Here is something that you may not know about diabetes. Against the conventional wisdom, diabetes is a life-style disease. This also means it can be easily prevented, and more importantly it can be reversed FULLY, without medicines. (Type I diabetes is a chronic disorder, that cannot be reversed). Here we talk only about Type II.
The macro-nutrients that we eat, i.e, the carbs, proteins and fats are broken down to glucose, amino-acids and fatty acids respectively. Glucose enters the cells to provide energy.
And, the “key” to enter the cells are provided by a hormone called insulin. Insulin is secreted by pancreas, which is automatically released when we star eating food, and it lets glucose convert to create energy.
Insulin also signals the liver, to convert excess of glucose into glycogen molecules, and more of it is converted to triglycerides, which are eventually stored as body-fat.
Now, when we stop eating, the reverse happens; the glycogen is broken down to glucose and that is used as energy, and the cycle continues on eating and fasting. ( The time that you don’e spend eating is fasting period).
By research, a person looking healthy with good BMI could still be diabetic, because it’s not the body-fat that really matters but the fat in “liver” that matters.
When we supply excess of work to liver, its’ work of exporting fat outside takes a short-cut and creates fat in liver itself. That’s when you get fatty-liver.
When you have fatty liver, it takes time to process the excess glucose, and the body signals to generate more insulin. Now, on repeated exposure to insulin, there develops a resistance. And, this Insulin-resistance causes diabetes. The irony is that insulin itself causes insulin-resistance.
As more time goes, the insulin-resistance keeps on building up, and one fine day, the pancreas, which generates insulin goes bust. This is called a beta-cell dysfunction. That is the reason patients are prescribed with insulin.
Lots of natural food has carbs, which are broken down to glucose. So, why did this start only in this century? Good question. Answer is Sugar.
Sugar has 50–50 glucose and fructose. Glucose is processed as above. Fructose, the most dangerous of all, is metabolised directly as fat in the liver. Fastening the process of fatty-liver, and the full cycle starts.
On average, an American who was consuming 30 grams of sugar in 70’s has now come to 55g per day!
Cutting down sugar will drastically improve the functioning and a clean up of fat deposits in liver, etc., Also, if you have already damaged, it is fully reversible by doing fasting more than eating. The more you fast, the more the glucose-> glycogen -> triglycerides break down happens, cleaning up the shit it has created.
Bottom Line : Avoid Sugar; Fast more.