diabetes

Can Some Trans Fats Be Healthy?

By on November 2, 2012 in Cancer, Food & Nutrition, Heart Disease | 31 comments

Trans fats are one of the few food components that are widely accepted as being unhealthy, and for good reason. Industrial trans fats are created by pumping hydrogen molecules into liquid vegetable oil, changing the chemical structure and causing the oil to become a solid fat. Trans fats are generally considered to be especially harmful because they raise total cholesterol while lowering HDL cholesterol. However, as usual with conventional nutrition advice, there is far more danger ...
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Ask Chris: Is Fructose Really That Bad?

By on June 15, 2012 in Food & Nutrition, Myths & Truths, Paleo Diet | 189 comments

Paul from Facebook asks: What are your thoughts on fructose? Is it really as bad as Paleo is making it out to be? Dr. Robert Lustig has worked hard in recent years to demonize fructose, and his efforts have paid off. His YouTube video "Sugar: The Bitter Truth" has over 2.5 million views as of this writing. Lustig et al. claim that fructose is a uniquely fattening poison (when compared to glucose) that is as toxic to the ...
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Why hemoglobin A1c is not a reliable marker

By on March 1, 2011 in Lab testing | 50 comments

Over the last few years doctors are increasingly relying on a test called hemoglobin A1c to screen for insulin resistance and diabetes. It's more practical (and significantly cheaper) than post-meal glucose testing, and it's less likely to be skewed by day-to-day changes than fasting blood glucose. What is hemoglobin A1c? Sugar has a tendency to stick to stuff. Anyone that has cooked with sugar can tell you that. In our bodies, sugar also sticks - ...
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How to lose weight and prevent diabetes in 6 minutes a week

By on December 13, 2010 in Diabesity | 41 comments

I believe regular movement and exercise is essential to health. As Stephan Guyenet pointed out in a recent blog post, our paleolithic ancestors had a different word for exercise: "life". They naturally spent a lot of time outdoors in the sun, walking, hunting, gathering, and performing various other physically-oriented tasks. They had no concept of this as "exercise" or "working out". It was just life. But while exercise contributes to health in several ...
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Friday smorgasbord

By on December 10, 2010 in Uncategorized | 8 comments

You've probably noticed that I haven't been able to write as much lately for the blog. I've been incredibly busy with my private practice, launching the Paleo Detox program, preparing and delivering talks locally, developing new content like ongoing class series and an eBook, and of course continuing my research on various topics. I've got one more article to write for the series on diabesity. I'll discuss what I believe to be the most effective ...
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How to prevent diabetes and heart disease for $16

By on November 26, 2010 in Diabesity | 104 comments

In the last article we discovered that the blood sugar targets established by the American Diabetes Association are far too high, and do not protect people from developing heart disease, diabetes or other complications. And we looked at what the scientific literature indicates are safer targets for fasting blood sugar, hemoglobin A1c and either OGTT or post-meal blood sugar. On the other hand, we also discussed the importance of context: why it's important not to rely on ...
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