Due to a doctor discovering that the urine of a diabetic patient tasted sweet, diabetes has gained a cult-like attraction and been demonised as the ‘sugar disease’. Still to this day, the majority believe that too much sugar will cause diabetes and that the way to manage its symptoms is to cut it out completely. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, diabetes is not caused by sugar, and it can actually be properly managed with high sugar consumption.

Logically, instead of assuming sugar was the culprit due to sweet-tasting urine, these doctors should have thought that it meant diabetics were secreting sugar. Even though people with this disorder continue to secrete sweet urine after sugar consumption has completely halted, showing the body produces its own source, medical policy still requires that consumption stops.

Despite the persistent belief that sugar is the root of diabetes, historical evidence says otherwise. For example, mid-19th century doctors like P.A. Piorry and William Budd treated diabetes by adding an abnormally large amount of sucrose (table sugar) to patients’ diets, with self-reported improvements. Later, research from E. Kulz found that diabetics could assimilate fructose far better than glucose, and that supplementation of fructose reduced the amount of glucose lost in the urine.

Essentially, a diabetic’s pathway that uses glucose for energy is inhibited, resulting in glucose accumulation in the blood and urine. Interestingly, when fructose is supplied to the body, it bypasses the inhibited step and is metabolised for energy. By providing an alternative energy source, cells continue to produce energy efficiently, reducing reliance on fat oxidation and decreasing blood glucose.

This means that diabetes should be thought of as an energy-deprived state, rather than an energy-excessive one.

This cellular energy deprivation explains the classic symptoms of diabetes, including muscle weakness, tiredness, and increased hunger. Despite high levels of glucose in the blood, the body’s cells are unable to utilise it as energy, leading to the commonly associated hyperglycaemia. But, as we now know, hyperglycaemia is not a symptom of diabetes, but a comorbidity. Someone who is starving experiences the exact same fatigue related symptoms as a diabetic, but we would not tell them to consume less food.

As mentioned before, cellular deprivation is the main symptom of diabetes, as it is with anorexia and bulimia. However, even though all three share the same symptomology, we can confirm that cellular deprivation is not a cause of diabetes because neither of the other conditions is associated with increased diabetes risk (if you ignore bingeing).

From the beginning of an animal’s life, sugar is its main source of energy. But as people age, undergo chronic stress, enter starvation or live within certain dietary lifestyles, the body shifts from sugar to fat oxidation for its energy.

However, what separates diabetes from every other metabolic disease is how it shifts from sugar to fat when energy is abundant. For someone suffering with anorexia, they shift to oxidising fat due to the lack of energy available, but for a diabetic, this happens even when glucose is readily consumed. Another way of thinking about it is, the body is starving when there is no need to starve. As a result, the cause of diabetes comes directly from this glucose metabolism block, and results in the symptomology we consider part of the disease.

This vital factor in diabetes refers to the body being unable to process glucose, so the cells cannot effectively create energy, leading them to oxidise fat. Essentially, in a normal person, glucose enters the cells, is broken down and generated into energy (ATP). But in a diabetic, the glucose cannot be generated into ATP by the cells, so it is instead left in the bloodstream, leading to high blood glucose (sugar) levels.

But what if we wanted to create diabetes within ourselves? In other words, what would be the easiest and best way to cause a glucose metabolism block?

Firstly, I would want to keep my insulin high at all times of the day to promote receptor downregulation. To do so, I would make sure I only eat highly refined carbohydrates multiple times a day, and never conduct any physical movement to help reduce insulin signalling molecules. Secondly, I would consume heavy amounts of PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids) to help suppress enzymes that enable glucose metabolism. Therefore, making sure my diet is heavy in vegetable oils, artificial foods, and commercial products is a must. Next, I would want my lifestyle to be anti-thyroid. So, avoiding iodine-rich foods, consuming lots of goitrogens (raw cruciferous vegetables), regular fasting and constant blue light exposure is vital. Finally, I’d want to suppress glucose transport through reduced vitamin D, lack of magnesium, potassium and B vitamins. This will ensure that the insulin that is produced cannot be allowed to move and work, forcing levels to stay high.

One of the biggest problems is that fatty acids suppress the use of glucose when it is converted to fructose, meaning the brain is also supplied with less energy. The best way to bypass this is to eat fructose directly, as it less sensitive to the glucose barrier. By supplementing high levels of fructose, pyruvic acid can be continually provided, allowing oxidative metabolism and cellular energy production.

Many people have been told that the high levels of diabetes are a result of eating too much sugar, and that fructose can only be metabolised within the liver because it is insulin-independent, so they must think of another method of reablement. This may be true for the average human. But for someone with a glucose metabolism blockage, the body changes where fructose is metabolised to the brain and kidneys, enabling it to act accordingly.

If fructose can bypass glucose metabolism impairment, and if diabetes metabolism involves oxidation of fatty acids over glucose, then we would see below-average fructose serum levels in diabetics. However, this is not the case. Instead, we see an overachieving glucose level, even in those who stop consuming glucose.

Besides being interchangeable with glucose for energy production, fructose plays an important role in foetal development, but that’s for another article. Therefore, when glucose cannot enter the cells effectively, such as in a diabetic, supplementing fructose could bypass these faulty pathways and provide adequate energy to the deprived, helping them manage symptoms from blood sugar regulation to sleep quality and muscle weakness.

Overall, as the science of metabolism evolves, it is important we stop focusing on historical dogmas, and instead focus on informing at-risk individuals with correct management strategies. Even though this is a recommendation for healthcare professionals, stigmas always start at the general level, and until we all realise this is a fully preventable disease and far easier to manage than currently suggested, no change will happen at the political level. at the political level.