There is a constant friction/tension I see in online daibetes communities between those who believe in “moderation” and “long-term management” of diabetes, and those of us who believe a strict lifestyle approach is required to achieve remission and optimal health.
This tension occurs because standard medical advice is constantly telling diabetics that they can eat “everything in moderation”.
The reality is this approach will see our health steadily decline. This is a simple fact, backed by plenty of evidence, starting with Dr Richard Bernstein’s excellent book The Diabetes Solution.
The heartbreaking reality is that modern diabetes care is not designed to cure us. It is designed to us into a subscription model.
Why would the medical community lie to us? I’m genuinely not one for conspiracy theories, but I’m afraid this one is pretty much indisputable. As always – to answer questions like ths, you need to follow the money.
Here are the cold, hard facts about the multi-billion-dollar closed loop of “lifelong diabetes management”:
The “Big Three” Monopoly
Over 90% of the global insulin market is controlled by just three pharmaceutical giants: Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi. They operate a virtual duopoly/triopoly, and their financial scale is staggering.
To give you an idea of their power, by mid-2024, Novo Nordisk’s market value actually exceeded the entire annual GDP of its home country of Denmark.
Right now, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are locked in a massive battle over the Type 2 and obesity market, with drug sales expected to surpass $120 BILLION by 2030.
These companies do not survive on healthy people; they survive on chronic, lifelong compliance.
The ADA Connection
How do you ensure that guidelines never encourage actual disease reversal? You fund the organizations that write the guidelines.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) accepts millions of dollars annually from Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi. In fact, Eli Lilly’s relationship with the ADA goes back to its very foundation, which was kickstarted by a corporate gift from Lilly in 1940. These three companies are the largest source of funding of the ADA. Industry disclosures show these companies regularly dump millions into other national patient advocacy groups.
When a non-profit relies on pharma cash to keep the lights on, they will never aggressively promote a low-carb, dietary protocol that renders their donors’ products obsolete.
The History of “Moving the Goalposts”
This isn’t a theory; it’s documented medical history. Take the 7% HbA1c target that mainstream doctors tell you is “perfectly fine” for a diabetic. An investigation by the Lown Institute revealed that Sanofi (then Aventis) spent millions directly funding direct-to-consumer ad campaigns and paying off endocrinologist “thought leaders” to push the 7% HbA1c target.
Through their ADA contacts, they successfully pressured medical quality assurance boards to judge doctors based on hitting that 7% target.
Why 7%? Because at a 7% HbA1c, you are just healthy enough to stay alive, but just sick enough to require a lifelong cocktail of insulin, blood pressure meds, cholesterol drugs, and neuropathy treatments. True normalization (an HbA1c in the 4s, which Dr. Richard Bernstein advocates for) requires no pharmaceuticals (for T2s). And zero pharmaceuticals means zero profit.
The Bottom Line
When you adopt a strict low-carbohydrate lifestyle, like the one outlined in The Diabetes Solution, and which worked incredibly well for me – getting me to my initial remission target in just 100 days – you break the loop and cut the medical industry out almost entirely.
Type 1s drastically cut their insulin needs – by between 50% to 80%, wiping out massive revenue streams for the Big Three.
The majority of Type 2s reverse their glucose toxicity entirely and throw away their injected insulin. They also see massive weight loss, removing the need for GLP-1-based medications – also monopolized by the same three companies.
True health normalization is a direct threat to the pharmaceutical bottom line. They want you “managed.” They want you dependent. Stop letting them capitalize on your suffering. Your health belongs to you, not their shareholders!
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