5 Diabetes Myths
There’s a lot of information to absorb when it comes to diabetes and diabetes treatment. Some of it is great, but a lot of it is centered around trends and diet culture. I’d like to take a moment to debunk some of the diabetes myths I hear from my clients all too often, and show you that a non-diet approach to diabetes care is possible.
Losing weight is the best and only option for controlling blood sugars & lowering A1c
When working with clients, I don’t even discuss the scale. Weight doesn’t tell me anything about your A1c, so why would we focus on weight loss to improve it? Focusing on strategies like learning what factors affect your blood sugar and working to improve those factors works far better than paying attention to a number on a scale. So what does lower an A1c…improved sleep quality, lowered stress levels, increased hydration, learning how to eat in a way that keeps blood sugar levels in safe ranges, increasing physical activity, and medication. Sure, these changes may lead to weight loss for some people, but they also may not lead to weight loss for others. Both are fine. It’s the adjustments we make to our routines that improve our health and A1c.
Eating too much sugar gives you diabetes
No, eating desserts every day will not lead to diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that has nothing to do with diet or lifestyle. These individuals have to take insulin in order to stay alive because their body no longer makes it on its own. Literally nothing can change this and not eating sugar is definitely not the answer. For people with Type 2 diabetes, a number of factors are at play, genetics being one. Simply put, people with type 2 diabetes have either developed a resistance to insulin in the cells of their muscles, fat, and liver, or their pancreas is no longer producing enough insulin to meet their body’s needs. (1) Also, it’s ok to eat sugar and desserts even after being diagnosed with diabetes.
Being overweight or obese causes diabetes
See above. For some, body size may be a contributing factor, especially if insulin resistance has developed in fat cells, but body size is not a cause. There are plenty of people living in bodies with many fat cells that don’t have diabetes. Diabetes is a complicated disease that involves many factors, being overweight or obese is not the cause. It’s important for everyone, no matter their body size, to have their A1c checked regularly and practice preventive care.
Dieting is the only route to better health with diabetes
Dieting is not the answer. Restricting ourselves can lead to far more problems than it fixes (because it doesn’t fix anything), and what’s a diet without restriction? What does work to improve the health of someone living with diabetes is learning what factors affect their blood sugar levels and making changes to areas that need it. There’s more to treating diabetes than diet and exercise. Sure, the food we eat and our activity level are important to our health, but our stress level, sleep quality, and how much water we take in each day play a major role as well.
Diabetes can be cured
This is a tough one to discuss because once someone is diagnosed with diabetes, they will always have diabetes. Type 1 diabetes doesn’t have a cure, and the only treatment at this time is to start an insulin regimen and stay on it for life. But, people in the community are hopeful a cure is on the horizon. Type 2 diabetes also cannot be cured, but it can go into remission, meaning some people are able to lower their A1c back to a level below 6.5% by making changes to their routine. These individuals no longer require medication to treat their diabetes.
Those are the 5 most common diabetes myths I hear debunked. If you’d like to learn more about the non-diet approach to treating diabetes, reach out to me via the link below. We’ll see if we’re a good fit to work together.
Sources
N.A. Type 2 diabetes. Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/type-2-diabetes/symptoms-causes/syc-20351193. Published January 20, 2021. Accessed August 5, 2022.
