Pick a Category to Work on This Year
A New Years Resolution Based on Three Decades of Success

If you are looking for big improvements in your life for 2010 then your diet is the right place to focus. In the late 1970s when I was developing the McDougall Diet after reading the bulk of the nutritional science published since the early 1900s, I came to the conclusion that starches, vegetables, and fruits were ideal for human nutrition. These humble plant parts supplied all the calcium, iron, and high quality protein that any person of any age, beyond infancy (a time for breast milk), would ever need during any activity, including those as demanding as pregnancy and running triathlons.

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Simple Care for Diabetes

Imagine sitting across from your doctor and being told your blood sugar is elevated and that you now have type-2 diabetes. Next you are informed that this condition is in part due to your excess body fat and that if you lose weight your diabetes will improve and possibly go away; however, in the meantime, you need to take medication. The doctor prescribes a diabetic pill (say a sulfonylurea) and hands you a sheet of paper describing a calorie-restricted diet; which incidentally was provided by a drug company representative selling diabetic pills to your doctor. On your first follow-up visit, the next month, despite all of your best efforts, you have gained 4 pounds. Because of your weight gain your blood sugars are still no better in spite of the medication. Your doctor doubles his efforts and adds another medication with a stern warning to lose the weight. The next month your weight is up another 4 pounds. Your blood sugars are now over 200 mg/dL and insulin shots are prescribed. This downhill spiral continues and after one full year of intensive treatment you have now gained 20 pounds of weight, a bag full of pills, bottles, and syringes, and worse health. Nearly every patient gets the same results because the medications do nothing to fix the illness and they compound the patient's problems by raising the levels of insulin in his or her body -- One important effect of insulin is to facilitate the storage of dietary fat into fat cells.