What Are We Missing as People with Type 2 Diabetes?

This question has bugged me for the last several weeks. I have plenty of material to blog about so that is not bothering me. I have found several of my blogs lately lacking the extra little something that should give them more meaning. I like blogging and helping others, so that does not seem to be it. I am having more success at some of the things I am doing for diabetes and my last A1c was 6.3%. Granted it was not where I wanted it to be, but I still feel I am making progress.

Yes, my weight problem is a concern, but I have hope there. Today, I did have one of those ah-haa moments and I am hoping this will change some things and that this is not one of those bright flashes before the bulb flickers out. In reading David Spero's blog of March 13, I realize that many people tell us to eat this or don't eat this. Some say to limit this or eat plenty of that. David is one of the writers that tells you to test to find out how your food plan affects your blood glucose. This is the key. It is what I have been missing in the research I have been doing lately.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) does talk about testing, but then pull the rug out and say eat this, but avoid telling you to test to see how the food they are promoting affects your blood glucose level. The same applies to the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE); they are not afraid to tell you what to eat, but they refuse even to suggest that you test to determine if the quantity of food is right for your body. Then we come to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), and they will not suggest testing to determine what a food or combination of foods will do to your blood glucose levels, but they will insist that you eat so many carbohydrates per meal.

So for the last few days I have been reading and reading to see if I can find writers from the above three professional groups that talk about food and even suggest testing to determine what these foods do to blood glucose levels. I did not find one that did this. My reading may have missed one or at most, two that accidentally did this, but it is discouraging that I found none.

Now bloggers that have type 2 diabetes and other writers not associated with the three above organizations do often suggest testing your blood glucose levels at different times to determine how a food or meal plan affects your blood glucose level.

All of this makes me question if the meal plans and foods the three organizations want us to eat, are not nutritious and they won't suggest testing because they know this. Why do you think they don't want us to find out by testing?

Are they so aligned with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the food industry that they do not want people questioning their “expert” advice? Is this why they talk about testing to manage blood glucose levels in one place, but refuse to link to testing when they are talking about meal plans and foods they write about on other pages.

I have to laugh to avoid becoming angry when I read "Pharmacological and overall approachesto treatment" in the ADA guidelines. Why do they talk about MNT (Part E down a couple of clicks) under pharmacological therapy? MNT means medical nutrition therapy. Yes, they have used this term for several years, but this is done to put more emphasis on eating what they want us to eat – without testing. It is done “for medical reasons” and is therapy which is supposed to make us feel better about the nutritional nonsense they are feeding us. We are not supposed to question how bad this is for us.

I am very surprised the ADA has not picked up the additional term promoted by the Joslin Diabetes Center. In their book, Joslin's Diabetes Deskbook, when discussing medical nutrition therapy, Joslin uses “the nutrition prescription” to get people to just to accept the nutrition advice given us. This is emphasis on top of emphasis. By putting prescription in medical nutrition therapy, they are telling us we are to follow their advice blindly. Then they say that a dietitian is the person to be prescribing this meal plan to each of us after an assessment of each person. This assessment will determine how willing we are and compliant we will be to their prescribed medical nutrition therapy.

I say we need to recognize the terms for what they are and realize that the science behind the medical nutrition therapy is as weak as the USDA nutrition is. Why else would the USA be having the obesity epidemic? They don't want us to test to find out what the nutritional nonsense they are feeding us is, and how much it increases our blood glucose levels. Why do you think they have fashioned studies to prove we don't need testing supplies? They purposely do not want us to be able to test and prove them wrong, to say nothing about our health being put in jeopardy.