PBS Features 'Blood Sugar Rising' — An Incredible Documentary on Diabetes

re: PBS Features 'Blood Sugar Rising' — An Incredible Documentary on Diabetes

M.H.Deal — 4/18/2020 9:11:27 AM

One more curiosity about this video. It doesn't explain satisfactorily the rise in the cost of insulin which had been at a steady state for decades. Could it be the injection of third party money, like federal cash or regulations of price by third parties, not unlike the distortion of the market in higher schooling [ called "education" by some but not by me] costs, bear some responsibility? Dramatic to have sorrowing relatives bull-horning company headquarters, but it doesn't get to the heart of the matter. A curious video skewed for a dramatic outcome.

re: PBS Features 'Blood Sugar Rising' — An Incredible Documentary on Diabetes

M.H.Deal — 4/18/2020 9:01:46 AM

I sat through the two hours of this. It was incredible, but not in the self-congratulatory, PBS way of finding satisfactory endings. The narrative flows through both coasts - San Francisco and Boston. What was incredible to me as one who's gone through the T2D journey with a relative, complete with American Diabetes Association and doctors' recommendations, is the way such a recently produced video ignores, perhaps through ignorance, other manifestations of diabetes. By concentrating on T1D the story as much or more than T2D, the story thread settles on the young instead of the middle aged or elderly. Curious.

What did surprise me is the absence of other suggested remedies, such as intermittent fasting, promoted by Dr. Jason Fung at the University of Toronto, ironically the same institution which developed insulin. A slew of functional medicine doctors writing about obesity, the gateway to diabetes - Gundry, Fung, Bredesen, Perlmutter, Wahls, et. al. - present suggestions apart from the tried & true, avoid sugar and refined carbs. These include intermittent fasting and ditching the calorie way as your body never heard about a calorie and wouldn't know what to do with a calorie if it met one. Stop worshipping at the alter of exercise. As each of these worthies in their own ways point out, the body and its controlling hormones know three categories - carbohydrates, fat, and protein. That's it. Satiety comes from these arrangements. When you feel full, satiety, stop eating. In fact, excess consumption of protein, which converts to sugar, can be as destructive as carbs while good fats are beneficial. Oh yes, fruit is pure fructose which goes solely and directly to the liver which can easily be overloaded. So, that couple planning to enjoy plums are, alas, doing themselves no good.

As for blaming big food for its seductive presentations, stop buying their stuff. Stop buying drinks, snacks, energy bars, etc. and big food will find something else to sell.

re: PBS Features 'Blood Sugar Rising' — An Incredible Documentary on Diabetes

fra6765 — 4/17/2020 11:31:22 AM

I'm about 25 minutes into the video, and I'm happy to report that the video does blame junk food and sugar.

OMG: at about 1:48, the young lady who got transplanted kidney and pancreas is now celebrating that "I can eat whatever I want", and she's starting off with cereal and a banana. Yes, I get the fact that it's nice she CAN eat that -- sometimes -- but I hope she takes care of herself with a low carb diet. She could stay away from a lot of carbs without having to "count" them rigorously.

I've now seen the whole movie. The movie makers may have felt that they gave enough attention to the role of diet, but I do not.

The subtle message seemed to be "just make insulin cheaper and give people more of it if they're diabetic". There was no mention of the risks associated with high insulin, even if blood sugar is kept under control. They did talk about a healthy diet as being preventative, but gave little emphasis to it being curative.