You've mentioned repeatedly that if there's a metabolic or medical reason for being obese, then there should be no higher co-pays/insurance premiums, but that everyone has the choice to control their diet and therefore control their weight.

But diabetes IS considered to be a metabolic illness, as well as a medical condition. I don't know how long ago your Dad passed away from diabetes complications - but I'm pretty sure it's always been considered a metabolic and medical condition - which is why they treat it with drugs when diet is not effective.

And in most cases, diet isn't effective - at least not long term, because if you already have enough insulin resistance (technically called metabolic syndrome, i.e. a metabolic condition) to be diagnosed as diabetic, then more than minimal carbs are likely to exacerbate the severity of the metabolic syndrome, raising blood sugar, increasing weight, resulting in giving up on even trying to control it with diet.

I think we need to clarify that not only is the diabetic diet entirely too high in carbs these days to fully control the blood sugar, but also that it was too high in carbs to fully control the blood sugar of a diabetic even back in the early 70's - which is when I was put on a diabetic diet to control my hypoglycemia. If not for the fact that I found the allowed portions of carby foods such as bread and potatoes to be so pathetically small that I thought it would be much easier to simply cut them out altogether than to try to limit how much I consumed, I would not have done as well as I did on that diet. Consequently, my carbs were considerably lower than the typical diabetic diet allowed even back then.

Nowadays, a diabetes diagnosis is automatically considered to be a metabolic condition to be primarily handled as a medical condition by drugs such as metformin, and insulin injections. Some doctors may give their newly diagnosed patient a diabetic diet to follow, but it's so much higher in carbs than it was back in the 70's (especially with the magical thinking that high carb foods that have a little fiber in them will somehow miraculously prevent the high carb content of the food from raising blood sugar significantly), and the entire medical industry seems to have a defeatist attitude about anyone following a diabetic diet anyway, because they know it's near impossible to undo generations of traditionally high carb diets (like you grew up with), not to mention decades of eating high carb before it catches up with them in the form of a diagnosis of obesity, metabolic syndrome, or diabetes.

A lot of doctors don't even bother to talk about controlling carbs to bring blood sugar numbers down these days - I know someone who had a shockingly high, full-blown diagnosable A1c about 8 months ago. The Dr was willing to give this person a few months to "try" to bring it down through diet, then do another A1c. He obviously did not think it was possible to make much of a difference. But this person went on an all-out carb controlled diet, testing blood sugars 2 hours after every single meal to determine what carb level was problematic, as well as which foods were affecting higher readings the most, measuring and tracking every single food consumed. The results were of course what those of us who are LCers would expect: The A1c came down dramatically, to the point that the Dr was utterly shocked, said he'd never seen anyone bring it down that much through diet alone.




You bucked the trend with your own stubborn determination that you were absolutely not going to be caught in the same downward spiral of poor health as the rest of your family. That shows what is truly unusual fortitude in the face of generations of eating habits passed down to you.

It also shows fierce determination to avoid the temptations in all those middle aisles of the grocery stores with their snacks, candies, sodas, and other pre-fab foods, as well as the lure of the dangerous parts of the perimeter of the store (bakery area, sweetened yogurts, pudding, custards and such in the dairy area), and last but not least the impulse candy and snacks while waiting in the checkout line. You have every right to be proud of your fierce determination to stick to your diet...

But you also managed to find a diet that worked well for you. Yes, you said you tried a few diets before you found the one that worked for you.

But how many low cal/low fat diets did you try? That's what most people try to do because those are the "healthy" diets - and they've tried dozens and dozens of them, believing each one to be truly different diets that somehow work differently. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of diets out there like that - As long as someone with metabolic syndrome or diabetes is still afraid to try any kind of LC diet, they're simply not going to see good blood sugar control - or be able to sustain weight loss.

(The individual I mentioned who improved their A1c so much in just a few months that the Dr was shocked at the results? That person is still very much caught up in the "fat is evil" propaganda, still eating minimal fats, especially avoiding saturated fats and cholesterol, and trying to avoid any animal fats whenever possible, which means eating minimal protein because - animal proteins = bad because there's always some sat fat and cholesterol in them, even if only a little bit)



... and this brings us back to the fact that metabolic syndrome and diabetes ARE considered to be medical reasons for obesity.