Memo to an informed Lowcarb Dietitian.

I once caused uproar in certain places when I asked this question, is the US Dietitian Hope Warshaw more dangerous than Osama Bin Laden ? You will see below Hope states “Americans currently eat about 45 to 50 percent of calories as carbohydrate, not a "high carb" intake” and also says "Old Dogma: People with type 2 diabetes should follow a low carb diet. New Reality: Nutrition recommendations for people with type 2 diabetes from the American Diabetes Association and other health authorities echo the recently unveiled U.S. 2010 Dietary Guidelines (1/31/11) for carbohydrate : about 45 to 65 percent of calories”

So, let’s look at a diet based on 2500 calories and 50% from carbs i.e. around 300 grams from carbs per day. Or a six fold increase in my daily carb intake for the last five years. Experience and research tells me it would be impossible to hold non diabetic blood glucose numbers on that carb intake. No single or multi-drug type two diabetes medications would come close to achieving an HbA1c of six or better. Indeed, when multi drug regimes have been used, they have not been successful for most diabetics. All drugs carry possible side effects, logic tells me the more drugs the more potential for side effects, some reported side effects are very serious including death. I don’t know about you, but for me death is serious. We know the late Osama Bin Laden was responsible for thousands of deaths, we also know medical professionals have killed off millions of diabetics, just ask Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, (see quote below).

Comment posted on the lowcarb dietitian site over the weekend.

Hi Franziska thanks for another great post.

I have been asking Doctors, and medical professionals, including Dietitians, this question for five years, how do I hold non diabetic BG numbers with two Metformin pills, other than a low carb high fat diet regime ? the silence has been deafening. Maybe I should follow a multi drug regime as outlined in the ACCORD study, no, that ended early because too many people were dying.

We know many type two diabetes drugs have been banned such as Actos and Avandia. Other type two medications carry black box cancer warnings and are under the FDA spotlight, because of victims reporting very serious side effects. At best, all type two drugs (some very expensive) reduce HbA1c by two full points, very often they reduce HbA1c to a much lesser degree. A lowcarber can reduce HbA1c by 3, 4, even 5 full points with the correct diet, and modest exercise regime, often a little help from a very well proven, low cost, and safe drug such as Metformin, is all that is required.

The first line of defence, for most newly diagnosed type two diabetics, should be dietary changes and exercise. According to the US Dietitian Hope Warshaw "Old Dogma: People with type 2 diabetes should follow a low carb diet. New Reality: Nutrition recommendations for people with type 2 diabetes from the American Diabetes Association and other health authorities echo the recently unveiled U.S. 2010 Dietary Guidelines (1/31/11) for carbohydrate : about 45 to 65 percent of calories. (Americans currently eat about 45 to 50 percent of calories as carbohydrate--not a "high carb" intake.)" Complete lunacy in my opinion. Last word to Doctor Malcolm Kendrick.

“The reality is that over the years, and around the world we have killed literally millions of diabetics by advising them to eat a high-carb diet and avoid fats. Only now is it being recognised that previous advice was and remains useless, dangerous and scientifically illiterate" 

Eddie 

Link to Hope Warshaw here.