It's Like Being Debt-Free

In today's issue:

• Is reversing type 2 diabetes like being debt-free?

When we're in debt, every paycheck feels smaller than it should. We're told to just manage it better and keep making minimum payments.

This is exactly how most of us are taught to think about diabetes: Take your meds, watch it slowly get worse, and accept that it's just how life is from now on.

For years, marketing campaigns pushed the idea that diabetes was mainly caused by not exercising enough.

Coca-Cola pushed the idea that we could keep drinking their products as long as we stayed active; they even funded the Global Energy Balance Network to promote this message.

The Global Energy Balance Network was a non-profit that claimed to study obesity, but it became known for pushing the idea that people were overweight because they didn't exercise enough, and not because of unhealthy diets.

Pepsi and others pushed the same agenda; this propaganda was convenient for these soda cartels because it shifted blame onto us while protecting their ultra-processed sugar-heavy products. But exercise alone never explained why people who jog, work physical jobs, or go to the gym still end up insulin-resistant and diabetic.

Today, about 38 million Americans have diabetes, and the numbers keep rising. Yet most of our doctors are trained to manage this disease, not reverse it.

Medical education and guidelines from orgs like the American Diabetes Association and even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have long labeled type 2 diabetes as chronic and progressive. So when our doctors are taught that something only gets worse, their job then becomes managing and slowing its progression.

But bringing blood sugar and insulin levels back to normal without ongoing medication is possible, the same way being debt-free is possible even after years of living with debt.

One of the most effective tools to do this is fasting. Every time we eat, our bodies raise insulin, and when insulin stays high all day from constant eating, sugar stays trapped in the body.

Fasting creates a pause where insulin can drop, and the body can start burning stored sugar instead of adding more.

But neither one of us should jump into it right off the bat, easing into fasting matters; we should start by skipping a snack, then a meal, or replacing a meal with water, tea, or black coffee, gradually spacing meals farther apart, and cutting foods that spike insulin the most, like refined carbs and sugars, before extending fasts.

More importantly, consistency matters; that's why this shouldn't be done alone. We need doctors who understand remission and can help adjust our meds safely, monitor blood sugar, and guide us throughout this process.

Fasting also makes exercise a lot more effective; it pulls sugar out of the blood and fat out of storage to be used as fuel. As liver fat drops, insulin works better, blood sugar steadies, and weight loss happens naturally. We don't have to obsess over weight loss; the body simply lets go of excess weight once it's allowed to burn what it has been storing.

Remission is real, but it's not easy, and it's not guaranteed for everyone: genetics, how long we've had diabetes, how much damage has already been done to the pancreas, meds, stress, sleep, income, food access, and mental health all matter.

Like getting out of debt, some of us start much farther behind, and others have more flexibility.

But we can reverse type 2 diabetes.

You or someone you know can reverse type 2 diabetes.

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