I’ve had many online ‘exchanges’ with medical industry professionals including doctors, nutritionists and diabetes educators. I share posts like these to educate people on how to argue or win discussions with their medical industry professionals.
- Medical Industry professionals are not gods, they are all fallible.
- Medical Industry professionals are trained in large measure by Big Food and Big Pharma tainted studies.
On the topics of diabetes care and nutrition, the medical industry is almost always wrong. There are more and more aware of a low carb paleo approach to treating diseases but still a small percentage of the total.
Very Little Science
I am a fan of science! Real science.
One of my favorite sayings is, “there is very little science in nutritional science”. I say that because Big Food and Big Pharma fund much of the nutritional studies used to ‘teach’ nutrition to the Medical Industry. Little wonder why our nutritional policy has lead to an increase in drug and processed food sales.
Diabetes Educator Responds
Below is a Facebook message exchange I had with a Diabetes Educator. By the way, she approved me using our communication in this post.
I’m a RN, CDE with two Master’s Degrees.
There are many ‘Harvard Educated’ ADA Minion pushing drugs and 6-11 servings of grains. Some even have PhDs… initials after a person’s name means little when it comes to nutrition and diabetes care.
Joslins, the Harvard based and self proclaimed ‘preeminent diabetes center in the world’ supports 40% of calories from CARBS! This is a disgrace and I’m sure Joslins has a fair number of PhDs and Masters degrees on staff.
I try not to, but sometimes I get a tad offended about you touting that CDEs, RNs or categorizing any group as doing what they do at the expense of others.
I do not criticize, ridicule and mock diabetes educators to make friends with diabetes educators. I do it to hopefully wake up diabetics to how pitiful the advice is …and hopefully shame diabetes educators into seeing how harmful their advice is.
Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs) harm millions of diabetics every day… that’s a fact.
I do generalize. Obviously I do not believe that 100% of all CDEs are supporting a ADA style “carb up and shoot up” meal plan. Why do vast majority promote a high carb, grain based meal plan?
Reasons Why
1) Intellectual Laziness
2) Willful Ignorance
I was once told I needed to eat grains or FIBER! LOL!
I said, “you want me to go back to drugs and insulin …. for fiber??”
Promoting elevated blood sugars … for fiber. Ignorance for sure.
3) Greed
I take no drugs, see no doctors, I see no CDEs …
DO YOU really think the ADA, Big Pharma and Monsanto want everyone to be like me?
My daughter has Type 1 Diabetes and was diagnosed right after I graduated from Nursing School, 14 years ago. I have a vested interested in a CURE for diabetes. I can do any kind of nursing and make a good living, but I chose diabetes because my heart is in it. My practice is primarily inpatient and I see the devastation that diabetes causes each and every day…front line action. I know what you are doing works and is best.
I have NO doubt that your heart is in the right place. I also have no doubt that what I’m doing works better.
You must consider that not all people have your ambition, desire, ability or drive to live the low carb lifestyle and exercise to the max potential.
I was a HUGE carb addict …. if I can do it, they can too..
I know that MILLIONS attempt to follow a failed ADA meal plan because, “my doctor tells me to.” or “my diabetes educator says….” etc etc.
SURE many will not go low carb paleo even if instructed to do so, but when their doctor, nutritionist, dietitian, friends, co-workers, PepsiCo, Monsanto, Eli Lilly etc etc …. ALL SAY EAT GRAINS, take your drugs and be happy, the end result will be much pain and suffering.
Question:
This question should keep all CDEs up at night, at least the ones with a conscience. How many people would go LOW CARB Paleo if … it was told to all that this IS THE BEST meal plan.
If they hear it from their doctor, their nurses, their dietitians and their … CERTIFIED DIABETES EDUCATORS, how many would improve their quality of life?
When those same groups say, “DIABETES is a debilitating disease’ … BS!!! It is only debilitating IF YOU DO NOT CONTROL BLOOD SUGAR!!!
Eating a high carb meal plan makes it EXTREMELY difficult to control blood sugar… with soaring highs and crashing lows…it is INEXCUSABLE to PROMOTE THIS!!!
Humans are not all the same that way. So, should the poor guy or gal who doesn’t have your drive suffer with hyperglycemia and it’s devastating effects rather than take insulin to control their blood sugars? I think not.
You must not read ALL of my posts… shame on you! :) I preach BLOOD SUGAR CONTROL!
Using drugs and insulin if REQUIRED!! However, taking drugs and insulin just so you can eat cakes, cookies, bread, pasta etc… is HARMFUL.
I hear this all the time by ADA Minion to justify a high carb meal plan to their ‘customers’. CDEs cuddle and coddle them… keeping them on ever increasing amounts of drugs and insulin … and why?
Answer: Willful Ignorance, Intellectual Laziness or Greed.
You seem to present healthcare providers as a group of people that get together and think of a way to manipulate the population into being unhealthy so they will have a job. That is SO FAR FROM THE TRUTH. Sometimes it’s all you can do to get someone to decrease thier CHO intake let alone go Paleo.
The monolithic groups that drive this are Big Agra, Big Pharma, ADA and AADE… they pay for the studies that satisfy their foot soldiers’ conscience that they are doing the right thing.
I KNOW it’s tough... I try and do the same thing myself. I have many failures… people say they ‘can’t do it’. I do KNOW that many CDEs ‘give up’ and simply cuddle, coddle and enable. It is so much easier…. given all the pressures discussed above.
The American Association of Diabetes Educators, the home of the CDE is greatly influenced by PepsiCo by their management of the foundation and their money… $$$$$ talks.
You and ALL CDEs should be OUTRAGED at the conflict of interest. …. I see none.
Instead of emailing me about me ‘offending’ CDEs … you should be ranting and railing YOURSELF about the stench of greed and influence peddling.
The fact of the matter is that in healthcare, Providers, Nurses, and CDEs all have different levels of knowledge and experience with diabetes. The burden is to find one that can meet your needs. I’m only speaking to your bashing of all CDEs. You could get much more legitimate support in your cause if you weren’t attacking people daily….and I do say this in a friendly, compassionate tone just in case that is not what you are perceiving.
I do appreciate this advice. :)
First and this makes me angry… IF I KNOW LOW CARB PRIMAL WORKS … then why in the HELL can’t every CDE know this? Why isn’t the AADE pushing it?
WHY IS the AADE having “High Carb” Hope Warshaw discuss “carbohydrate” at the Annual AADE convention????
Answer: Willful Ignorance, Intellectual Laziness or Greed.
I honestly am a very nice person … I do believe. I am as nice a guy as you would meet … if we met on the street.
And… I tried nice. When I first found low carb paleo and it’s advantages… I went and told THE WORLD!!! Being nice and polite…. I went to spread the word. I believed that ADA and their Minions promoted a high carb meal plan because they were IGNORANT of the truth.
Ignorance is not bad… I’m ignorant on MANY subjects. I went to inform people… on the ADA boards, Joslins etc etc.
I was laughed at and ridiculed…. CDEs would tell people … “you must eat 120 grams of carbs for brain function” LOL … or Saturated Fat causes diabetes or Cholesterol will clog your arteries…. etc etc.
Several people have tried low carb paleo because of my attitude and persistence.
Some said they gave it a second look because of my … determination. :)
I’ll leave the cuddling, coddling and enabling to CDEs.
On another personal note, I believe in what you are doing and have believed in this lifestyle for MANY years and practice it myself and continue to encourage my children to do the same (with a little variance.) You have done a fantastic job in taking charge of your diabetes, your life. I know your site is not called “Diabetes Warrior” for nothing. You have a great message and a great cause but you could reach so many more people if you tone down the “hunting” of CDEs, Warrior. :-)
Fact: National Institute of Health, the American Diabetes Association and the American Association of Diabetes Educators …. (and there are many more AHA, ACS etc) …
…. their dietary policy is causing untold harm … untold pain and suffering.
To sit idly by, when I (“WE”) have THE answer … is not within me.
Certified Diabetes Educators are PAID to know the best treatment plan.
MOST claim ignorance of it… and of course they can because the national group sends a “grainhead” like Hope Warshaw to teach them.
There is NO excuse for CDEs not to know about Low Carb Paleo and THERE IS NO EXCUSE for them not to PROMOTE and PREACH it as the BEST option.
Of course they should then support those that can not… but too often they do not even mention it or only mention it in passing.
Sincerely appreciate the opportunity to discuss.
Steve
Summary
I know I rant and rail too much at times… but if one PERSON decides to listen … if JUST ONE life can be changed it would be worth it.
I wish I could have changed my grandmother’s life before the end, “Tale of Two Type 2’s”
Just today … another study came out showing the harmful affects of “Diabetes Drug Actos” … so why PROMOTE a plan that encourages it’s usage???
Answer: Willful Ignorance, Intellectual Laziness or Greed.
Note: … I did not even get to the harmful advice dished out regarding what the ADA and AADE call ‘good A1Cs”… :(
The Certified Diabetes Educator Responds to the above post.
Note: CHO = carbohydrates
I thought your article was perfect. I hope that others get benefit from it,truly.
I do tell my patients about paleo and low CHO,then I show them where CHOs are in foods broken down into four catagories…meats,eggs,cheese….non starchy veggies….fruit,milk….and all grains in any form plus starchy veggies. Most people seem to understand the effect of CHO to thier blood sugars when we are done.
As an RN CDE I do not council great specifics on diet because that is the Dietitians territory. However,I always make sure that my patient understands CHO effect to blood sugar and I hope the take home for the patient is that less is best.
Keep up the good work. Diabetes needs all the warriors it can get!
Here is my Diabetes Warrior Info:
My Diabetes Meal Plan ( a true diabetes diet, not like most of those promoted by American Diabetes Association)
I am not a CDE, but I am in the speech therapy field and I have t1 diabetes. We have been taught that it is unethical for us to practice techniques that are not supported by evidence based practice, meaning that if it hasn’t been proven to work on a large population under certain conditions, been published in a medical journal, has been peer-reviewed, and THEN officially accepted by ASHA, we cannot apply it in therapy. We could lose our license by charging people money for services that aren’t approved by our governing medical organization. I am sure it is the same for CDEs. So as much as it sucks and seems wrong to us that they are giving us such detrimental misinformation, until the ADA and AADE change their guidelines, the average CDE isn’t going to risk their license by telling a patient to follow a paleo diet.
That said, I think the best way to change all that is for us to offer ourselves up as case studies to those CDEs that are interested in challenging the guidelines. If we can go in to our next appointments and say, “hey I’m following Dr. Bernstein’s guidelines, and here’s exactly what I’m doing, and here’s all my improved physiological numbers to show that I’m not harming myself but improving my health” we can make better changes. My CDE is very open to me tweaking my own diet, but she just wants to know what I’m doing. She really never told me that I had to eat a certain amount of anything, but just said how to cover carbohydrates, that fat slows down the absorption of carbs, etc. I liked that approach because I want my health to be in my own hands, but it probably doesn’t work for everybody, for the reasons you’ve described. Some people just want to be told exactly what to do, and these ARE the people that this current system is harming.
But that doesn’t mean that berating the health care professionals for doing what they are ethically allowed to do (‘ethically’ by medical terms, not by reality terms) will change the system. I wish it were different, but if they were allowed to give out dietary advice every time a new way of eating (or fad diet for that matter) appeared on a bookshelf, we’d have even worse problems. The real problem here is the lack of “official” research and peer-reviewed journal articles supporting the system that more and more of us diabetics are finding helpful.
Emily,
Thank you for your comment. :) I wish you all the best in dealing with the ‘D’.
I hear comments similar to yours often…. “But that doesn’t mean that berating the health care professionals for doing what they are ethically allowed to do”.
Obviously I disagree. That ‘mentality’ of ‘just doing my job’ … is what allows it to continue. As I noted, I see no OUTRAGE over the OBVIOUS conflicts of interest that are rampant in the entire health care system… not just diabetes.
Daily I see people complain about oil companies and even Monsanto regarding GMO … yet I see very few complaining over Big Pharma’s influence over Health Care studies…and treatment. Not to mention Big Agra Biz … they heavily influence the American Association of Diabetes Educators.
There are MANY studies showing the positive affects of Low Carb Paleo and blood sugar… I’ve listed them in posts here even. One must only seek the truth and it can be found.
The CDEs should see this… but they do not. Why Not? 1) Willful Ignorance 2) Intellectual Laziness 3) Greed.
If ‘we’ do nothing… if we do NOT raise our voices… do you really think Monsanto, Big Pharma, PepsiCo etc will ALLOW change.
We MUST stand up and be heard…. CDEs will not change until we change the AADE and they will not change as long as Monsanto, Big Pharma and PepsiCo are paying the bills.