Diabetes + Overweight and Obesity = Diabesity
Mark Hyman, M.D., blogged about diabesity at the Huffington Post December 24, 2009. He defines diabesity as a problem with glucose regulation associated with overweight and obesity. The glucose (blood sugar) physiology problem ranges from metabolic syndrome to prediabetes to full-blown type 2 diabetes.
“Diabesity” has been in circulation for a few years, but hasn’t caught on yet.
What interested me about his blog post was that he advocates the Mediterranean diet as both therapeutic and prophylactic. To quote Dr. Hyman:
The optimal diet to prevent and treat diabesity includes:
- Fruits
- Vegetables
- Nuts
- Seeds
- Beans
- Whole grains
- Healthy fats such as olive oil, nuts, avocados, and omega-3 fats
- Modest amounts of lean animal protein including small wild fish such as salmon or sardines
This is commonly known as a Mediterranean diet. It is a diet of whole, real, fresh food. It is a diet of food you have to prepare and cook from the raw materials of nature. And it has broad-ranging benefits for your health.
Food for thought, no doubt.
Reference: Hyman, Mark. The diabesity epidemic part III: Treating the real causes instead of the symptoms. The Huffington Post, December 24, 2009
December 26th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
what is the current reason for always insisting on whole grains? It seems that it might be a catch-phrase, based on the misconception that whole grains are necessarily much lower in their Glycemic Index than white grains.
E.g., AFAIK Gary Taubes goes on about that deluded concept as it it were true. Gary et al need to spend an easy 5 minutes looking up the GI of white versus whole wheat (not stone ground) bread. Then do the same for rice. Then top it off by looking up *white* spaghetti, from the typical durum semolina wheat - and see that it’s lower than brown rice or bread.
The canard used to be ’simple vs complex’. now it ‘processed vs whole’.
I myself only buy (or make) whole wheat bread, but it’s not because of GI.
December 26th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
oops, and btw, quoting Dr. Hyman: “small wild fish such as salmon…”
would those be the BIG small salmon we see leaping up the streams in the wilds of Alaska videos? Like three foot long or more?
Well, the idea is that small fish have less mercury and/or toxins; but salmon aren’t small, they are big and they are up the food chain. But what they (sockeye, anyway) are, is fast growing - and so supposedly they haven’t lived long enough to accumulate lots of the bad things.
But besides that, the idea of small amounts of protein would be open to debate - just look at the Protein Power blog by Dr. Eades, e.g. Then again, they advocate eating unlimited SFA fat. It goes round and round.
Lest it seem I am too critical, I’d again state that I like Dr. Parker’s blog - as it’s an overview and not a zealot type of place
December 26th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
I bet Hyman indeed is implicitly referring to mercury and other potential toxins (PCBs, dioxin) in older larger fish, but he was unclear. I’m guessing a tuna is gnerally much larger and heavier than a salmon.
Taubes at the very end of “Good Calories, Bad Calories” wonders if an Atkins-style diet might be more or less healthy than a Mediterranean-style diet. He’s open to either possibility, like me. He says the comparison study just hasn’t been done.
Open-minded honest people would say “just show me the data.”
-Steve
December 31st, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Reading Dr. Hyman’s series on the Huff led me to your blog on the Mediterranean diet. I am personally invested as I meet the unfortunate criteria for “diabesity”, except that I do not have diabetes. Ever since I entered, is it? “Para” menopause? For lack of a better explanation, at age forty I seemed to fall apart (now 47). I have been on this roller coaster of weight gain and loss, now just gain. Not having a weight problem in my past or in my family history, I found myself very frustrated.
I look forward to reading your blog and adapting to this new way of eating into my life. Losing 40 pounds seems daunting to me now, but very necessary, the consequences are too high.
December 31st, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Hi, Laura.
It’s “perimenopause” or “perimenopausal.” Not common words, so don’t feel bad. Useful concept.
Sorry about the frustrating weight gain. I bet you can beat it.
-Steve
March 28th, 2010 at 7:58 am
here in Philippines, obesity is also becoming a problem. More and more children are getting obese due to a lifestyle that is not fully of physical activities. most kids just wants to watch TV, play computer games and surf the net.