low fat diets and diabetes

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 5/29/02 2:23:35 AM,

writes:

<< Hi, all, I saw this article on diabetes and wondered what everyone thinks

about it. How would you refute the fats not carbs contribute to diabetes

and that milk drinkers are prone to diabetes arguments presented? It's

definitely not in sync with what we've discussed here. >>

First of all consider the source -PCRM has many lofty purposes such as

prevention of cruelty to animals etc., but they also push a vegetarian diet.

I am in the nutrition field and I can find you research that supports just

about any position that you can think of -- when you actually look at the

research up close however you almost always find problems -- for instance did

the studies this article referred to differentiate between kinds of fat. I

agree that diabetics have trouble with trans-fat and polyunsaturates --

diabetics tend to be overweight and there is evidence that overweight

individuals have particular trouble metabolizing longer chain fatty acids

compared to normal people. (Interestingly, overweight people metabolize the

shorter chain fatty acids (those found in abundance in coconut oil) just as

efficiently as normal folks. Furthermore, in the case of diabetics I have

read research that does point to fat as a culprit in insulin resistance --

but it's the fat that they have on their bodies, not necessarily the fat that

they eat. ( that goes for the so called association between fat and breast

cancer -- it's the fat on their body that might be related to breast cancer

-- not the fat in the diet.) From everthing I've read about diabetics, I

think the best diet would be one that's low in carbs, especially high

glycemic ones and high in protein and good quality fats. A study done in

Australia had aborigines with Type 2 diabetes return to their

hunting/gathering lifestyle and found that their diabetes disappeared. On

their traditional diet most of their daily calories came from protein and fat

and very little from carbs. Oddly enough they actually exercised less when

obtaining their food directly from nature!! There is a great deal of evidence

that lowering the carbs in the diet inmproves insulin sensitivity. I believe

that it is irresponsible to promote high carb, low fat diets to diabetics --

their pancreas' badly need a rest.

I have heard of the connection of Type 1 diabetes and milk before -- again

what kind of milk?

Namaste, Liz