of my original offering on this topic to warrant a followup post. OnePointFive made the following remarks (excerpts) I'd like to address: I thought that the trial was interesting and that'more research is needed' but with so few subjects and only a 12 week follow up (in the paper) didn't justify the 'cure' headlines. I agree, I think the word *cure* subsequently splashed across headlines is a bit of an overstatement.  Even in the short follow-up period, 3/11 had their diabetes return.   So even though all were theoretically "cured" at 2 months, this was not permanent once they reverted to a normal diet.   Since the average gain was just over 3kg or almost 7 lbs, it would be interesting to see the individual data, and if the three who reverted back were the ones who gained the most due to returning more full bore to their former habits.  My gut says probably!