Why You Shouldn’t Trust Your Doctor About Nutrition

Many people are looking to improve their health, especially as a new year begins. This article talks about why you might want to be careful when getting nutrition advice from just anyone, even your doctor. It also shares some important facts about diabetes in America and gives practical tips on how to understand your own metabolic health better.

It’s a big deal that so many people are dealing with diabetes. In 2021 alone, 1.2 million Americans were newly diagnosed with diabetes. Even more concerning, 8.7 million Americans had diabetes but didn’t even know it. That’s almost 10 million people in one year who either got diagnosed or should have been.

Overall, 38.4 million Americans, or 11.6% of our population, had diabetes in 2021. What’s really scary is that the fastest-growing group getting diabetes is children. This sets them up for health problems early on, like fatty liver disease. It makes you wonder if some of these health issues are actually making money for certain groups.

When you’re looking for health advice, whether it’s from a doctor, nurse practitioner, health coach, or personal trainer, you need to be smart about it. The first thing you should ask them is: What tests will you do to check my metabolic health?

Many health professionals, especially personal trainers, might not check your metabolic status. They might just put you on a general plan. This is a problem because if you have underlying issues like pre-diabetes or PCOS, a generic diet could make things worse. For example, some trainers recommend as much as 185 grams of carbohydrates a day. If you’re already struggling to process sugar, this amount can push you further into pre-diabetes or full-blown diabetes.

• Always ask about metabolic testing before starting a nutrition plan.
• Be wary of a “one-size-fits-none” approach to diet.
• High carbohydrate recommendations can be harmful if you have metabolic issues.

Even if your health coach or nutritionist can’t order lab tests, you can order them yourself. Places like Any Lab Test Now or Own Your Labs.com let you do this. Here’s what you should get:

• Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP): This checks your fasting glucose and liver enzymes (ALT and AST), which can point to fatty liver.
• Fasting Insulin: This is important for understanding how your body handles sugar.
• Lipid Panel: Focus on your HDL (good cholesterol) and triglycerides. These are key indicators of metabolic health.

Once you have your fasting glucose and fasting insulin numbers, you can use an online HOMA-IR calculator to figure out your insulin resistance score. This gives you a lot of information. For example, someone with an A1c of 6.1% or 6.3% is considered pre-diabetic. If they then eat 185 grams of carbs a day, it’s not going to help them.

It’s important to remember that 88% to 92% of Americans are not metabolically healthy. This means only a small percentage of people can handle a high-carb diet without issues. Eating a low-carb or keto diet is generally safe for most people, but a high-carb diet can make you sicker if your body can’t process sugars well.

Be careful of people who promise quick fixes or tell you that you can eat whatever you want as long as you take their supplement. These are red flags. Getting healthy takes effort and time. It didn’t happen overnight, and it won’t be fixed overnight.

Some things, like certain weight loss medications, might help in the short term, but they aren’t sustainable. If you stop using them or stop working out intensely, you’ll likely gain the weight back. This is often because they don’t address the root cause, like food addiction. The Addiction Reset Community (ARC) is a program that helps people with food addiction, which shows how serious this issue is.

One of the best ways to understand how food affects your body is to use a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM). This device sticks to your arm and tracks your blood sugar levels throughout the day. You can scan it with your phone to see the data.

By wearing a CGM and keeping a food diary, you can see exactly which foods cause your blood sugar to spike. When your blood sugar spikes, your pancreas releases insulin, and insulin is what drives fat storage and weight gain. Controlling insulin is key.

While your doctor might say your insurance won’t cover a CGM if you’re not diabetic, you can often get one yourself. For example, the Freestyle Libre 3 costs about $135-$145 for two sensors, which lasts a month. It’s a worthwhile investment to see how your body reacts to different foods.

We did a test with our son, who is not diabetic, to show how different foods affect blood sugar:

• Banana: After eating a banana, his blood sugar shot up to 175. While it came back down quickly because he’s healthy, imagine if this happened multiple times a day. This kind of spike can make you feel bad and lead to fat storage.
• “Healthy” Breakfast vs. Junk Food: We compared a breakfast of two packs of low-sugar oatmeal, half a banana, yogurt, and a granola bar to a meal of junk burgers with buns, chips, cookies, ice cream, and cake. Surprisingly, both meals caused his blood sugar to spike to 250! This shows that what we think of as “healthy” can sometimes be just as bad as junk food for blood sugar.

These examples highlight why it’s so important to know how your body responds to food. A CGM can give you that insight.

• Documentary: Check out “Fat Fiction” to see how different diets affect people’s blood sugar, as monitored by CGMs.
• Low-Carb Baked Goods: If you’re looking for low-carb options, rosettesmix.com offers mixes for desserts and snacks. They often have sales, and while we don’t have any financial connection, we like to support them.

Remember, getting healthy is a journey. It takes time and effort, but with the right information and tools, you can make big improvements. Don’t give up, and keep learning about what works best for your body.