Q: I'm a 290-pound diabetic. I am gaining weight rapidly on diabetic medications. Seven months ago I was 240 pounds. My joints are sore and very painful, and exercise is very hard to handle. I am tired all the time. I want to try to repair this problem, but I'm afraid to aggravate the cause. Blood sugar is around 215 all day long and higher in the a.m. Please give me some direction.
A:The Zone Diet was developed specifically for individuals like yourself. The diabetic medications (probably a PPAR agonist and insulin) that you are currently taking will cause weight gain. It has been shown clinically that the Zone Diet can reverse insulin resistance (the underlying cause of diabetes) in three days, therefore, before you begin the Zone Diet, alert your physician that he or she may have to reduce some of the medications because now they will cause hypoglycemia as the Zone Diet begins to stabilize and reduce your current blood sugar levels. For the pain I would initially add 5 grams of EPA and DHA per day.