War on high blood sugar

The blind leading the blind

We are waging a war right now–and not one you are probably thinking of. I’m talking about the war against high blood sugar.

The reason I use the term “high blood sugar” instead of diabetes is because it is critical for people to realize that the ravages of high blood sugar–and the toll it takes on your body–begin long before you’re ever diagnosed with diabetes itself. They begin the moment your blood sugar gets elevated.

In fact, the damage to your blood vessels and organs occurs each time you eat a meal with a high glycemic load. So yes, that one ice cream cone, cupcake, or piece of bread is killing you–slowly but surely.

And if that’s not frightening enough, consider this: High blood sugar kills 3.4 million people worldwide each year. That’s nearly double the death toll from AIDS (which kills 1.8 million people each year).

Please don’t get me wrong, I am by no means belittling the toll AIDS and HIV-related illness takes on our health care system. But, it’s clearly high time we start treating diabetes and blood sugar disorders with the same gravity we treat HIV infection.

The problem is, the medical community doesn’t have a clue as to how to help people control their blood sugar. In fact, their best attempts actually make it worse.

Take the American Diabetes Association’s recommendation that people eat at least 45 to 60 grams of carbohydrate at each meal. This piece of advice is downright dangerous for anyone battling blood sugar problems (which is nearly everyone these days).

And most physicians don’t have a clue as to how to advise their patients because most of them have never taken a course in nutrition. It is truly a case of the blind leading the blind.

It boggles my mind that people don’t take diabetes and high blood sugar more seriously. I have seen people with diabetes eat a donut and increase their insulin dose or take an additional dose of their oral medication so they can continue to eat whatever they wanted. That’s great for the powers that run this country (Big Pharma and Big Agribusiness), but it’s not doing you–or your body–any favors.

Like I said yesterday, eating healthy and balancing your blood sugar can be easy. It just takes a little common sense. And rest assured that I’m here in your corner to help guide you along the way.