Today we know that the single most important risk factor and a precursor for cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, type two diabetes, many cancers, etc; is “insulin- resistance“. Do we have enough long term data to prove this? No, but people who are on low sugar and low processed food diet have shown improvement in their cardiovascular markers – they feel better, life gets better, and most of them have been able to reduce or even come off their medications – a win-win situation.

In fact, there is a paradigm shift happening today – researchers and cardiologists are of the belief that inflammatory conditions in the body triggered by insulin resistance may be linked with heart and other diseases – and that high cholesterol (LDLs) may not be the reason for blockages in the vessels – In fact, it’s said that high LDLs, specially in the elderly, actually protect them against diseases.

Sugar Addiction
Sugar, that is added to every other processed food that we eat is the public enemy number one – it’s highly inflammatory in nature and is the primary cause of insulin resistance.

On an average most of us take 25 to 30 g of sugar everyday in our diet – while now, under pressure, the WHO says the limit is only six!

Fight or Flight
The question is: How do we combat this?
Science and sugar management alone cannot tackle the obesity and type 2 diabetes crisis – we must also overcome opposition from vested interests, that is, government policies driven by the food industry.

Tighten the Screws
It’s the government regulations that are important. Governments have a responsibility to protect their citizens from misinformation and manipulations coming from the industry.

The industry invests a lot of money in flawed science. Scientists also get corrupted by the industry. Declarations that go against the industry’s interests are kept away from the public view and those that favour the industry are exaggerated.

Government regulations should kick in and flawed science should be exposed so that as people’s awareness grows – the politicians will have to follow the line and mass media will wake up to the new norms and hopefully things will change.

PS: __Just the way it took the world 50 years to realise (fighting industry opposition) that cigarette smoking creates cancer. __

Zareer Patell- Blackbelt, Fitness /Personal Trainer & Wellness Columnist (since 1972).