I was thinking of putting this comment on the ‘Diolch’ thread, but it’s not about Welsh and I think people can better decide whether they’re interested in reading it or not from the title. (In fact, the computer reminded me that this thread is over three years old!)
I just want to thank @aran and @hewrop for their considered discussion about sugar in this thread.
Just over a year ago, my son in his 20s, was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. I was very upset, but I remembered this thread and re-read it. Then I did some research on the subject myself. A number of different sources pointed me in the same direction and I ended up watching a lecture of over 90 minutes by Dr Robert Lustig (there are a number on YouTube, I think it was an early one to the University of California).
To cut a (year) long story short, my son moved in with me and we adopted a ‘No Added Sugar’/‘no fructose without its own fibre’ approach to eating. We haven’t gone on any extreme diets and we still eat a lot of carbohydrates (his favourite meal is chicken in peanut butter sauce with rice!). I have started cooking more from scratch and shopping was a bit of a lengthy process at the beginning. Reading the labels on savoury things is very informative!
The reason I am writing this now is because I want to share the news that as from yesterday, he has been taken off the diabetes tablets for a trial period of 3 months - his blood test results are so good - scary. His HbA1c results have gone from 125 (off the end of the red end of the scale) to 27 and 26 (off the end of the scale in the green) for the last six months.
For years people (including some supposed experts) tried to tell us that sugar didn’t cause (or at least exacerbate) diabetes, in spite of the fairly obvious evidence to the contrary.
Now I do think that some people naturally metabolise sugar (and indeed other carbs) better than others, but I also think that a significant proportion of the population does not cope with sugar or carbs at all well.
Robin Lustig wasn’t the first to warn about sugar. In the 1970s, John Yudkin published “Pure, White and Deadly” (and to be fair, Lustig credits him in his writing I think). (“Sweet and Dangerous” in the USA). Yudkin also advocated low-carb diets, as did Richard MacKarness (e.g. in the 1958 book “Eat Fat and Grow Slim”). Both predated the more famous Robert Atkins.
But low-carb diets had been used successfully since at least the 19th century, cf. William Banting.
One of the articles I read early on was a ‘Long Read’ in the Guardian, which mentioned that someone had said to Lustig on a lecture tour that he must surely have read Yudkin’s work, but he hadn’t. They both came to similar conclusions. In the meantime, for a number of reasons (don’t get me started!), we went down the road of low-fat diets, not low added sugar (and fructose in particular).
Helen this is fantastic news!! Congratulations! That’s such a massive change to his health and he’s still young.
I’ve really enjoyed reading this thread. Recently I’ve been doing my own (as part of a group) lifestyle challenge. We call it “Fit For Life”. It’s run by the gym I go to, and the idea is you change your food intake from processed to natural, cut out refined sugars (some natural sugars in carbohydrates and fruit are fine but these you try and limit too). You get points for eating 3 good meals a day, 2 snacks (healthy of course), go to the gym, drink 2 litres of water, get 7+ hours sleep and go for a 10 min walk.
With the food, the goal is 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat for your daily calories (so it’s not “low carb”). I’ve not had an alcoholic drink since Christmas. I feel so much better on it! They took our body fat compositions at the beginning so I’m looking forward to finding out those results.
If anyone else is interesting in doing this sort of thing theres and app call “my fitness pal” which helps you track it.
First of all, great news, @helenlindsay. Whether your son’s acievement is the result of changing his sugar consumption or some other factor, I am very happy for him and you. I will shortly send you a PM about my own experience with type 2 diabetes.
In the meantime:
I love this forum and the fact that we can cover almost any subject without anyone telling us to b******r off.
I disagree completely with whomever said this - oops - it appears to have been me My excuse is that I was nearly 4 years younger then.
Seriously, my personal preference is now that this wonderful forum should focus on our shared interest in Welsh and other languages but, more than that, my strongly-felt advice is not to consider this forum as a source of information about any medical/health matter.
After I established early on that my GP is well qualified and keeps up with current literature I was and am happy to work with him and only him on my own condition and will explain why in my PM.
Let me finish by thanking you, Helen, for sharing your great news - Diolch! Llongyfarchiadau!
I’m going to stay in agreement with the younger Huw, on the grounds that otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to pick his interesting brains on a range of entertaining matters…
While agreeing, of course, that ‘discussion on the interwebs’ should not be consumed as an alternative to professional advice…
(although it can, of course, be an interesting way to hear about different angles of thought which might sometimes be worth following up on via peer-reviewed and published material).
Congrats @helenlindsay on your son’s achievement, that’s awesome news!
I agree with you, this forum is the bomb! We can talk about anything we want without any haters getting in the way. And don’t worry about disagreeing with yourself, we’ve all been there!
But yeah, I hear you on the medical stuff. It’s always best to trust professionals and not just some random person on the internet, you know? I hope everyone here is taking care of themselves and getting their check-ups regularly.
EDIT: - I’ve removed the link as it’s not related to Welsh or language-learning. This is not actually a place to “talk about anything”, it’s specifically to give support to people learning Welsh.
I’ve always really appreciated the width of discussion on the forum - I think it’s an important part of building community - particularly since we have unusually high levels of politeness and friendliness here, which makes it a very pleasant place to discuss a wide range of things above and beyond just the details of learning Welsh
His HbA1c results have gone from 125 (off the end of the red end of the scale) to 27 and 26 (off the end of the scale in the green) for the last six months.
I will shortly send you a PM about my own experience with type 2 diabetes.
My excuse is that I was nearly 4 years younger then. 
