The Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Naturally

by Jason Fung

highly re...

Many high-fat foods, such as avocados, nuts, and olive oil, contain mono- and polyunsaturated fats that are now believed to be heart-healthy.

healthy. (The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans released in 2016 have removed restrictions on total dietary fat in a healthy diet.11)

This model also completely ignores the multiple overlapping hormonal systems that signal hunger and satiety. That is, we may decide what to eat and when to eat it, but we cannot decide to feel less hungry. We cannot decide when to burn calories as body heat and when to store them as body fat. Hormones make these decisions. The results of the so-called “caloric reduction as primary” advice could hardly have been worse if we had tried. The storm of obesity and type 2 diabetes that began in the late 1970s has today, some forty years later, become a global category 5 hurricane threatening to engulf the

entire world in sickness and disability.

The most important error is believing that basal metabolic rate, or Calories Out, always remains

stable.

The other major false assumption is that weight is consciously regulated.

But no system in our body functions like

t...

Fat accumulation is truly not a problem of energy excess. It’s a problem of energy distribution. Too

We cannot “decide” to feel less

hungry. We cannot “decide” to increase basal metabolic rate. If we

eat fewer calories, our body simply compensates by decreasing its metabolic rate....

underlying cause of weight gain, ...

calories cannot ...

reduce w...

Obesity is a hormonal imbalance, not a caloric one. The hormonal problem in undesired weight gain is mainly excessive insulin. Thus, type 2 diabetes, too, is a disease about insulin imbalance rather than caloric

imbalance.

excessive insulin

causes weight gain and obesity.

One of insulin’s roles is to facilitate the uptake of glucose into cells for

energy, by opening a channel to allow

it in...

When people without type 1 diabetes eat, insulin rises, and glucose enters the cell to help us meet our immediate energy needs. The excess

food energy is stored away for later use. Some carbohydrates, particularly

sugars and refined grains, raise blood glucose effectively, which stimulates the release ...

also raises insulin levels, but not blood glucose, by simultaneously raising other hormones, such as glucagon and incretins. Dietary...

glucose and insuli...

Once our immediate energy needs have been met, insulin gives the signal to store food energy for later

use.

Food energy is stored in two forms: glycogen and body fat.

The liver can only stockpile a limited amount of glycogen. Once

it is full, the excess glucose is turned into fat

by a process called de novo lipogenesis (DNL)...

“from new” and lipogenesis means “making new fat,” s...

literally “to make ...

Insulin triggers the liver to turn excess glucose into new fat in the form of triglyceride molecules. The newly created fat is exported out of the liver to be stored in fat cells to supply the body with energy when it is required. In e...

(glycogen) or body fat. Insulin is the signal to stop burnin...

to start storing it...

simply applies to any period between snacks or meals

when we are not eating.

During periods of fasting, our body relies on its stored energy, meaning that it brea...

This happens most nights, assuming you don’t eat at night.

When the liver is full of glycogen, there is no room for the newly created fat from DNL. These triglyceride molecules are packaged together with specialized proteins, called lipoproteins, which are made in

the liver and exported into the bloodstream as very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL). Insulin activates

the hormone lipoprotein lipase (LPL), which signals offsite fat cells, called adipocytes, to remove the triglycerides from the blood for longterm storage. In this manner, excess carbohydrates and...

Excessive insulin drives fat accumulation and obesity. How? If our feeding p...

our fasting periods, then the ensuing insulin...

t...