There’s a dangerous new “trend” traditional doctors are recommending to their type 2 diabetes patients… bariatric weight-loss surgery.
It’s some of the worst advice I’ve heard in a long time.
It stems from a new study published in The Lancet.[1]
Researchers at Kings College London wrote that metabolic surgery is more effective than medications and lifestyle interventions to control type 2 diabetes.
According to the results of the study, after 10 years 37% of surgically treated patients no longer required diabetes medications. This led the researchers to state that “metabolic surgery is our best lead to the elusive cause of the disease.”
Ten years later, just over a third were off their medications… That’s an awful outcome, especially for such a drastic procedure.
Surgery should always be your option of last resort. But this is especially true when it comes to operating on the gastrointestinal system.
Instead of being a quick-fix, this procedure carries long-term risks and complications for patients, including hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)… ulcers… bowel obstruction… hernias… and malnutrition.
It’s just the latest – and the most shocking – example of how doctors aren’t effectively treating diabetes because they don’t understand the real cause of the disease. As a regular reader, you know that the diabetes epidemic is a direct result of our highly processed, grain-based diet.
You see, the human body was not designed for all the carbohydrates we eat today.
Every time you eat carbs your pancreas has to put out insulin to clear your blood of the sugar produced by those carbs. The insulin sends the sugar into your cells for energy. But over time with too many carbs, your body becomes resistant to insulin. Your pancreas burns out and you can’t produce any more. Your cells get no energy and sugar builds up in your bloodstream.
The result? Chronic diseases like diabetes.
But at the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine, my patients have balanced their blood sugar using an all-natural approach that involves eating foods that score a zero on the glycemic index. More on this in a moment…
Is Mainstream Finally Catching Up?
Researchers are finally starting to realize this connection.
A new meta-analysis published in the British Medical Journal agreed that eliminating carbs is the best approach for lowering blood sugar.[2]
The analysis examined data from 23 randomized trials involving more than 1,300 type 2 diabetics. Most of the studies compared a low-carb or very low-carb diet with low-fat diets.
Overall, patients who stuck to a low-carb diet for six months achieved higher rates of remission than those who did other changes – including surgery.
My Meal Plan Kicks Diabetes to the Curb
I recommend that my patients limit carbs to 5% to 10% of daily calories. Make the bulk of your meals healthy fats, grass-fed meats, and wild-caught fish. Here’s the plan I recommend to my patients.
- Focus on the glycemic index. The GI measures how fast food turns into sugar in your bloodstream. Foods that score high on the index cause a spike in blood sugar and insulin.
The foods that score the lowest are the ones we evolved to eat… the low-carbohydrate foods our ancestors ate. Lots of healthy fats and grass-fed meats – without the processed starches and grains we were told were good for us for more than 60 years. Click here for a full list of low GI foods.
- Beware of hidden carbs. You know not to eat carbs and starch from obvious sources like bread, pasta, sugar and processed foods. But did you know that a lot of healthy foods contain hidden carbs? Like:
Nuts – including chestnuts, cashews, pistachios, and almonds
Fruit – such as bananas, apples, pears, grapes, and oranges
Vegetables that grow underground – potato, yam, parsnips as well as corn, beans, and onions
- Practice periodic or intermittent fasting. Eating only in an 8-hour window reduces insulin resistance. You start your day with a 10 a.m. breakfast. Then eat lunch at your regular time. Finish dinner by 6 p.m. You eat nothing else from 6 p.m. until 10 a.m. the next day.
[1] Mingrone G, et al. “Metabolic surgery versus conventional medical therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes: 10-year follow-up of an open-label, single-centre, randomised controlled trial.” Lancet. 2021;397(10271):293-304.
[2] Goldenberg J, et al. “Efficacy and safety of low and very low carbohydrate diets for type 2 diabetes remission: systematic review and meta-analysis of published and unpublished randomized trial data.” BMJ. 2021;372:m4743