As type II diabetes is a silent disease and it sometimes remains asymptomatic for years, it is too often diagnosed during a routine check-up, when it has already begun its destructive work: 10 to 29% patients already suffer from retinopathy, 10 to 37% display early stage kidney disease and 14% ischemic coronary complications… This stresses the importance of monitoring our…
- 10 September 2015
NEVER SAY THAT YOU ARE ON A DIET.
Your brain isn’t alone in regretting the unbridled feasts of yore: fellow “big-eaters” who feel let down now that you have joined the healthy-eaters camp, your mom who still sees you as a fast-growing adolescent, and those who hate seeing anyone stray from his/her established place in the group will all do their best to try and sabotage your efforts.…
- 10 September 2015
TYPE 2 DIABETES IS OFTEN DIAGNOSED (TOO) LATE
Type 2 diabetes is a silent killer as it may remain asymptomatic for a long time. A large percentage of at-risk people have never had a glycemia test and therefore don’t know whether their blood sugar is normal or whether they display symptoms of prediabetes or even of full-fledged type 2 diabetes. This means that this type of diabetes is often diagnosed much too…
- 10 September 2015
TYPE 2 DIABETES IS A MODERN DISEASE.
Type 2 diabetes appeared in the beginning of the 20th century, when sugar ceased being a rare commodity to grace every kitchen table. Our body was used to making glucose from every food, and he continued without taking into account our new sugar intake. The normal metabolic circuit implies the breaking down of dietary proteins, lipids and complex carbohydrates into simple…
- 10 September 2015
VEGETABLE FATS ARE NOT ALL ‘GOOD’ FATS.
A common diet mistake consists in opposing animal fats, deemed ‘bad’ fats and vegetable ones, considered ‘good’, i.e. healthy, or at least healthier. As a matter of fact, some vegetable oils, such as palm oil or coconut oil, are mainly composed of saturated fatty acids, those that prevail in many animal fats (meat fat, bacon, butter), whereas fish oils contain…
The average life expectancy of a 40 year-old American male with untreated type II diabetes is 11.6 years shorter than that of his healthy counterpart; for females this shortening amounts to 14.3 years.
- 9 September 2015
IN THE MIDDLE AGES, DESSERTS AS WE KNOW THEM SCARCELY EXISTED.
Very few pages of the great culinary treaties of the Middle Ages are dedicated to sweet recipes. Desserts as we know them scarcely existed because sugar was a rare and expensive commodity. Before the colonial sugarcane plantations made it more abundant, cooks only had honey or beet sugar at their disposal. And even during Queen Victoria’s reign, a pound of…
- 7 September 2015
THE DEVELOPMENT OF TYPE 2 DIABETES IS A SLOW PROCESS.
One doesn’t become diabetic in a day, or even in a year. Type 2 diabetes is a slowly progressing chronic disease. Before that, there is always a phase of prediabetes that can last from two to twenty-five years. During this phase, it is still possible to stop the evolution towards type 2 diabetes.