Roger,

Thanks for the feedback!

I will add the reference to Bernstein. I didn't want to put the references
in the text because I wanted to build some flow, it's fairly complicated as
it is. The references at the bottom of the page, particularly the first one
do give the supporting data.

I've spent my life surrounded by thin guys who eat like hogs and never gain
a pound. And then there is my mom who lived into her mid 80s without ever
having anything worse than a cold who thinks that people who get sick are
all hypochondriacs who should pull up their socks and stop putting on airs.
She finally did get some serious ailments and sheepishly admitted that maybe
those friends of hers who had died of their "psychosomatic" ailments hadn't
just been seeking attention. <sigh>
.
I think the reason some people don't gain weight and some do it pretty much
comes down to genetic differences many of which have been sculpted by the
environments our particular ancestors had to deal with. Pale skin makes it
much more likely you'll get enough vitamin D to avoid the rickets that will
make delivering a child fatal.  So people in Scandinavia with a mutation for
red hair and freckles that let them absorb more sunshine in winter ended up
prospering and reproducing well, even though that has a couple of
not-so-good other health effects associated with it.  By the same token,
some people's ancestors had a lot more exposure to famine than others, so
the survivors were those who best stored food--the "Thrifty genotype"
argument. That certainly would explain why people like the Pima who are only
a generation or two away from famine have such a tough time with diabetes
while eating a normal diet.

I just read today where some scientist was speculating that adaptation to
cold climates in general promotes changes in mitochondrial behavior which
let the mitochondria produce more heat from ingested food. There are a
couple different strains of mitochondrial DNA found around the world, and he
speculates that people with the original African one, including those who
migrated to other parts of the worls,  DNA might have a higher risk for
diabetes because they do not have the enhanced ability to turn energy into
heat.

An odd side note on this effect: My ex- was extremely thin no matter what he
ate, and he ate a lot. He came from Scandinavian stock. About half an hour
after he ate a meal the "brown fat" on his neck and shoulders would actually
become physically hot. You could feel it happening.  My skinny daughter
inherited the same trait, but not my son who, like me, can gain weight
pretty much by thinking about food. The ex- was not any more active than I
was and for years we weighed about the same amount, but that ability to burn
fat meant he could eat twice what I could without gaining!

-- Jenny  - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.2.
Cut the carbs to respond to my  email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit  http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm

There's really a physical metabolic trap that some people experience..
I grew up on white bread, lots of sugar, pop, etc (bad nutrition, I
know)..  I slowly gained weight... Of course, at the time I switched
to a low fat diet in order to lose weight, but things only got worse
over the next few years..  Once your body starts to break down, it's
very hard to lose weight.

The reason for this is a progressive disease called insulin resistance
(the end result is type 2 diabetes).  In the presence of lots of blood
sugar for a long period of time, the effect on insulin (which pushes
the sugar into your cells to be used) diminishes.. The body
compensates by dumping more insulin into the blood..  While insulin is
high, you can't lose weight..  So, overweight people are at a distinct
disadvantage to losing weight -- if they can't reduce their insulin,
they can't lose weight.  The more fat you have, the less your body
responds to insulin.   Despite eating *healthy* (lots of fruit and
veggies, 1400 calories a day), I couldn't lose weight no matter what I
did.. when I switched to low carb (and got rid of that insulin
floating in my blood), the weight started melting off.

It's very real, and some people with insulin resistance have a great
deal of trouble losing weight.  I don't know of any fat people that
are happy being fat -- almost all of them have been dieting (low fat)
for as long as I can remember -- so why are they still fat?  The
reason is the one listed above, and a great deal of the medical
community is still warming up to those ideas.

Adrian,

Thanks!  I'm learning a lot myself reading what other people post. There's
some really good medical research coming out this year and it's finally
giving solid numbers to things that visionaries have speculated on for
years.  It's about time!

-- Jenny  - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.2.
Cut the carbs to respond to my  email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit  http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm

Peter,

I'm so happy to hear that the info I posted about diabetes was helpful. The
more I read about diabetes and what researchers and endocrinologists know,
the more scandalous it is to me how out-of-date most family doctors are in
their screening and treatment of this disease.

I too had my doctor laugh off all my early symptoms as "what happens to
women of your age." Without giving me anything but the notoriously useless
fasting blood glucose test.

There's also a very strong and erroneous belief that type 2 diabetes is
"caused" by obesity and that if people would only diet and exercise it would
go away. I read articles almost daily which make it sound like it is  the
"obesity epidemic" that is causing type 2 diabetes.  As a person whose
diabetes preceded any problem with weight--and whose diabetes has not
improved with complete normalization of weight, I find this very troubling.
It's pretty much another case of the media blaming the victim ("You're
diabetic because you stuff your face") rather than looking at what is really
happening--which I suspect is, in many cases, ("You're fat because your many
years of running slightly abnormal blood sugars has caused intense insulin
resistance which makes gaining weight almost inevitable and will eventually
kill off your beta cells.")

And that doesn't even get into the side issus that the SSRIs-- which are
being pushed so heavily by the drug companies for everything from PMS to
social anxiety--also cause significant weight gain in many people who did
not have weight problems before they started them--a clear cut  iatrogenic
issue that gets no ink at all.

Because diabetes is such a gold mine for the drug companies, they'll
continue to put their efforts into "Screeening" programs that focus on the
fasting blood sugar test that indentifies people only when their condition
has deteriorated to where they almost always need to become lifetime
consumers of expensive drugs, rather than more accurate screening programs
which could find people early on in the disease process where they could
control their blood sugar successfully with a lower carb diet and perhaps
avoid drugs completely.

Fortunately, it is now possible for people to screen themselves. You can buy
your own HBa1c test at a pharmacy or by mail order for about $20 and a meter
and strips cost only $28 (at Wal-mart).

When I was first diagnosed five years ago, the "cheap" meter cost upwards of
$60 and the strips were almost a dollar a piece.  This means that today a
person can get a definitive answer on whether or not they are headed towards
diabetes for under $50.  It could be the best money they've ever spent.

-- Jenny  - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.2.
Cut the carbs to respond to my  email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit  http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm

Jim,

Thanks for your feedback.  Here are the references you asked for:

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0CUH/6_26/102724416/p1/article.jhtml
Discusses The American College of Endocrinology's recommendations for
post-meal blood sugar target of 140 mg/dl and its rationale.

The Joslin Diabetes Clinic definition of "Normal" blood sugar levels from
http://www.upstate.edu/uhpated/pdf/diabetes/goalbldsug.pdf

I have added these references to the bottom of the page at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/risk.htm

-- Jenny  - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.2.
Cut the carbs to respond to my  email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit  http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm