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There Are Now Two Stages BEFORE a Diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes

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This past Wednesday (November 28, 2018), the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) announced publication of a new Position Statement which identifies four separate disease stages associated with an abnormal glucose response, including Type 2 Diabetes; Stage 1: Insulin Resistance Stage 2: Prediabetes Stage 3: Type 2 Diabetes Stage 4: Vascular Complications — including retinopathy … Read more

The Three Stages of Carbohydrate Intolerance — before type 2 diabetes

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In the previous article titled When Normal Fasting Blood Glucose Results Aren’t Necessarily “Fine” I explained how normal results on a fasting blood glucose (FBG) test may simply mask ‘silent Diabetes’ and that even when fasting blood glucose is normal and results from a 2-hour Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (2-hr OGTT) do not indicate glucose intolerance, a person can still have a … Read more

When Normal Fasting Blood Glucose Isn’t Necessarily “Fine”

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Practitioner’s Preface When people have a fasting blood glucose test, and the results come back normal, they’re told (or assume) that everything’s fine. But is it? Certainly, a fasting blood glucose test is the least expensive test to find out if someone is already pre-diabetic, but for those wanting to avoid becoming diabetic and to … Read more

American Diabetes Association & European Association Classify Low Carb Diets as Medical Nutrition Therapy

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The new joint American Diabetes Association (ADA) / European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) position paper [1] published online ahead of print on October 4th now classifies a low carbohydrate diet as Medical Nutrition Therapy. in the treatment of Type 2 Diabetes in adults. What this means is these two organizations which are responsible for educating over 30 million … Read more

American Diabetes Association and European EASD Approve Low-Carb Diets

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The American Diabetes Association (ADA) & the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) have just released their new joint position statement which includes approval of low-carbohydrate diets for use in the management of Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) in adults. This comes on the heels of Diabetes Australia having recently released an updated position … Read more

Silver Bullet for Addressing Carb Cravings

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I was asked an interesting question recently which was “have you found the silver bullet for reducing carb cravings“? This was an interesting way to phrase something I have been asked in many different ways the last few years. Some people have been told that it really doesn’t matter what or how much they eat … Read more

A Trial of the Evidence

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In a landmark decision yesterday the Australian Health Practitioner’s Regulation Agency (AHPRA) dropped all charges of wrong-doing against orthopedic surgeon Dr. Gary Fettke for recommending a low carb high fat lifestyle to his patients. This is great news for a physician who had tired of amputating the gangrenous limbs of patients with uncontrolled Diabetes when lifestyle changes … Read more

Low Carbohydrate and Ketogenic Diets – more information

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There are many popular articles available on the internet, but if you are looking for researched, credible articles about a therapeutic use of Low Carbohydrate or Ketogenic Diets as well as articles with practical applications then this article is for you. I have written 100+ “Science Made Simple” articles related specifically to this topic — most … Read more

Are Low Carbohydrate Diets Linked to Risk of Premature Death?

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For a second week in a row dire warnings about the alleged dangers of “low carbohydrate diets” scream out from headlines across the internet. “Low-Carb Diets Linked to Higher Risk of Premature Death” ~Newsweek August 28, 2018, 12:51 PM “Low carbohydrate diets are unsafe and should be avoided, study suggests” ~ScienceDaily, August 28, 2018 The general … Read more

An Accurate Estimator of Whole Body Fat Percentage and Risk

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Note: This article was originally posted on August 28, 2018, and was updated on April 19, 2026 Practitioner’s Preface Measuring body fat percentage provides a clearer picture of body composition than tracking weight on a scale, and common tools like impedance measurements are affected by hydration status DEXA scans (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) are intended … Read more

Is Coconut Oil Pure Poison?

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For the second time in the last few days, dire warnings about the dangers of eating certain foods and not eating others dominated the headlines. In a previous post, I addressed the Harvard-based study that claimed that low carb diets shorten lifespan. This post is about a claim made by an adjunct professor from Harvard … Read more

Do Low Carb Diets Shorten Lifespan – a closer look

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INTRODUCTION: Headlines warned people this week of the dire risks of a shorter lifespan by eating a low carbohydrate diet, but is it true?  By asking a few simple questions it’s easy to see that this newly published study cannot be used to support this claim. Headlines are designed to attract readers to a story, … Read more

Low Carbohydrate Eating for People with Diabetes

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INTRODUCTION Diabetes Australia, the national body responsible for making treatment and dietary recommendations for the 1.7 million people living with Diabetes in that country, has just released a new Position Statement titled Low Carbohydrate Eating for People with Diabetes [1], said to be based on the latest evidence on the subject.  The publication is designed … Read more

Alzheimer’s Disease as Glucose Dysfunction of the Brain

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Practitioner’s Preface I’d heard of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) being referred to by some clinicians as ”Type 3 Diabetes” but until yesterday the link between AD and abnormalities in glucose metabolism in the brain was an academic interest. Now it’s personal. You see, yesterday I found out that my dad (90 years old) was diagnosed with … Read more

When Fat Was Made the Villain

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Those who are younger than 40 years old probably grew up hearing that saturated fat is ”bad” and polyunsaturated fat is ”good”, but where did we get this idea and is it true? The process of what I call the ”vilification of fat” began when researcher Ancel Keys presented a graph at a talk at … Read more

American Diabetes Association (ADA) is Making Sense of Carbs

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A June 2018 article written by Sacha Uelmen, RDN, CDE, Director of Nutrition at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) sheds much light on the expanded role for low carb diets in the treatment and management of Type 2 Diabetes [1]. In answering the question “should people with Diabetes cut back on carbs?”, Uelmen says; “It’s true … Read more

Dairy Fat Doesn’t Increase the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

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A new study published this week in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reports that long-term consumption of the saturated fat found in full-fat dairy products is not associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, etc.) or other causes of death, and may actually be protective against heart attack and … Read more

Refined Carbohydrate with Vegetable Oil Was Known to Cause Weight Gain

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It has been my conviction for some time that the “perfect storm” which underlies the current obesity epidemic was the marketing of novel food products that were a combination of refined carbohydrates and manufactured vegetable oils, and today I came across evidence that the food industry has known for some time that this specific combination results in significant weight … Read more

Some Carbs Are Better Than Others – Part 4 – the Insulin Index

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In previous articles in this series on Some Carbs are Better than Others, I’ve covered both Glycemic Index  (GI) and Glycemic Load (GL) which are useful measures of how easily carbohydrate-based foods raise the blood sugar of healthy people. For those that are insulin resistant or have Type 2 Diabetes, Insulin Index is much more useful because it indicates how … Read more