Hmmm... you have me stumped when you say
Quote:
The Western diet causes it to become evident, it does not create it...it makes it visible.
|
Modern medicine makes it visible? Not really. Or at least, Type 2 is pretty easy to diagnose without any lab equipment at all. Sugar spills out into the urine and one's pee becomes sweet. Yeah, kind of gross I know but you merely have to taste your urine to diagnose yourself. Certainly by the 1900's the diagnosis wasn't exactly rocket science as diabetes had been around in Europe for a looong time and doctors were very familiar with it when they traveled to other countries.
Diabetes has been documented and identified from about 1532 BC, so this isn't something new we're picking up on. Certainly in West doctors were very familiar with diabetes. But when they traveled to remote places, they didn't see it in native populations.
Judging from the stories I read about in our own diabetes forum, a lot of people here aren't being diagnosed until they're actually having really nasty and dangerous blood sugar levels, or even symptoms. It isn't like we're yet at the point where people are being caught early.
Taubes book,"Good Calories, Bad Calories" has many, many examples that are documented. One instance, of many, he cites, "Civilization and Disease" by Donnison (1938), says, "Many of the colonial physicians reported that diabetes had never been seen in their local native populations... In those populations that had been more influenced by civilization a greater incidence is recorded".
Anyway, that's just one citation of many in his book. It's a great read, although the first 2 sections are a little dense.
Quote:
Strictly speaking I do not believe in luck, so perhaps I should say "a tough challenge", I certainly think it is not fair.
|
I don't believe in luck either, but randomness certainly comes into play.
Here's what I think in a nutshell:
1) Some % of people have genes that almost guarantee they'll end up diabetic (T2) with a Western diet. Looks about 30% right now.
2) A large % of people won't develop full blown diabetes but they will be insulin resistant, which is currently not even looked for by most doctors. They'll end up overweight or obese, with heart disease and other types of disease, similar to what diabetics get but possibly without the loss of kidney/limb/eye functions, or at least to the same degree.
3) Some small % of people have genes that virtually insure they'll never get T2 diabetes or insulin resistance. But they're few and far between. These people will live to be really old because they have something pretty amazing happening to their metabolisms.
Now, everyone has 2 parents, and each of those 2 parents have 2 sets of genes but you only get one set from each. That's where the randomness or "luck" comes into play, but odds are you're going to be in group 1 or 2, neither of which is going to do well in the face of a high carb diet.
As far as my motivation... I suppose some of
this comes into play. Argh!