As a diabetic, it was refreshing to read a knowledgeable medical professional’s account of diabetes, in Dr. Teri Murray’s column. The only disagreement I have in her article is with diet sweetener drinks, as they actually cause diabetes.
I was glad that Dr. Murray included a third level to the traditional Type 1/ Type 2 classifications and that she indicates what diabetes truly amounts to: an insulin problem. There is a move to replace the two-type designation to four types of diabetes, with intermediate variations. The four types relate to acquired diabetes, hereditary diabetes, insufficient glucose disorder and excess glucose disorder. That is because diabetes, itself, is a disease of the tissue cells refusing glucose due to improper levels of glucose.
Diabetic persons should be aware that many physicians and nurses recommend foods that we diabetics should never consume, such as peanut butter and processed sugars and flours and fats, and they even recommend carbohydrates as a diabetic food. Glucose is NOT the same kind of sugar as processed sugar from sugar canes or beets or fruits, yet starches dramatically produce glucose.
Ronald Kinum
St. Louis