Chapter 1- Contrasting Type I and Type II Diabetes

Not today! We find high concentrations of sugars and simple carbohydrates in the majority of all packaged foods now. In fact, if they don’t have sugars or salt in them, they simply can’t compete in a market that evaluates everything in terms of pleasant taste to the exclusion of any real nutritional value. These high concentrations of carbohydrates and sugars digest almost instantly and pour massive amounts of glucose into the blood all at once. This has become the rule rather than the exception. Remember, in the blood, glucose is blood sugar.

Since high concentrations of blood sugar are as dangerous as abnormally low amounts of blood sugar, and because today’sAmerican diet contains such inordinately high amounts ofcarbohydrates and sugars, it’s vital for the pancreas to recognize the presence of carbohydrates immediately in order to anticipate the high concentrations that are coming with today’s typical meal or snack. The pancreas trains itself well over time and becomes extremely good at this, especially in those people who develop AOD. Recognizing that when the person eats nearly anything, there will be large concentrations of carbohydrates coming, and very quickly, the pancreas begins to condition itself to release massive amounts of insulin at the slightest hint of carbohydrates to prevent dangerously high blood sugar levels and the damage they can create. But the pancreas gets so proficient at this that it starts to over anticipate.

Not only does it secrete enough insulin to bring the bloodsugar level down to normal, the huge amounts of insulin released actually cause the blood sugar to plummet past a safe level and even farther down into an abnormally low blood sugar condition( hypoglycemia). If the blood sugar drops low enough, the person can lose consciousness. It’s not a good thing at all! One of the symptoms of low blood sugar is hunger as we explained earlier. Insulin also delivers blood sugar to the hypothalamus. That’s the part of your brain that registers hunger and being full or satisfied. When excess insulin has removed too much blood sugar from the blood making it unavailable to the hypothalamus, the brain registers

click to continue...

...previous page