Prevent and Cure Diabetes

I reviewed Sarah's excellent book on sustainable medicine in the last issue – this one makes the same general points but is applied particularly to diabetes. Her starting point is that the vast majority of Westerners have what she calls metabolic syndrome or carbohydrate addiction that is driving not only diabetes but also other conditions such as heart disease, Alzheimer's and cancer. Technically, this means that the body is primarily energised with sugars and carbohydrates, leading to a loss of control over blood sugar levels. Conventional treatments, she maintains, simply allow the disease to progress leading to greater use of prescription drugs and premature death. As a practitioner, it is clear that she has been able to reverse this process many of her patients, saving the NHS a fortune in the process. She reminds us of the work of Otto Warburg, the 1931 Nobel prize winner for physiology, whose work suggested that cancer is a metabolic disease hungry for sugar. Sugar also encourages inflammation and fermentation in the system.

The book sets out a detailed description of diagnosis, and in particular the role of sugar and refined carbohydrates, before moving on to prevention, treatment and reversal of metabolic syndrome. Sarah describes how she persuades people to change, partly through fear and vanity, but also applied common sense in altering lifestyle, which is largely a matter of habit. There are then 12 appendices dealing with further detail and a table on page 97 advising on a daily routine based on a ketogenic diet where the body is fuelled from fats and vegetable fibre. Combined with her previous book, this provides essential guidance on a sustainable healthy lifestyle.