The Trilogy of Diabetes (2)

Many of us may still find it puzzling,
to claim that sugar doesn't (directly) cause diabetes.

Question arises here:
-- if sugar is ok, then why are we constantly hearing advice not to take too much sugar/carbohydrates?

A simplified answer:
>> When sugar is taken in refined form (e.g. in soft drinks, sweets, white flour and processed foods)
they shock the blood sugar level and quickly get converted into fats, ultimately contritbuting to obesity issue (which may indirectly evolve into a diabetic issue as explained later).

However, if sugar is taken in whole food manner (e.g. brown rice, wholemeal bread and whole grains), with the presence of fibre, the blood sugar level rises gently, and doesn't contribute to obesity easily.

Also, because whole food are usually loaded with high fibre, one gets satisfied more quickly and doesn't get overboard in sugar consumption easily.

If we are choosing the right form of sugar/carbo, it's even harder to convince that sugar causes diabetes.

Episode 2: Fat is one of the cultprits

Those who are in tuned with diabetic medicine,
probably won't be too unfamiliar with the remark
that waist line of a person is tightly correlated to
the risk of diabetes.

One may get the hint now that it's
fat that actually plays crucial roles inducing diabetes.

There are two ways fat causes diabetes
by failing the insulin to control blood sugar level:

(I) Hindrance of insulin signal :
When blood sugar rises, insulin secreted from the pancreas
will be circulated thoughout the body to inform the necessary tissues/cells
to do the necessary actions to reduce sugar in the blood stream immediately.

However, if there are too many fat molecules in the cells/tissue,
the insulin signals will get retarded and faded away,
consequently leading to inefficient signalling.

As long as the blood sugar level doesn't get normalised,
the feedback system in our body will keep informing the pancreas to
work harder and to release more insulin
until the desireable blood sugar level is reached.

In long term, the pancreas gets overworked
and eventually fails to produce matching level of insulin.
This is a classical case where diabetes arises.

(II) Defective insulin signal reception:
This pathway of diabetes is getting more prominent day by day,
when under-informed public, uncounsciously
take in molecularly impaired fats (ie bad fat).

As mentioned in The Fats of Life series,
any fat/oil which is treated with high heat
will render the fat molecular structure deformed.
Little that the general public knows that
the common cooking oils sold in the market
are treated with extreme high heat before bottling
to prolong their shelf-lives.

These deformed fat molecules
once assimilated into our body,
part of them will be used to make defective insulin receptor,
ultimately blocking partially the initiation of insulin signaling.

In the end, it doesn't seem that the pancreas
will ever be able to produce sufficient insulin to compensate
the blockage of insulin system.

Scary as it sounds,
but many people still prefer not to change their habit
in the choosing the right type of cooking oil
(which are not high heat treated).
-- good cooking oil are easily accessible at many Health Food Shops

More to come in the next blog,
as we still have one more culprit of diabetes to unveil.
Also, we will be discussing on how to devise
our food intake to mitigate the severity of existing diabetic condition.


Well regards,
Kee Yew
pureland2012-at-gmail.com


{Learning Holistic Wellness for Wisdom and Compassion}