Diabetes advice has me all spun out page

[Mr. Koozie]

I don’t know why but I just spent some time reading the American Diabetes Association website (American Diabetes Association Home Page - American Diabetes Association) and now I’m all spun out. I don’t have any family suffering from Type II Diabetes but I’m savvy enough in the ways of paleo/primal to know it’s a lifestyle disease that can be avoided and usually cured in those that already have it.

I’m not an angry person and I think this is my first rant here on MDA, but it just pisses me off. I looked through all of the food and nutrition parts of the website and it’s all whole grains and low fat. They’ll start a paragraph with something that sounds great such as limiting carbs is a smart thing to do and choosing whole foods is preferable. Then they totally derail into the whole grain abyss.

And they want money for everything. They want you to buy their books. They want you to donate money. Why? Because there’s no money in having someone eat paleo/primal and curing themselves. That’s why! Got diabetes? Eat some whole wheat bread. Drink diet soda. And don’t you dare eat chicken skin. Seriously how do these people sleep at night?

Sorry. I hope I didn’t offend anyone. I admit I’m not an expert. I don’t know what it’s like to have this awful disease. It just makes me mad because this organization is supposed to be helping sick people. Rant over.

[Neckhammer]

Good rant...I agree. I was actually talking to my wife recently about the relative increase in donation requests. Go to your super market.."would you like to donate a dollar to this or that (American diabetes association or some other large non-profit that does not coincide with my relative philosophy of health)". I'd like to respond with a "Hell no! I've seen how they spend it!", but I'm a little nicer than that. Either way its pretty sickening.

[JoanieL]

Good rant. My mother died from T2diabetes, eating oatmeal and all the grains her doctors recommended - then blamed her for not keeping her diabetes under control. At the time, I knew about Atkins, but not as anything other than a low carb way to control weight. I used to ask her why she was supposed to eat like that, and got the standard answer re: "complex" carbs being good for you. It didn't make sense to me, but who was I to argue with her doctor? I know better now, but that doesn't do her any good.

[RitaRose]

The more I know about many of the big name charities, the less I want to help them out.

There are still a few good ones out there, and I make it a point to donate to them, but I guess it's job security when the amount of $ donated per year goes up right alongside the increase in people suffering from that particular disease. So, of course, that means we should be donating even more, right?

I'll say it again - organizations and corporations don't benefit from curing illness, just from treating it. You have to be pretty selfless to actually want to cure it and put yourself out of work, and that's a rarity.

[joe2.0]

The ADA has in the past acknolwedged that a low carb diet would be best for those with Diabetes but they conclude that it's too hard to follow so we need to give people something that's easier for them to accept. First, I don't agree its that hard to follow but mainly I think losing a foot or leg would be hard, losing my eyesight would be hard, kidney, stroke and heart issues would be hard....eating low carb is really easy compared to those things.

What's worse than the diet to me is their standards for control. They call a person with a 7 A1C a well controlled diabetic. That to me is failure and that's where the problem starts with their platform. Many can eat similar to how they say and get to that 7 and think they are doing great because the ADA says so. In reality, they are still at extreme risk for complications and continually damaging their cells.

Diabetes is like economic issues in that you have to be ready to be a grown up and deal with it as it is. Saying it's too hard to eat the right things is the easy way and the path to destruction of your health.

[Finnegans Wake]

Complex carbs : T2Diabetics :: Spacing out your drinks : alcoholic.

[Graycat]

I've been known to have a few rants online on that topic. T2 runs in my family (my father's side) and one of the reasons (among many other) I went Primal was preventing it from happening to me too.

I have never visited ADA's site, that I recall, but I read their magazine in the book store once. Recipes, guidelines on nutrition and a bunch of other BS written there that made me angry. Enraged even. And it takes a lot for me to become upset.
All they were going on was "healthy wholegrains" low fat this and that, low calorie diet, adds and adds of medications that are supposed to manage your T2, adds for artificial sweeteners. It made my head spin.......and what was even worse, a few days later I happened upon one of those guide books "Diabetes For Dummies"....
I find it extremely sad and disheartening that people with a serious health condition like Diabetes are being misguided by the people who they think are there to help them and make their lives better.

[Dr. Bork Bork]

The ADA can bite me and my low carbing 5.1 A1C!
Okay, I confess, the 5.1 is with the aid of insulin that I've had to go back on due to pregnancy, but even before pregnancy I was 5.5 drug free thanks to primal.

[Artbuc]

Complex carbs : T2Diabetics :: Spacing out your drinks : alcoholic.

Wow, ain't the truth???!!!

[WeldingHank]

the ADA can take a long walk off a short peir!

TypeII back in november of 2010. Doctor said reversed last visit in august!(a1c @ 5.3 for 3 consectutive visits) They can keep their "Heart-Healthy-Whole-Grains" and I'll keep my bacon.

Thank you very much