Three dietary toxin triggersThree major dietary toxins that trigger diabesity include:
- Cereal grains (particularly refined flour)
- Omega-6 industrial seed oils (corn, cottonseed, safflower, soybean and canola etc.)
- Fructose (in particular high-fructose corn syrup)
Cereal grains: are they really a health food?The major cereal grains – wheat, corn, rice, barley, oats, rye and millet – have become the staple crops of the modern human diet. They’ve also been promoted by Heart and Diabetes Associations as part of a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. Whole grains are widely accepted as being healthy. Most animals, including our closest relative (the chimpanzee) aren’t adapted to eating even small portions of cereal grains. Humans have only been eating them for 10,000 years. Why? Plants like cereal grains are always competing against predators (like us) for survival. Unlike animals, plants can’t run away from us when we decide to eat them. They had to evolve other mechanisms for protecting themselves. These include:
- producing toxins that damage the lining of the gut
- producing toxins that bind essential minerals, making them unabsorbable
- producing toxins that inhibit digestion and absorption of other essential nutrients, including protein
Industrial seed oilsIndustrial seed oils have not been a part of the human diet until relatively recently, when they started to be promoted as a “heart-healthy” alternative to saturated fat. This was a 'wrong turn' for our health... Seed oil consumption has risen dramatically over the past several decades, but these oils are extremely harmful when consumed in excess, as they have been proven to play a significant role in the current obesity epidemic. Omega 6 seed oils have also been shown to cause inflammation, insulin resistance and impaired leptin signalling, all of which directly contribute to diabetes. These oils have also been shown to interfere with thyroid function, resulting in a less efficient metabolism.
Fructose: the sweetest way to get diabesityWhite table sugar is composed of two sugars: glucose and fructose. Glucose is an important nutrient in our bodies and is healthy, as long as it’s consumed in moderation. Fructose is a different story. Fructose is found primarily in high sugar fruits and vegetables, and sweeteners like sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. Unlike glucose, which is rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream and taken up by the cells, fructose is taken directly to the liver where it is converted to fat. Excess fructose consumption causes a condition called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is directly linked to both diabetes and obesity.
A toxin-free diet prevents and even reverses diabetesDiabesity is either non-existent or extremely rare in hunter-gatherer cultures that don’t consume these toxic foods. A study in 2009 compared a paleolithic diet with a conventional low-fat “diabetes diet”. Participants in the paleolithic group had:
- Reduced HbA1c more than those on the diabetes diet (a measure of average blood glucose)
- Reduced weight, BMI and waist circumference more than those on the diabetes diet
- Lower blood pressure than those on the diabetes diet
- Lower triglycerides those on than the diabetes diet
- Higher HDL than those on the diabetes diet