two months, everything took
a turn for the worse.
I noticed that every time
I ate foods containing
carbohydrates, my blood
glucose went very high and
that frustrated me. I also
noticed my cholesterol went
up to 6.4 mmol/L. Sure, I was
very efficient at burning fat
and ketones for energy, but my
tolerance for foods containing
carbohydrate went down
noticeably, even after exercise,
when I’m usually my most insulin
sensitive. Not only could I no
longer eat the smallest amount of
carbs (a banana) without a large
blood glucose spike, I noticed that
I needed more and more insulin
in order to bring my BGLs back
down into the normal range.
It would have been easy to
demonise carbs as the culprit
for the glucose spike, but that
would have been a case of
mistaken identity.
Here’s why: even if I didn’t
eat anything and my own body
produced glucose endogenously
(as in, the liver dumped glucose
into my bloodstream via a
process called gluconeogenesis),
I couldn’t fix my high BGLs
because I was resistant to the
insulin I injected. It felt like I was
on my way to developing type 2
(type 1 is more than enough,
thank you!). It was a frightening
reality and a huge wake-up call.The keto diet does not
cure insulin resistance
and type 2 diabetes
Just because keto can lead to
stable BGLs and low insulin
levels, and patients can come
off their medications, does not
necessarily mean it reverses
type 2. It may seem like they’ve
reversed their diabetes, but really,
they’re just managing symptoms,and the minute they eat a carb-
rich meal their BGLs can go very
high. It’s like a coeliac patient
removing gluten from their diet
and seeing symptoms disappear.
Does that mean they’re cured? Of
course not, they just removed the
trigger that leads to symptoms
without addressing the cause of
the disease. As soon as they eat
gluten, the symptoms return.
The ketogenic diet is a short-
term, band-aid solution to
minimise BGL fluctuations, but
does not reverse the underlying
condition of insulin resistance.
In fact, evidence-based research
shows eating a low-carbohydrate
diet actually worsens insulin
resistance. ➤diabetic living NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019 97nutrition