Yesterday, I posted a simplified explanation of how trans fat causes diabetes. Today I want to address a related topic.
Many times I've heard people ask questions like, "how much trans fat can I eat?" and "how much trans fat is safe to eat?" I also hear people say things like, "oh...a little trans fat won't hurt you..." and "just eat trans fat in moderation and you'll be ok." These kinds of comments make me cringe and I want to explain why.
Trans fat is literally like eating poison!
Yes, I said POISON!
Would you eat draino in moderation? How about arsenic? How about anything with a skull and cross bones poison symbol on it? When something is poison, you shouldn't eat ANY of it - none!
Trans fat is not like indulging in a piece of decadent cheesecake occasionally or a delicious piece of fudge. It's not like having a scoop of your favorite ice cream. Eating trans fat is not like eating some high fat bacon or a half a rack of ribs for a special occasion. A high fat latte once a month isn't going to hurt you. All of these rich foods are harmful if you eat too much of them and/or you eat them too often but they aren't going to hurt you if you eat them in moderation. They are NOT poison, they are just rich foods that should be only eaten occasionally. Trans fat on the other hand is POISON and even a little bit will hurt you.
Do you see the difference - poison vs really rich food that should be eaten in moderation?
Every time you eat trans fat, it gets substituted into your cell membranes where healthy omega-3 should be and in some cells it stays there 7 years! That's a sizable chuck of your life where that trans fat is there in your cell membranes reaping havoc - causing insulin resistance, aka type 2 diabetes. AND... it accumulates!
Trans fat is an artificial food, a toxic one, not found in nature and the human body is not designed to deal with it. It is literally POISON to the human body. On the other hand, the human body can handle an occasional burst of sugar and animal (natural) fat. In fact, a healthy human body is well equipped to deal with feast and famine. However, a healthy human body is not equipped to deal with an industrial toxin cooked up in the lab of some corporate empire that cares much more about profit than human health!
You should avoid trans fat (hydrogenated anything on the food label and over heating oils) completely with no exceptions. You will find it impossible to reverse your diabetes naturally if you don't!
For more detailed information on what you should avoid eating (and what you should eat more of) if you want to reverse your diabetes, please go to this site and check it out thoroughly. It is the most comprehensive source I've seen on how to cure diabetes naturally.
This Is a Step-By-Step Cure For Diabetes Developed By Scientists
I highly recommend you check this out and cure diabetes like I did. Maxine
Showing posts with label link between trans fat and diabetes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label link between trans fat and diabetes. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
How Trans Fat Causes Diabetes - Simplified Version
The other night I was trying to explain how trans fat causes diabetes to a friend who was recently diagnosed with pre-diabetes. After some discussion, she said I went into too much detail which made it too hard to understand. That put me to thinking that I needed to figure out how to simplify the topic so that it is more easily understood.
First, I should make it clear that trans fat causes type 2 diabetes, not type 1 diabetes.
To understand how trans fat causes type 2 diabetes, it is important first to understand that all fats are made of long chains of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms attached to the sides of these chains. Depending on how the hydrogen atoms are arranged, the chains of carbons will either kink up or lie flat - this is a really important point as it is the key to how trans fat causes diabetes (see below).
In their natural state, fats are kinked because of the way hydrogen atoms are positioned - they are in what is called the "cis position" (same side of the carbon chain). However, food manufacturers often change this natural "cis" (kinked) position by a process called hydrogenation which involves extremely high temperatures. Hydrogenation denatures the fat molecules and the hydrogens re-orient into what is called the "trans position" (opposide sides of the carbon chain) to create what we called "trans fat."
Because trans fat lies flat and does not kink (because of the artificially produced symmetry of the hydrogen atoms along the carbon atom chain), the molecules can stack much more tightly together than does the natural "cis" fat. This means that a natural oil that is a liquid at room temperature can become a solid if hydrogenated because the fat molecules are stacked much closer together (the atoms in a solid are packed more tightly together than the atoms in a liquid). This is how margerine and crisco (both solids at room temperature) is created out of a hydrogenated liquid oil. The food manufacturers like to turn cheap oils into solids so they can increase their profit margins. Plus, fats in the trans position don't turn rancid so the shelf life is much longer - which is another reason the profit driven food manufacturers love to hydrogenate oils - it increases their bottom line.
Now back to how trans fat causes diabetes...
Omega-3 is a natural fat that is in the cis formation like all natural fats. Omega-3 fats are VERY IMPORTANT building blocks of the cell membrane in all cells in the human body. Without omega-3 in our cell membranes we would not live very long.
In a healthy cell membrane, the omega-3 is in the cis (kinked) position which allows the insulin hormone to very easily travel through the cell membrane. However, when we eat trans fat found in many types of processed modern food, this artificial trans fat becomes substituted into the cell membrane where the natural omega-3 should be. This creates a very "stiff" cell membrane - a very unhealthy cell membrane - which makes it much more difficult for insulin to get through the cell membrane -- this is how trans fat can cause insulin resistance, i.e. type 2 diabetes.
Insulin is the hormone that transports glucose from the bloodstream after we eat across the cell membrane to inside of the cell. In other words, if insulin can't do its job, glucose builds up in the blood stream and we get high blood sugar and we are not able to metabolize our food efficiently. This means a diabetic can literally starve when they are consuming food.
When the cell membrane becomes partially impermeable to insulin, it is said that we are "insulin resistant." In other words, insulin can't work efficiently with an unhealthy membrane where some of the healthy omega-3 fat is replaced by unhealthy and unnatural trans fat. The more trans fat that gets substituted into the cell membrane where the omega-3 should be, the more difficult it becomes for insulin to transport the glucose across the cell membrane and the worse the insulin resistance becomes.
I hope that made it less complicated!
If you want to reverse diabetes, it is absolutely essential that you eliminate ALL trans fat from your diet. To learn more about how to do this and also learn about other foods that you should eliminate, please visit this site and listen carefully to the entire video. You'll be given instructions how how to get all of the information you.
First, I should make it clear that trans fat causes type 2 diabetes, not type 1 diabetes.
To understand how trans fat causes type 2 diabetes, it is important first to understand that all fats are made of long chains of carbon atoms with hydrogen atoms attached to the sides of these chains. Depending on how the hydrogen atoms are arranged, the chains of carbons will either kink up or lie flat - this is a really important point as it is the key to how trans fat causes diabetes (see below).
In their natural state, fats are kinked because of the way hydrogen atoms are positioned - they are in what is called the "cis position" (same side of the carbon chain). However, food manufacturers often change this natural "cis" (kinked) position by a process called hydrogenation which involves extremely high temperatures. Hydrogenation denatures the fat molecules and the hydrogens re-orient into what is called the "trans position" (opposide sides of the carbon chain) to create what we called "trans fat."
Because trans fat lies flat and does not kink (because of the artificially produced symmetry of the hydrogen atoms along the carbon atom chain), the molecules can stack much more tightly together than does the natural "cis" fat. This means that a natural oil that is a liquid at room temperature can become a solid if hydrogenated because the fat molecules are stacked much closer together (the atoms in a solid are packed more tightly together than the atoms in a liquid). This is how margerine and crisco (both solids at room temperature) is created out of a hydrogenated liquid oil. The food manufacturers like to turn cheap oils into solids so they can increase their profit margins. Plus, fats in the trans position don't turn rancid so the shelf life is much longer - which is another reason the profit driven food manufacturers love to hydrogenate oils - it increases their bottom line.
Now back to how trans fat causes diabetes...
Omega-3 is a natural fat that is in the cis formation like all natural fats. Omega-3 fats are VERY IMPORTANT building blocks of the cell membrane in all cells in the human body. Without omega-3 in our cell membranes we would not live very long.
In a healthy cell membrane, the omega-3 is in the cis (kinked) position which allows the insulin hormone to very easily travel through the cell membrane. However, when we eat trans fat found in many types of processed modern food, this artificial trans fat becomes substituted into the cell membrane where the natural omega-3 should be. This creates a very "stiff" cell membrane - a very unhealthy cell membrane - which makes it much more difficult for insulin to get through the cell membrane -- this is how trans fat can cause insulin resistance, i.e. type 2 diabetes.
Insulin is the hormone that transports glucose from the bloodstream after we eat across the cell membrane to inside of the cell. In other words, if insulin can't do its job, glucose builds up in the blood stream and we get high blood sugar and we are not able to metabolize our food efficiently. This means a diabetic can literally starve when they are consuming food.
When the cell membrane becomes partially impermeable to insulin, it is said that we are "insulin resistant." In other words, insulin can't work efficiently with an unhealthy membrane where some of the healthy omega-3 fat is replaced by unhealthy and unnatural trans fat. The more trans fat that gets substituted into the cell membrane where the omega-3 should be, the more difficult it becomes for insulin to transport the glucose across the cell membrane and the worse the insulin resistance becomes.
I hope that made it less complicated!
If you want to reverse diabetes, it is absolutely essential that you eliminate ALL trans fat from your diet. To learn more about how to do this and also learn about other foods that you should eliminate, please visit this site and listen carefully to the entire video. You'll be given instructions how how to get all of the information you.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Type 2 Diabetes Did Not Exist Before the 1920's - This is a Well-documented Fact
I know it will be hard for you to believe but type 2 diabetes did not exist before 1920. It wasn't fully documented in writing until 1933. I want you to think about what this means. Type 2 diabetes, a disease that is predicted to plague more than 1/3 of the American population by 2050 is LESS THAN 100 years old! People in the 1800's did NOT have type 2 diabetes. People at the turn of the last century did NOT have type 2 diabetes. I don't think this has sunk into the medical community's psyche and the general American population seems oblivious to this well documented fact.
WHY?
Why is no one talking about the fact that type 2 diabetes did not exist 100 years ago and now is rising faster than almost any disease we've ever studied. And.. remember that type 2 diabetes is really part of a larger metabolic syndrome and leads to cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, eye disease, damaged nerves and damaged tissues, and an acutely weakened immune system!
Again, why? Why doesn't this story appear on the front page of every major newspaper in the world? Why isn't CNN, FOX news, and cNBC reporting on this daily with panels of experts?
Type 2 diabetes doesn't kill you immediately but it does kill you slowly and the lifespan of those who have it is significantly reduced as well! The quality of life is much lower in most cases.
When doctors first started seeing what we now call "type 2 diabetes" they had no idea what it was. At first, it was so rare it was a medical curiosity. However, this changed very rapidly and there was great buzz about this puzzling disease at medical conferences. If you thoroughly search the old literature, you can find this but it is carefully hidden away from easy access (I should write an article on this as well).
This incidence of this new modern disease rose exponentially during the late 1920s and 1930s, and as it did, doctors became even more baffled. Remember that type 1 diabetes did exist but even though the name is similar now, the underlying causes of the disease are VERY different. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are not the same diseases at all. The names being so similar does confuse things quite a bit.
Let's look at the history of how all this came to be:
In the late 1800s scientists discovered that removing the pancreas from a dog made its blood sugar skyrocket uncontrollably. Thus, scientists knew something was produced by the pancreas that controlled blood sugar. However, it wasn't until 1922 that scientists found a way to isolate insulin from the pancreas of animals and inject it into people who had type 1 diabetes. After a 14 year girl's life was saved by injecting insulin, it was hailed as a medical miracle. In short order, injecting insulin into patients with type 1 diabetes became the standard medical treatment. It worked very well for a while but then along came a totally new seemingly related disease. It was similar in some ways but totally different in other ways.
In the mid to late 1920's, a real medical mystery started developing. Patients were showing up with high blood sugar that didn't respond to insulin in the same way as a type 1 diabetic. These patients were assumed to be diabetics because the way doctors diagnosed this was to test for sugar in the urine that "spilled out" from the blood. If the sugar was high, they were considered to be diabetics and automatically they were immediately put on insulin injections.
This procedure had worked so well on those who had high blood sugar for about a decade that doctors were really mystified when it suddently stopped working!!
It was a head scratcher for sure. At first, there were just a few cases but then the incidence of these mysterious cases of high blood sugar cases not responding to insulin grew exponentially, and by the middle of the 1930's, it was a major topic of discussion in the medical community. No one understood it but some doctors were already figuring out how to treat it successfully with diet. Note, changes in diet did NOT work with the type 1 patients, only with these new type 2 patients. BUT... remember that all patients who had high blood sugar were then simply called "diabetics" and the disease was called "diabetes" with no type 1 or type 2 as a prefix. This is because they did not fully understand at that time they were dealing with a totally different disease that just happen to have the same symptom: high blood sugar.
In the 1950s, a technique was discovered that allowed insulin levels to be measured. It was discovered that type 2 diabetes, a disease that was now running rampant, was associated with normal or even elevated levels of insulin. This was very different from type 1 diabetics whose bodies could produce little to no insulin.
To emphasize:
Type 1 diabetics: produce NO insulin or very little insulin
Type 2 diabetics: often produce TOO MUCH insulin or produce normal amounts of insulin
Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes produce the same symptom of high blood sugar but they are obviously very different!
To recap, in type 1 diabetics, blood sugar was high but insulin levels were low. In type 2 diabetics, blood sugar was also high but insulin levels were either normal or elevated. Moreover, type 2 diabetics did not respond to insulin injections.
By the 1930s, type 2 diabetes had grown 1000%!!
In fact, by the middle of the 1930s, the new type 2 diabetes cases already outnumbered traditional type 1 diabetes. Today, type 2 diabetes accounts for approximately 95% of all diabetes cases in the United States.
95 out of 100 diabetics are type 2 today. However, 100 years ago type 2 diabetes did NOT exist.
This is alarming!
What's more alarming is that no one seems to be talking about it!!! Wake up news media... where are you on this issue (hint to my readers: advertising dollars! and handsomely lobbyists who strong arm our politicians making the rules).
Keep this amazing and little known fact in mind:
Type 2 diabetes was a completely NEW disease in the 1920s (less than 100 years ago!).
To me, this fact is astounding. I think this news media should be shouting this from the rooftops and reporting this fact on every news channel.
There must be some reason that type 2 diabetes suddenly appeared in the 1920s and so rapidly escalated in the general American population, right? Diseases don't just appear out of no where with no cause, right?
Here's a big clue: type 2 diabetes appeared at about the same time in some developed countries but was delayed in others by differing amounts of time. Hmmmm.... why?
What caused this mysterious new disease that is so crippling America and other industrialized nations today?
The answer is this type 2 diabetes mystery is widespread introduction of poisonous food into the food supply!
In the 1920s, hydrogenated oils and fats (trans fat) began to be sold in industrialized nations (well, most of them). Trans fat is an ARTIFICIAL food and not found in nature in a way that human beings would eat it. We now know that trans fat damages cell membranes and causes type 2 diabetes (insulin resistance). The vast majority of type 2 diabetes patients will never hear anything about this though, not even from their doctor!! Very sad. Money does evil things in this world and this is one of them.
Early marketing efforts of this "new and improved" hydrogenated oil totally failed. Products like Crisco (hydrogenated dirt cheap vegetable oil) was not accepted at first. However, given that the Great Depression hit everyone hard, the lower cost eventually made it more acceptable to people who were so strapped for money they were struggling for their very survival. Then, it evenually fully accepted with World War 2 escalated and the Americans go involved. Real butter was rationed so those on the home front were looking for alternatives and that's when margarine (another hydrogenated fat) finally become fully accepted.
Thus, this trans fat, a totally artificial substance posing as "food" began to be eaten by the masses at exactly the same time as we see the appearance and very rapid escalation of a brand new disease: type 2 diabetes.
Remember that "hydrogenated" or "partially-hydrogenated" fat of any kind is just a deceptive way of saying trans fat.
The introduction of hydrogenated oils and fats were motivated entirely by profit and greed. The hydrogenation process could turn REALLY CHEAP fats that are usually liquid at room temperature into solids at room temperature. Thus products like Crisco and margarine were born. These toxic fats largely replaced animal lard and butter and they were used everyday in a wide variety of food dishes. In other words, they were so ubiquitous, they entered the bodies of almost every citizen in industrial nations.
Hydrogenation also greatly increased the shelf life of food products which meant that mass scale production food and storage could be achieved. Food manufacturers were excited about how much more profit they could make this way and over the decades they protected this profit any way they could and money was no object as it meant making even more money.
Keep in mind that hand and hand with this sudden appearance of hydrogenated oils and new diseases like type 2 diabetes, we get the rapid expansion of Big Pharma and all the profits that go along with this.
For people wanting to reverse type 2 diabetes with diet and other natural means, this is the most important history lesson you've probably every read.
If you really dig deep into the literature of the time, you'll find that many scientists expressed serious concerns over the potential health hazards of these artificial foods. There was an outcry in fact. There is also a record of this as they expressed these concerns at conferences. However, the war effort soon far over-shadowed these concerns and with these distractions that the world was facing at the tiem, the food industry was left relatively alone to experiment in the lab and produce more artificial foods and also launch their marketing campaigns. If one wants to fully understand and appreciate how we as a people could have ever allowed the money-hungry food industry to put so many artificial toxic foods into our food supply, they have to understand how other historical events were over-shadowing any concern for health. When whole nations are fighting for their very survival on this planet, it's hard to be terribly concerned at that moment over your health.
Unfortunately, these artificial and toxic foods were not widely discussed again until the 1970's. By this time, hydrogenated oils were so integrated into our diets that no one really thought much about it. This is exactly what the big food companies wanted. They won and they have been profiting handsomely ever since by our distraction.
Someone has got to pay the piper though and that is what is happening today with our type 2 diabetes rates being higher than they ever have been. For a modern would with all this super science and technology at our fingertips, it is a shame that it has come to this.
However, it is time we step back and get back to basics. Food is a substance we put into our bodies every day. We stuff our faces as the modern expression states 3 or more times a day. What we put into our bodies matters. There is a big difference between putting toxic artificial foods that have been sitting in some warehouse for a year and organic wholesome fresh foods with no artificial ingredients! Big, big, BIG difference!!
Diabetes and all of its complications is also big business for the medical field. Basically, the idea of curing diabetes equals the loss of profit for many. The idea of removing hydrogenated oils and fats entirely from our food supply is a herculean task... BUT it really must be done or we are going to end up with our entire population having diabetes and dying from the complications of it.
This article is already very long so I won't discuss the details of the mechanism by which hydrogenated oils and other artificial toxic foods cause diabetes in detail but you can read about it here and elsewhere on this site such as my article on how trans fat causes diabetes. Briefly, however, the process of hydrogenation creates artificial trans fats and replaces the healthy omega-3 fats in our cell membranes. Trans fats are VERY rare in nature and their chemical structure is quite different than the healthy and natural omega-3 fats they replace. When we ingest trans fat, it becomes incorporated into our cell membranes and interferes with the process of glucose transport across the cell membrane. We become "insulin resistant" (the very definition of type 2 diabetes). So, even if the pancreas is producing adequate amounts of insulin, not enough glucose gets across our trans fat damaged cell membranes, glucose builds up in our bloodstream, our cells don't get the nutrients they need, and we can develop several different medical ailments from this same underlying cause.
Everyone, especially diabetics, pre-diabetics, and those at higher risk to develop diabetes, should stop eating trans fat entirely. You need to keep in mind that eating trans fat (hydrogenated oil of any kind has trans fat) is not like eating ice cream where eating it "in moderation" is okay. Trans fat is poison period. Not even a little should be eaten. PLEASE get busy learning exactly how to reverse your diabetes. Eliminating trans fat is a very important first step but there is much more to the formula and you need to know every step to really do it. To really learn how to reverse diabetes, you need to get this comprehensive guide that will explain every step in detail. It is very possible to reverse type 2 diabetes if you know how.
WHY?
Why is no one talking about the fact that type 2 diabetes did not exist 100 years ago and now is rising faster than almost any disease we've ever studied. And.. remember that type 2 diabetes is really part of a larger metabolic syndrome and leads to cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, eye disease, damaged nerves and damaged tissues, and an acutely weakened immune system!
Again, why? Why doesn't this story appear on the front page of every major newspaper in the world? Why isn't CNN, FOX news, and cNBC reporting on this daily with panels of experts?
Type 2 diabetes doesn't kill you immediately but it does kill you slowly and the lifespan of those who have it is significantly reduced as well! The quality of life is much lower in most cases.
When doctors first started seeing what we now call "type 2 diabetes" they had no idea what it was. At first, it was so rare it was a medical curiosity. However, this changed very rapidly and there was great buzz about this puzzling disease at medical conferences. If you thoroughly search the old literature, you can find this but it is carefully hidden away from easy access (I should write an article on this as well).
This incidence of this new modern disease rose exponentially during the late 1920s and 1930s, and as it did, doctors became even more baffled. Remember that type 1 diabetes did exist but even though the name is similar now, the underlying causes of the disease are VERY different. Type 1 and type 2 diabetes are not the same diseases at all. The names being so similar does confuse things quite a bit.
Let's look at the history of how all this came to be:
In the late 1800s scientists discovered that removing the pancreas from a dog made its blood sugar skyrocket uncontrollably. Thus, scientists knew something was produced by the pancreas that controlled blood sugar. However, it wasn't until 1922 that scientists found a way to isolate insulin from the pancreas of animals and inject it into people who had type 1 diabetes. After a 14 year girl's life was saved by injecting insulin, it was hailed as a medical miracle. In short order, injecting insulin into patients with type 1 diabetes became the standard medical treatment. It worked very well for a while but then along came a totally new seemingly related disease. It was similar in some ways but totally different in other ways.
In the mid to late 1920's, a real medical mystery started developing. Patients were showing up with high blood sugar that didn't respond to insulin in the same way as a type 1 diabetic. These patients were assumed to be diabetics because the way doctors diagnosed this was to test for sugar in the urine that "spilled out" from the blood. If the sugar was high, they were considered to be diabetics and automatically they were immediately put on insulin injections.
This procedure had worked so well on those who had high blood sugar for about a decade that doctors were really mystified when it suddently stopped working!!
It was a head scratcher for sure. At first, there were just a few cases but then the incidence of these mysterious cases of high blood sugar cases not responding to insulin grew exponentially, and by the middle of the 1930's, it was a major topic of discussion in the medical community. No one understood it but some doctors were already figuring out how to treat it successfully with diet. Note, changes in diet did NOT work with the type 1 patients, only with these new type 2 patients. BUT... remember that all patients who had high blood sugar were then simply called "diabetics" and the disease was called "diabetes" with no type 1 or type 2 as a prefix. This is because they did not fully understand at that time they were dealing with a totally different disease that just happen to have the same symptom: high blood sugar.
In the 1950s, a technique was discovered that allowed insulin levels to be measured. It was discovered that type 2 diabetes, a disease that was now running rampant, was associated with normal or even elevated levels of insulin. This was very different from type 1 diabetics whose bodies could produce little to no insulin.
To emphasize:
Type 1 diabetics: produce NO insulin or very little insulin
Type 2 diabetics: often produce TOO MUCH insulin or produce normal amounts of insulin
Both type 1 and type 2 diabetes produce the same symptom of high blood sugar but they are obviously very different!
To recap, in type 1 diabetics, blood sugar was high but insulin levels were low. In type 2 diabetics, blood sugar was also high but insulin levels were either normal or elevated. Moreover, type 2 diabetics did not respond to insulin injections.
By the 1930s, type 2 diabetes had grown 1000%!!
In fact, by the middle of the 1930s, the new type 2 diabetes cases already outnumbered traditional type 1 diabetes. Today, type 2 diabetes accounts for approximately 95% of all diabetes cases in the United States.
95 out of 100 diabetics are type 2 today. However, 100 years ago type 2 diabetes did NOT exist.
This is alarming!
What's more alarming is that no one seems to be talking about it!!! Wake up news media... where are you on this issue (hint to my readers: advertising dollars! and handsomely lobbyists who strong arm our politicians making the rules).
Keep this amazing and little known fact in mind:
Type 2 diabetes was a completely NEW disease in the 1920s (less than 100 years ago!).
To me, this fact is astounding. I think this news media should be shouting this from the rooftops and reporting this fact on every news channel.
There must be some reason that type 2 diabetes suddenly appeared in the 1920s and so rapidly escalated in the general American population, right? Diseases don't just appear out of no where with no cause, right?
Here's a big clue: type 2 diabetes appeared at about the same time in some developed countries but was delayed in others by differing amounts of time. Hmmmm.... why?
What caused this mysterious new disease that is so crippling America and other industrialized nations today?
The answer is this type 2 diabetes mystery is widespread introduction of poisonous food into the food supply!
In the 1920s, hydrogenated oils and fats (trans fat) began to be sold in industrialized nations (well, most of them). Trans fat is an ARTIFICIAL food and not found in nature in a way that human beings would eat it. We now know that trans fat damages cell membranes and causes type 2 diabetes (insulin resistance). The vast majority of type 2 diabetes patients will never hear anything about this though, not even from their doctor!! Very sad. Money does evil things in this world and this is one of them.
Early marketing efforts of this "new and improved" hydrogenated oil totally failed. Products like Crisco (hydrogenated dirt cheap vegetable oil) was not accepted at first. However, given that the Great Depression hit everyone hard, the lower cost eventually made it more acceptable to people who were so strapped for money they were struggling for their very survival. Then, it evenually fully accepted with World War 2 escalated and the Americans go involved. Real butter was rationed so those on the home front were looking for alternatives and that's when margarine (another hydrogenated fat) finally become fully accepted.
Thus, this trans fat, a totally artificial substance posing as "food" began to be eaten by the masses at exactly the same time as we see the appearance and very rapid escalation of a brand new disease: type 2 diabetes.
Remember that "hydrogenated" or "partially-hydrogenated" fat of any kind is just a deceptive way of saying trans fat.
The introduction of hydrogenated oils and fats were motivated entirely by profit and greed. The hydrogenation process could turn REALLY CHEAP fats that are usually liquid at room temperature into solids at room temperature. Thus products like Crisco and margarine were born. These toxic fats largely replaced animal lard and butter and they were used everyday in a wide variety of food dishes. In other words, they were so ubiquitous, they entered the bodies of almost every citizen in industrial nations.
Hydrogenation also greatly increased the shelf life of food products which meant that mass scale production food and storage could be achieved. Food manufacturers were excited about how much more profit they could make this way and over the decades they protected this profit any way they could and money was no object as it meant making even more money.
Keep in mind that hand and hand with this sudden appearance of hydrogenated oils and new diseases like type 2 diabetes, we get the rapid expansion of Big Pharma and all the profits that go along with this.
For people wanting to reverse type 2 diabetes with diet and other natural means, this is the most important history lesson you've probably every read.
If you really dig deep into the literature of the time, you'll find that many scientists expressed serious concerns over the potential health hazards of these artificial foods. There was an outcry in fact. There is also a record of this as they expressed these concerns at conferences. However, the war effort soon far over-shadowed these concerns and with these distractions that the world was facing at the tiem, the food industry was left relatively alone to experiment in the lab and produce more artificial foods and also launch their marketing campaigns. If one wants to fully understand and appreciate how we as a people could have ever allowed the money-hungry food industry to put so many artificial toxic foods into our food supply, they have to understand how other historical events were over-shadowing any concern for health. When whole nations are fighting for their very survival on this planet, it's hard to be terribly concerned at that moment over your health.
Unfortunately, these artificial and toxic foods were not widely discussed again until the 1970's. By this time, hydrogenated oils were so integrated into our diets that no one really thought much about it. This is exactly what the big food companies wanted. They won and they have been profiting handsomely ever since by our distraction.
Someone has got to pay the piper though and that is what is happening today with our type 2 diabetes rates being higher than they ever have been. For a modern would with all this super science and technology at our fingertips, it is a shame that it has come to this.
However, it is time we step back and get back to basics. Food is a substance we put into our bodies every day. We stuff our faces as the modern expression states 3 or more times a day. What we put into our bodies matters. There is a big difference between putting toxic artificial foods that have been sitting in some warehouse for a year and organic wholesome fresh foods with no artificial ingredients! Big, big, BIG difference!!
Diabetes and all of its complications is also big business for the medical field. Basically, the idea of curing diabetes equals the loss of profit for many. The idea of removing hydrogenated oils and fats entirely from our food supply is a herculean task... BUT it really must be done or we are going to end up with our entire population having diabetes and dying from the complications of it.
This article is already very long so I won't discuss the details of the mechanism by which hydrogenated oils and other artificial toxic foods cause diabetes in detail but you can read about it here and elsewhere on this site such as my article on how trans fat causes diabetes. Briefly, however, the process of hydrogenation creates artificial trans fats and replaces the healthy omega-3 fats in our cell membranes. Trans fats are VERY rare in nature and their chemical structure is quite different than the healthy and natural omega-3 fats they replace. When we ingest trans fat, it becomes incorporated into our cell membranes and interferes with the process of glucose transport across the cell membrane. We become "insulin resistant" (the very definition of type 2 diabetes). So, even if the pancreas is producing adequate amounts of insulin, not enough glucose gets across our trans fat damaged cell membranes, glucose builds up in our bloodstream, our cells don't get the nutrients they need, and we can develop several different medical ailments from this same underlying cause.
Everyone, especially diabetics, pre-diabetics, and those at higher risk to develop diabetes, should stop eating trans fat entirely. You need to keep in mind that eating trans fat (hydrogenated oil of any kind has trans fat) is not like eating ice cream where eating it "in moderation" is okay. Trans fat is poison period. Not even a little should be eaten. PLEASE get busy learning exactly how to reverse your diabetes. Eliminating trans fat is a very important first step but there is much more to the formula and you need to know every step to really do it. To really learn how to reverse diabetes, you need to get this comprehensive guide that will explain every step in detail. It is very possible to reverse type 2 diabetes if you know how.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Please Tell the FDA and Your Representatives You Don't Want Trans Fat In Our Food!
Trans fat is poison, plain and simple. POISON. There should be ZERO tolerance on the part of our government to allow ANY trans fat in our food (or pet food.. check the ingredients). However, they buckle under pressure from all the lobbyists representing the food industries that profit from trans fat. We as the consumers need to ban together and demand that this poison be removed from our food... completely removed, not reduced. Trans fat causes diabetes, heart disease, inflammation, etc, etc. The link between trans fat and type 2 diabetes is quite clear! Here is the direct link to write a personal letter to the FDA:
http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/default.htm
I recommend that you first write out your complaint using their online form, then copy it, and let them know that you are copying it to both your state and federal representatives. I'd then follow up with a phone call about a week later to let them know you mean business and that you would like a direct response from them.
Here's a link to get your federal representative's contact information:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
and here is a link to find your state representatives:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/?lvl=L
and it wouldn't hurt to copy the mayor and county commissioners in your area. Some cities are banning trans fat from restaurants... a good step in the right direction.
If you wouldn't mind, could you also post a comment on this site, preferably under this post, to let me (and my readers) know that you have contacted them and feel free to paste a copy here as well. I WILL publish any correspondence you send in.
If we don't stop this source of artificial food/poison in our food, we are going to end up with an entire nation of people with diabetes/heart disease/related metabolic disorders. The statistics are alarming and the evidence is overwhelming at this point. The food companies may have a lot of money but at the end of the day they don't vote!
Thank you,
Maxine
http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/ContactFDA/default.htm
I recommend that you first write out your complaint using their online form, then copy it, and let them know that you are copying it to both your state and federal representatives. I'd then follow up with a phone call about a week later to let them know you mean business and that you would like a direct response from them.
Here's a link to get your federal representative's contact information:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
and here is a link to find your state representatives:
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/?lvl=L
and it wouldn't hurt to copy the mayor and county commissioners in your area. Some cities are banning trans fat from restaurants... a good step in the right direction.
If you wouldn't mind, could you also post a comment on this site, preferably under this post, to let me (and my readers) know that you have contacted them and feel free to paste a copy here as well. I WILL publish any correspondence you send in.
If we don't stop this source of artificial food/poison in our food, we are going to end up with an entire nation of people with diabetes/heart disease/related metabolic disorders. The statistics are alarming and the evidence is overwhelming at this point. The food companies may have a lot of money but at the end of the day they don't vote!
Thank you,
Maxine
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