One comment on Diabetes II. I havn't read any journals that high carb diets cause this but think about it for a minute. If you do anything too long that increases or decreases your body's production of hormones or, in this case, insulin, your body will react and evolve to compensate. When weight lifters inject testosterone to increase their body's level for growth, the testes shrink and the body stops producing it's own. That was just an example I was thinking of. Why do you think (just an observation) heavy drinkers have a tendancy to develop diabetes. Alcohol IS sugar (both a byproduct of, and a precursor to). Runners use all those carbs and need them. A couch potatoe will just store them as fat. Insulin being a growth factor for both muscle and fat gets all out of whack. Type I people are usually pretty lean naturally for lack of and type II are usually heavy for excess of. Just an observation.

Riverdog,

Actually, in my book, The Insulin Resistance Diet it talks about Insulin Resistance as what leads to Type II, Insulin Resistance is also part of Syndrom X, which is a leading cause of Obesity. I think it was calculated at 85% of all obese women have syndrom x, thereby having Insulin Resistance. Which is basically that those of us with Syndrom X, Insulin Resistance, and PCOS do not react *normally* to carbs. It all gets very confusing.

If you have a chance to pick up the above mentioned book, do so, it has been great for me as a maintence after the Atkins approach.

Also, it does mention Gout as being one of the many conditions caused by Insulin Resistance.

The following is from a newsletter I receive, I thought it was appropriate for this thread to add it. Some people just seem a little odd to me, or maybe I am the odd one since it made me giggle.

Health Sciences Institute e-Alert

January 29, 2004

".. and another thing

Blinding blinders and the blind people who insist on wearing
them...

I almost got into an argument at my gym last week. Nothing
serious - just a slightly warmed-up exchange of ideas with a
woman who casually commented on the recent news reports that the
Atkins diet had been modified to downplay the fat intake.

I'd just read the New York Times article about Atkins, and the
reply to the article on the Atkins web site, so I told her that,
in fact, the Atkins diet was no different than it ever was.

No, she said - I was wrong. She saw it on TV.

And, I said, no, the TV reports had just picked up the New York
Times misinformation and run with it without checking the
facts.

"Well," she said, "my cardiologist wouldn't let me do Atkins
anyway."

You know I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I pushed it a
little further, mentioning that a Duke University study found
that subjects using the Atkins plan scored equal or higher marks
in all of the heart-health categories when compared to subjects
using the American Heart Association's "Step 1" low-fat diet.
The Atkins subjects had not only lost more weight, but also had
a much larger increase in HDL cholesterol, and a far greater
drop in triclycerides. In addition, neither diet showed a change
in LDL cholesterol.

Now you would think that this information would carry some
weight, right? But the woman responded by saying, "I know. I
read that study."

Well, she had me there! If she read and (apparently) understood
the study, then she already knew that Atkins has not been shown
to do any harm to the heart. In fact, just the opposite!
Nevertheless, her cardiologist wouldn't "let her" do Atkins.

I guess for some folks, blinders are a comfortable fit.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute"