(I’m doing a book giveaway this week! Enter here!)
I see a lot of crazy things on the Internet.
One of my favorites (sarcasm mode) is that you can “cure” every chronic disease with diet.
Um….
No, you can’t.
No diet is going to make chromosome 7 magically work in me.
No diet will fix the fact that I have CFRD (CF Related Diabetes). It will not make my pancreas magically make insulin.
I am really, really tired of this crap. Stop it.
When I visited the CF dietician back in the day (I don’t need a specific CF dietician anymore) the rule was “eat as much of anything as you want” as long as it’s not diet, low-fat, or fat free. EAT EAT EAT. We were always trying to find ways to pour more calories into my body. Milkshakes. Ice cream. There was calorie powder!!! (I am not kidding.)
That’s because when you have CF, your body burns an incredible amount of calories just trying to maintain your baseline. Coughing takes a lot of energy. EVERYTHING takes a lot of energy. Oh, and salt? You want a LOT OF THAT. Popcorn. Peanuts. Potato chips. Because your body loses a lot more salt that everyone else’s. So in the summer, I’m all about the sallllt.
When you see things that say “diabetes can be reversed with diet” they are (I hope) talking about type two, and yes, in type 2, what you eat does matter. It matter a lot. You can try to fix it with what you eat. But if you are a T1 person, you cannot. It’s not possible.
And also, if you have T1, you actually need sugar sometimes. There are times when I am commanded to eat candy and pizza and drink orange juice! (hopefully not at the same time!)
While I’m fixing health lies, let’s fix another one: You do not just “get a transplant.”
If you need one, you might not get one. If you smoke, you must stop smoking. You are tested for cigarette usage in your labs. If you drink and you need a liver transplant, you need to stop drinking.
Do some people do stupid things post-transplant? heck yes. And these are people who get kicked out of their center’s program and are not eligible for another transplant, should they need one.
But the vast majority of the time, centers are hard core about making this sort of behavior STOP before, because there are so many people that need transplants. If you’re not going to take care of the organ, then you’re most likely not going to get one!
And it’s hard work to qualify for a transplant. It’s days of tests and evaluations by multiple people on a multidisciplinary team. The idea of “just getting a transplant” is laughable to me.
2020 taught me a lot about how little the average American knows about hospitals, illness, and ICUs. (And germs.) But in 2021 I’m seeing a lot of misinformation about what a “good” diet can do for your body.
homemade bolognese. YUM.
Good food can help you in a lot of ways. So can exercise. But it does not cure everything and people who say it does are charlatans, up there with the “essential oils cure ebola” crowd.
So, now you know! Go and use your knowledge. :)