In this segment of Dr. Robert Lustig’s talk, he argues that prediabetes is a genuine health concern linked to insulin resistance and reduced insulin response, despite some claims that it is inconsequential. He critiques the American Diabetes Association’s view that diabetes is an irreversible, progressive loss of beta‑cell function, labeling it “total hogwash.” Lustig explains that beta cells, like the liver, can accumulate fat (non‑alcoholic fatty pancreas disease) and that clearing this fat can restore beta‑cell function, allowing reversal of both prediabetes and type 2 diabetes. He emphasizes that dietary choices are central to this reversal, summarizing his book Metabolical with the six‑word principle: “Protect the liver, feed the gut.” Any food that accomplishes both is deemed healthy. He also notes the broader disease risk associated with diabetes, including Alzheimer’s, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.
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Bulletproof radio, a state of high performance. If you get diabetes, your chances of getting, well, Alzheimer's or cancer or cardiovascular disease, or pretty much having bad luck from a health perspective, seems like it goes up. Right. And you've dialed in on diabetes. So prediabetes is thought by some to be the precursor to diabetes, and other people think it's a figment of other people's imagination. It's a complex issue. There was an article in Nature not too long ago that basically argued that prediabetes was really not a problem at all. I believe that it is a problem. Having said that, if you look at the number of prediabetics who go on to diabetes, it looks like it's about 33%. So just having prediabetes doesn't necessarily mean that the end is near. There are things that you can do to alter that. What we have determined is that prediabetes is a state of insulin resistance with reduced insulin response. Now, the question is, can the pancreas recover? And the answer is absolutely. And this is where people don't, you know, sort of get it yet. The American Diabetes association says that diabetes is a chronic progressive decline in beta cell functioning leading to insulin deficiency. For the degree of resistance, this is complete, total hogwash. Yes. And the reason we know that because. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry, there's a lag on the line. I didn't mean to interrupt you. Tell me the reason I'm interested. Well, the reason is because those beta cells that are releasing insulin in the pancreas, they are affected in the same way the liver is affected. And we now know that these patients have non alcoholic fatty pancreas disease, not just non alcoholic fatty liver disease. Wow. And so if they clear the fat from their pancreas, those beta cells can come back full force. And so you can reverse type 2 diabetes. And you can certainly reverse pre diabetes if you ate right. But if you don't eat right, what does eating right mean? Well, that's. That's the whole reason I wrote the book. Exactly. So I wrote metabolical to basically explain what is healthy. And based on the empiric data, based on the science, based on the pathologies that I describe in the book that be lie chronic disease. I distilled all of the information down to six words. Two precepts, six words. Protect the liver, feed the gut. Any food. Any food that does both of those is healthy.
