From: "Rosalie West" <[log in to unmask]>
> In fact, no food causes diabetes, not even sugar.  Diabetes is the result
of
> malfunction of the body's metabolism and its cause is not known.  There
are
> some speculatoins in the medical community but no generally accepted,
proven
> facts.  Diabetes results in the body's inability to process blood glucose
> which of course comes from food.  I have been a diabetic for over 30
years,
> and I learned only in 1998 that, in spite of what individual doctors may
> state about diet from time to time, a low carbohydrate diet stabilizes
blood
> glucose better than anything.  So--down with the carbs--what does that
leave?
>  Meat and fat, of course.
>
> Well, this is an odd introduction; I'm new to the list and working on
> adopting a fully Paleo diet.  Besides type 1 diabetes, I also have
rheumatoid
> arthritis so I need all the help I can get from my diet.

Welcome to the list!

I believe that there are two different types of diabetes of course, type 1
and type 2. I think there is some evidence that the type 1 is caused by
destruction of the Islets of Langerhans, cells found in the pancreas that
secrete most (all?) of the body's insulin. This destruction could be an
auto-immune response, similar to inflammation and closely related to
rheumatoid arthritis in this sense.

Type 2 is in my opinion totally preventable, and is caused by the cells in
the body becoming insensitive to the insulin that is produced. Insulin
levels may be high but the cells become resistant to the insulin in some
sense. So it is completely different from Type 1 except that it has
something to do with insulin. Type 2 can be treated or prevented by a paleo
reduced carb diet, or perhaps any low carb diet.

Theory: that Type 2 is "normal" in the sense that many of us are genetically
programmed for different diets than what we actually eat. It is an
adaptation that could be advantageous in situations of alternate feast and
famine, the advantages of the so-called "thrify phenotype."

Lots of people come to paleo after experimenting with low carb (as I did
after trying Protein Power and then Atkins). It seems more "natural"
certainly than Atkins and I think can work better for all kinds of illnesses
and ailments because perhaps it eliminates foods that we are not genetically
adapted to eating, especially those of us with Type 2 hereditary
dispositions.

--Richard