Alloxan - a toxin found in white flour - could it cause the pancreas to run out of oomph and the ability to produce enough insulin when the pancreatic cells have been damaged beyond a certain stage? This was an earlier post of mine that I remembered today.
Dr. Briffa wrote a blog article about whether high starch diets could cause diabetes. Hmm - high starch speaks to me of lots of white flour with alloxan - the toxin that destroys pancreatic cells. Think of all those French breads, pancakes, muffins, cakes, etc. made with white flour containing alloxan - that can certainly cause significant pancreatic damage over a long period of time.
"Higher starch consumption was, however, associated with a 23 per cent increased risk of type 2 diabetes."
"Some type 2 diabetics are suffering from a degree of ‘beta-cell exhaustion’. It is the beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin. The harder these cells are worked during our lifetime the more likely they are to get exhausted. Now we have the potential of low levels of insulin. The risk here is that some people can end up secreting low levels of not-very-effective insulin." (My injection: what if those cells have become damaged over time by alloxan? This would result in the same outcome.)
Diabetes and the cause is certainly a mystery, but here is one clue perhaps that I remembered this morning when reading Dr. Briffa's article.
Certainly diabetes and being overweight go hand in hand. If one is insulin resistant (and everyone who has diabetes is), of course one is going to gain weight. First of all, if the energy/glucose is not getting into the cells, one is left much much hungrier than a person who is not insulin resistant. One is constantly being deprived of the necessary energy and that equates to hunger - a natural response to not getting enough fuel for the cells to work properly. Make sense?
The number of people with diabetes these days is astounding, however, even more astounding is that the big organizations for diabetes, some doctors and nutritionists and even hospital staff still prescribe a diet too high in carbohydrates and which is destined to keep people sick. It is a modern crime against our loved ones. Fortunately, many people have woken up to this fact and they are fighting back with the truth.