Page 34 Daily Mail, Tuesday, March 3, 2020
A
s many as two million Britons are at risk of
developing type 2 diabetes in the next five years,
according to alarming new nHs figures.
They have non-diabetic hyperglycaemia, or pre-diabetes
— unhealthily high blood sugar levels. If they don’t take
action, they could soon be joining the four million or so already
diagnosed with the disease, which significantly increases the risk of
premature death.
Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body becomes resistant to
the effects of the hormone insulin, which is produced by the
pancreas and takes glucose out of the bloodstream and into cells. The
condition is typically linked to being overweight, which makes this
process less effective, so more and more insulin is needed to do
the job.
Ultimately, the pancreas becomes overwhelmed and starts producing
less insulin, leaving more glucose circulating. This results in type 2
diabetes. If blood sugar levels are
inadequately controlled, this can
lead to complications including eye
problems, nerve damage, heart
attack and stroke.
as well as the personal cost to the
patient, the nHs bears the growing
financial burden, with one in six
hospital beds now occupied by
someone with diabetes.
medication and significant weight
loss (through surgery or diet), plus
lifestyle changes, reduce the risk of
complications in some cases.
a l o w - c a r b d i e t i s h a v i n g
significant success in GP practices
throughout the UK, as the mail will
reveal in a major series starting
this s aturday.
This features Dr David Unwin, one
of the pioneers of the low-carb
movement — as a nHs GP in
southport, he has seen impressive
turnarounds in his patients’ weight
and type 2 diabetes — plus low-carb
recipes from chefs Giancarlo and
Katie Caldesi, written exclusively
for the mail.
The low-carb approach is based
on the idea that people who develop
type 2 diabetes have a problem with
sugar. This includes not only the
obvious table sugar, but also the
sugar hidden in many foods, such
as those with a lot of naturally
occurring sugar — fruit juice, for
e x a m p l e — a n d s t a r c h y
carbohydrates including bread, rice
and potatoes, which are broken
down into sugar in the body.
The GPs offering a low- carb
approach report that some type 2
patients following it have been able
to reduce and even come off their
diabetes medication as a result.
and it’s not just type 2 patients
who are benefiting, as the stories of
these patients here reveal. Experts
have been warning of an epidemic
of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,
which is closely linked to type 2
diabetes and obesity.
It starts with the build-up of fat
cells in the liver and, in some cases,
can progress to inflammation,
scarring and liver failure. as many
as one in three people in the UK is
estimated to have early signs of
non-alcoholic fatty liver disease,
according to the nHs.
Here, we talk to patients with
type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease,
a n d e v e n p o l y c y s t i c o v a r y
syndrome (a hormonal condition
that affects up to one in five
women), who have used low-carb
diets to tackle their conditions,
with life-transforming results.I used It for
hormonal
condItIon
Sally ReynaRd,
51, a consultant
obstetrician, lives
with husband
david, 51, and
daughters lexi, 17,
and Bea, 16, in Oxford. She says:
I’VE always been on the plump side
and struggled with my weight. as a
teenager, I tried every diet going,
from the cabbage soup diet to the
high-fibre diet — you name it, I’ve
tried it — but they just left me
feeling ravenous.
I couldn’t understand why some
people could eat pasta or a jacket
potato and be full for hours. I
assumed that I was simply greedy,
or had no will-power. It felt like my
body was conspiring against me.
What I didn’t realise was that I
had polycystic ovary syndrome
(PCOs), something that I’ve since
discovered affects other women in
my family, too. my symptoms
included irregular periods and
storing fat around my tummy.
I don’t tend to weigh myself, but
I remember being distraught when,
nine days after Bea’s birth, I went
shopping for clothes and had to buy
jeans in a size 22.
my friend saw how upset I was and
recommended the low-carb, high-
fat and high-protein atkins diet.
she gave me the book and overthe following days, while I breastfed
my new baby, I read up on the
science behind low-carb diets. It
was as if a lightbulb went on in my
head as I realised that all the diets
I’d tried in the past had been
doomed to fail.
Later, when I started my medical
training, I learned that PCOs can
cause insulin resistance. my body
couldn’t process refined starchy,
carbs effectively.
I then worked with a doctor in a
fertility clinic who advised women
with PCOs to try a low-carb diet.
It was the first time I’d come
across a medic giving such advice,
but he explained that this type of
eating plan may result in weight
loss, which would improve the
women’s chances of getting preg-
nant, even if they remained above
a normal body mass index (BmI).
I started my low-carb lifestyle
when Bea was a few weeks old, by
cutting out sugar and refined carbs
including flour and pasta. I started
eating lots of green, leafy vegetables
and salad, which are packed with
vitamins and minerals.
In the past, I’d always gone for
low-fat products, and even my GP
had told me to cut down on fat if I
wanted to lose weight. But Ilearned to choose ‘good’ fats such
as olive oil and coconut oil to keep
me fuller for longer and help
stabilise my blood sugar.
Having stopped eating refined
carbs, I finally lost weight, and over
the next couple of years I dropped
from a size 22 to a size 10/12. I never
felt hungry, as I ate more chicken,
fish and nuts. not only that, but I
found that the cholesterol levels in
my blood, which my GP had been
worried about, had dropped to
normal levels.
In my practice I recommend that
women who are larger, and so at risk
of gestational diabetes, reduce the
amount of sugar and refined carbs
they eat, in order to minimise their
risk of developing diabetes during
their pregnancy.
I advise them to consider the
colour of the carbs they eat. They
should try to avoid ‘white carbs’
such as sugar; reduce the ‘beige
carbs’ such as white bread, pasta
and white rice; eat ‘brown carbs’
s u c h a s w h o l e m e a l b r e a d i n
moderation; and eat lots of green
‘veggie carbs’.
Following a low-carb diet has
made me feel so much healthier. It’s
difficult to say whether it improved
my other PCOs symptoms, butcertainly the stubborn
fat around my middle
reduced, and in my 40s
I had so much energy
and exercised regularly
— I even took part in
half-marathons.
my daughter Bea
takes after me and
always seemed to love her carbs.
When I realised she was struggling
with low energy levels and feeling
grotty, I suggested that she tried
reducing the amount of refined
carbs she ate.
at first, she was horrified, but
she’s now embraced a low-carb
lifestyle. she even had a low-carb
cake made with almond flour for her
16th birthday.
I try to stick to my low-carb diet
as much as possible. I don’t tend to
be hungry in the morning, so rarely
have more than a coffee at breakfast
time. For lunch I’ll have chicken and
a green salad with vinaigrette
dressing, or boiled egg with salad
and either spinach or avocado. For
supper, I eat a lot of chicken breast
or salmon with salad.
I heard about the Caldesi cookbook
through friends, and Bea now makes
some delicious recipes from it. she’s
a great cook. We’ve started adaptingLow-carb diets
transformed
all our lives
Yes, it can reverse type 2
diabetes... but as the Mail
launches an exclusive series
on the benefits of a low-carb
regimen, these inspiring
stories reveal how it can help
beat a host of other conditions
Lost fat
round
middle