It’s Poison but It Tastes So Good
When I was a kid (in the fifties,) I remember people calling it Sugar Diabetes. By the time I was grown it was just referred to as Diabetes. Sometimes people think ignorance is bliss.
The result of sugar addiction is not bliss. In fact, it is eventual death and it is not a pleasant way to go. So, when I look back on all the times that a fried pie or an ice cream or a piece of cake or some cookies made me feel all better inside: I want to throw up.
You see, five years ago I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Cirrhosis of the liver. Nope, it wasn’t alcohol that caused my liver to become fatty and very scarred. It was shriveled up and barely functioning because of Fatty Liver Disease. (NAFLD – short for Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.)
Five Doctors in my local emergency room were aghast that I had no idea that my liver was in such bad shape. One, said, while they all stared at me, “Lady, you need a liver transplant and right away.” Another said, “What made you keep drinking all that alcohol?” Another said, “How did you not know? Didn’t you go to a Doctor, ever?”
Yep. That’s right, Fatty Liver Disease may present no symptoms until your liver is shriveled up and almost dead. Many doctors have only recently begun to run blood tests which include liver enzyme tests with yearly checkups.
Of course, it’s not only sugar. Sugars are carbs. It is not only sweets that cause NAFLD. So does bread and pasta and potatoes – basically any food that is white or has white ingredients in it. In other words – everything Americans are masters at eating. (Cauliflower is the only white food I am aware of that is fairly low in carbs.)
I’m just a gal from Texas with no medical or scientific background. I did not participate in a study about the low carb cure for NAFLD. All I can tell you is – I no longer need a liver transplant because I changed the way I eat.
My liver Doctor (the best there is, as far as I am concerned) told me recently, there are only two cures for a fatty liver – changing the way you eat or a liver transplant. Lucky for me, I opted for the lifestyle change. I am forever grateful. Going without all the foods you love is not all that hard when you actually see yourself needing a liver transplant.
Ask your doctor for a liver enzyme test if you are overweight (Body Mass Index of 30 or higher.) If your BMI is higher than 30 then talk to your doctor, get the blood test, and make the lifestyle changes you need to make. I am living proof that it works and you can do it.
Thirty percent of the US population currently has NAFLD and the number is expected to hit 50 percent over the next 10 years. Why? Because we evolved over hundreds of thousands of years as hunter-gatherers. It has only been in the last 7500 years that humans learned how to farm grains and mill them. Potatoes weren’t discovered until after Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas. Evolution takes way longer than even 10,000 years.