How Knowledge is Power in Nutrition

What happens if you do the opposite of what the American Diabetes Association recommends? That’s what this TEDx-talk addresses.

Dr. Wendy Pogozelski investigated just this after she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 40. She was told to eat chocolate, pasta and bread and then use insulin injections to control her blood sugar. However, as a chemist working with linking nutrition and biochemistry she intuitively preferred a low-carb diet.

In her experiment she compared the effect of the ADA advice and a low-carb diet on blood sugar levels. What was the result? The ADA diet caused way bigger swings in blood sugar, something that is both inconvenient and potentially dangerous in type 1 diabetes.

Watch her TEDx talk above for more. The main message – that knowledge is power – shouldn’t be controversial. What’s controversial is when that knowledge leads to distrust of authority. But sometimes it should.