Frequently Asked Questions About My Program

by Konstantin Monastyrsky

I am sure you have questions about my program, plenty of questions. Who the hell is this guy? How is it possible? Why hasn't my doctor been telling me the same things? Is it cheaper than a funeral? Am I a guinea pig? Well, here are the answers to these and other frequently asked aquestions:

Q. How do I start with your diabetes revesal program?

To proceed with the program, please download and complete the pre-screening application [pdf]. The enrollment criteria are discussed here [link]. A detailed program description is available on the How To Sign-Up For diabetes reversal Program page.

Q. What is the cost of your diabetes revesal program?

The cost of the program is outlined on the How To Sign-Up For diabetes reversal Program page.

Q. Do you accept medical insurance?

Sorry, we do not, because we lack the resources and personnel required to process insurance payments from every single company out there, and most insurance plans don't cover elective diabetes revesal programs of this scope and length anyway.

Still, you may want to check with your employer if you are entitled to full or partial reimbursement of your fees. Many progressive companies refund the cost of elective diabetes revesal programs because it saves them a bundle of money on treating pre-diabetes or diabetes later on.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the annual medical cost of supporting a single patient with diabetes exceeds $13,000 per year [link], and with each new complication occuring, or yet another drug added to your treatment, particularly related to hypertension and heart disease, these expenses pile up, and up, and up. On the other hand, the entire one-time cost of our program is usually less than third of that amount, making the economic rationale of covering it more than self-evident.

Thus, feel free to ask your insurance company why would it waste a ton more money on hopeless, ineffective, and often-times, outright deadly conventional treatment of diabetes instead of paying a fraction of these costs for our safe and effective program. Since it is your health that is at stake, and you or your employer are already paying over the top for medical insurance, demand your rightful coverage.

Q. How long does it take to complete the transitional diet in Step #3?

If you are relatively young (under 40), diabetes-free, and take no medication, you may be able to complete the recommended transitional diet in as little as one month. For people who are older, or are already affected by pre-diabetes, diabetes, or other chronic conditions, getting properly prepared for the reduced calorie diet in Step #4 takes time.

The most common transitional concerns are elevated levels of insulin, erratic blood sugar, low rate of metabolism, functional anemia, sugar- and blood pressure lowering medications, undernutrition, indigestion, constipation, and similar others.

Fortunately, you don‘t have to guess when the transition stage is over, and you are ready for the next step. Just wait until you see that puzzled look on your doctor‘s face after seeing your suddenly “normal” tests for fasting blood glucose, A1C, C-Peptide, and triglycerides.

Obviously, my own benchmarks to determine the completion of transitional diet are much more stringent and objective than simply surprising your doctor, and they are discussed here.

Q. How long does it take to complete the reduced calorie diet in Step #4?

The length of the reduced calorie diet is determined by a simple mathematical equation:

Diet Duration = Excess Fat / Average Daily Rate of Weight Loss

In other words, if, for example. you have 15 kg (33 lb) of excess fat to get rid off, and are capable of losing, on average, 60 g (1.9 oz) of weight daily, it will take you about 250 days (15 kg / 0.06 ) to meet your weight loss objectives.

As you can see, the loss of body fat — true weight loss, not make-believe — is a slow process. There aren‘t, really, too many ways of speeding up fat loss unless you are willing to exercise with a private trainer, take weight loss stimulants, or consume even less calories and zero fat, and ruin your health and appearance in the process.

For anyone leading an active lifestyle, reducing calories even further wouldn‘t be practical or even safe health-wise. Intense exercise with a private trainer may not be a viable option for many people, particularly past middle age. And taking prescription stimulants is quite perilous because they are addictive, interfere with sleep, cause burnouts, and provoke binge eating.

Other than moderate exercise for overall health and well-being, I don‘t recommend speeding up weight loss beyond the safe and natural threshold, whatever the ways and means may be.

Q. Under what circumstances do you decide not to accept a client, and what type of clients do you not accept?

● When a prospective client has, in my opinion, medical conditions that may preclude safe and effective diabetes revesal.

● Clients who are morbidly obese (BMI >40). Not because my methods can‘t help them, but because they require counseling over an extremely long period of time, and may have an underlying health condition that may require prescription medications that are best used under a physician‘s supervision in clinical settings, not over the phone or the Internet.

● I do not work with clients who are interested in “quickie” weight loss, such as before their daughter‘s wedding. If you need a “quickie,” a potent laxative at one end, a few hours in the sauna at the other, and a few days on liquids only will reliably get you down several sizes and 15-20 lb without any diet. Just make sure to avoid booze, and have on hand sublingual glucose tablets along with a bottle of salted water, so you don‘t pass out from dehydration or hypoglycemia during the reception!

● I don‘t consult by proxy, meaning “Please help my daughter (husband, wife, etc.)”. If a person does not have a “burning” desire to lose weight or recover from diabetes, it simply does not work. Save your money and good intentions for some other good cause.

● I don‘t consult children and teenagers of overweight parents. If you have an overweight child, and are (most likely) overweight yourself, begin by bringing your “own house” in order before attempting to influence your child‘s weight and health in any meaningful ways.

There may be other situations when we can‘t accept a client. It isn‘t just one or two well-known conditions that I am concerned over, but a countless combination of concomitant conditions multiplied by age, gender, body type, and heredity factors, that may make diabetes revesal unsafe. I can ascertain these risks only after reviewing your health and weight loss history in the questionnaire.

Q. Why are you so selective about your clients? You want more business, don't you?

Sure we want “more business,” who doesn't? But, we only want it as long as it is the right kind of “business” for our company, and here is what that means:

Our program delivers satisfactory results ONLY for clients who explicitly recognize that it takes time, effort, and motivation to attain permanent weight loss and reverse diabetes. The last thing we want is someone signing up on an impulse or with unrealistic expectations, or enrolling someone with medical conditions and/or a lifestyle that we believe may preclude them from completing our program with flying colors.

This common sense approach is all business, nothing personal. If you have ever studied the field of customer satisfaction, you may still remember the axiom about one happy client bringing another one, and one unhappy client — turning away sixteen more. And that was well before the Internet!

With this sobering statistic in mind, we'd rather forgo “wrong” clients than eventually find ourselves out of business after one too many of these “unhappy campers” starts blogging up about their diet failure on the likes of Twitter and Facebook, and their angry musings start popping up on the likes of Google and Bing.

Besides, servicing non-compliant clients with unreasonable expectations demands a disproportionate amount of our attention and resources, and this onerous imposition negatively affects our core mission — to provide extraordinary service to responsible and compliant clients.

Q. How do I turn off my “hibernation” gene?

You can‘t, just like you can‘t turn off age-onset menopause or hereditary male pattern baldness. That said, you can make lifestyle changes that will maintain a perpetual “state of plenty,” so the “hibernation” gene never turns on.

These lifestyle changes are at the core of my program, and there isn‘t just one single “trick” that can turn off your “hibernation” gene. If, indeed, this trick existed, we wouldn‘t have to deal with obesity epidemics in the midst of incredible “plenty.”

Q. I was on many diets, and was never able to lose weight. Will your program be any different?

The human body isn‘t exactly a perpetuum mobile. If you consume less energy from foods than you expend throughout the day for structural and energy metabolism, your body “burns” body fat, muscle tissue, and endogenous carbohydrates to compensate for missing “fuel.” This is the general principle of all weight loss diets, and it works “as advertised” for as long as the “burning” takes place, and there are NO EXCEPTIONS to this rule.

Thus, if you have never been able to lose weight on prior diets, it may mean two things: either your diet had more calories than your body required, or your diet didn‘t last long enough to demonstrate measurable weight loss. I discuss these, and many other reasons behind diet failures in related episodes. Please review them again, and I am sure, in retrospect, you will recognize some or all of the reasons behind your prior failures to lose weight.

Will my program be any different? Yes, it will for as long as you consume less energy than your body requires for its normal functions, and keep doing so for as long as it takes. That said, I can‘t tell you how long it will take, and what kind of diet you need to accomplish this goal until you complete the Health History Questionnaire, and take all the other steps required to complete your weight loss plan, and in many cases, adjust its performance during the actual diet.

This isn‘t an evasive answer to get you “hooked” on my program, but an honest one. If, for example, you call a dentist, and complain about having a toothache, (s)he can‘t tell you how long it will take to eliminate your pain before examining your mouth and determining its cause. In some cases, it may simply be an exposed dentine, in others a superficial cavity, in yet others a root canal, or you may even need a crown to protect the tooth from further damage.

I am in exactly the same position as that dentist: until I can “examine” your past experience with weight loss diets and your health history, I can‘t tell you why you failed to lose weight before, or what it will take to succeed this time around.

Q. Regardless of diet, I was never able to lose the last 5 to 10 lbs. Is you program going to be any different?

The belief that losing the last few pounds of body fat takes longer is, actually, incorrect. If the diet is planned and executed correctly, the rate of weight loss at the end is just as fast or even faster than at the mid-point, because after losing heavy layers of fat, the body expends significantly more energy to maintain its proper internal temperature.

This also explains why skinny people with normal thermogenesis (the process of heat production in warm-blooded animals) may eat considerably more while not gaining weight — their bodies require more energy to stay warm.

Inversely, because of the “thermos effect” afforded by abundant body fat, overweight people keep gaining weight while, in their own words “eating almost nothing.”

Incidentally, the term “thermos effect” is mine. I discovered and described this condition while investigating the weight loss plateau phenomenon. This discovery, or, rather, its understanding, appreciation, and application, is also behind the “no fail” nature of my weight loss program.

There is another reason behind this incorrect assumption — a failure to appreciate the profound difference (pounds per day vs. ounces per day) between the rapid loss of phantom weight and the slow loss of body fat. Once you factor in this difference, you will instantly realize that what you had perceived as your inability to lose the last few pounds was actually no weight loss at all. I describe this phenomenon in the “How To Overcome A Weight Loss Plateau and Ensuing Diet Failure?” episode.

Q. How strict is your program? I can‘t really put on hold my entire social life in order to comply with your diet for what seems like a long time.

In general, it is pretty strict, and here is why:

A single five course restaurant meal over a few martinis, or an average wedding feast with free-flowing champagne involves ingesting anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 calories in just one sitting. This is the equivalent of about 330 to 660 grams (20 to 40 oz) of body fat.

Since it is going to take you up to a week of a strict near-starvation diet to “burn” all that outside “fat,” you aren‘t, obviously, going to burn a single gram of fat already under your skin during the same period of time. Thus, if you know all this math in advance, but still can‘t say no to a good meal, why even bother considering a diabetes revesal program?

On the other hand, if you accept occasional diet lapses as inevitable, you‘ll have a much easier time in completing your program, even though it may take longer. Add up to one week of extra time for each major “lapse.” By lapses I mean social events that you can‘t easily avoid or escape such as a spouse‘s birthday, a friend‘s wedding, or a company‘s picnic,

To conclude: If most of your weekends are filled with parties around food, or you are actively involved in entertaining clients year round, don‘t even bother starting this or any other diabetes revesal program. It simply will not work for you, unless you can “sweat it out” for the rest of the week with a boot-camp-style private trainer in a no-frills gym.

Q. Can we discuss my chances of losing weight before I sign up for your program?

Unfortunately, no. No counselor would be able to answer any questions related to your chances of losing weight, or how long it may take, or why you have failed your previous diet, and so on without having your completed health history in front of him or her. (Sorry, this service isn't yet avaialble.)

Q. What if I decide not to proceed with your plan after completing my weight loss plan. Do you offer a money back guarantee?

— No, we don‘t offer a money back guarantee. The work that precedes the development of your plan (i.e. a thorough analysis of your information and interviews), and the preparation itself take the same amount of time regardless of your further steps.

Since there is no prepayment for the entire program, if you don't wish to continue with it, then you only pay for preparing the plan, and nothing else.

Q. Do you guarantee results? Can I get my money back if I fail to lose weight?

There is only one reason you may not be able to lose weight while following my program — your inability to reduce your calorie intake over an extended period of time to the point of sustained catabolic threshold — the physiological point at which your body turns from anabolic metabolism (getting energy from foods) to catabolic metabolism (getting energy from within itself).

For some people this point may be below their psychological (not physiological) ability to comply with the required diet for months at a time regardless of my skills or expertise, or their best intentions.

That is why I can guarantee you 100% results only if you can guarantee me 100% compliance with my recommendations throughout the entire length of your program. But since I will not be around to serve you breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and guard your pantry and refrigerator in-between, how do you expect to fulfill your part of the guarantee?

Or, let me put it this way: knowing what I know about weight loss, if someone would offer me an ambulatory — meaning outside of supervised clinical settings — weight loss program with a money back warranty, I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

If you do have doubts over your ability to comply with the required diet without strict day-to-day supervision, I do not recommend starting the program.

Q. My doctor may have some questions about your program. Will you be able to answer them?

Absolutely! I welcome inquires from medical doctors, and am always happy to clarify and address their concerns. I realize and accept that some physicians may not agree with some of my approaches, but I don‘t take this as an offense for reasons explained here: How did you, and not the medical doctors, come up with this information?

Also, I urge you to treat your doctor with the utmost respect for reasons explained here: Respect Thy Doctor, even if he or she isn‘t as “high” on my diabetes revesal program as you or I are.

I am not “high” on some things doctors do either, but it doesn‘t mean that I don‘t treat them with the utmost professional courtesy. Having different opinions isn‘t a good enough reason for disrespect, rudeness, or contempt.

Q. Is your program experimental in any way?

No, it isn‘t. My program is entirely mainstream, and its entire premise — that a balanced low-calorie diet, effective weight loss, moderate exercise, and certain lifestyle changes can reverse type 2 diabetes — is supported, endorsed, and embraced by all mainstream medical textbooks, recent research, and the diabetes treatment guidelines of the American Diabetic Association.

Just consider the following statement from Dr. Hamdy, M.D., Ph.D., Medical Director of the Obesity Clinical Program at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, MA:

“In our model, the focus is on body weight as the core of diabetes treatment. We've allowed the weight loss itself to help people achieve blood glucose control.” [link]

Joslin Diabetes Center is affiliated with Harvard Medical School, and, in their own words, is “The world's preeminent diabetes research and clinical care organization.” [link]

Just like at Joslin, there is absolutely nothing in my program that is experimental, mystical, unproven, or controversial, except that it is more effective because I first described it back in 2002 in my Russian-language book entitled “Reversing Metabolic Syndrome: How Carbohydrates Ruin Your Health And Wealth, And What You Can Do To Reverse The Onslaught Of Metabolic Syndrome,” and, since then, have had plenty of time to refine it.

Q. How can you claim that your program can reverse diabetes, while my doctor, or, for that matter, most other doctors, cannot accomplish the same, and revert to drugs?

If all doctors had used the exact same program, they would have been accomplishing the exact same results (i.e. diabetes reversal), and would have been making the exact same claims as I am making. And as it is absolutely apparent from the previous answer, some are already making them, so I am not, exactly, alone on this.

Unfortunately, the overall majority of medical doctors still follow to the tee the “standards of care” protocols that are taught in medical schools, reinforced in continuous education courses, and described in medical references and academic journals. I describe the reasons — some good and valid, some disagreeable — behind this inflexible “state of affairs” here.

All of these protocols recommend sugar-reducing medications that, in turn, necessitate a diet high in carbohydrates to counterbalance the sugar-lowering side effects of these powerful drugs. That is why these drugs are so complication prone and deadly, as was recently the case with Avandia.

In essence, by taking medication to lower your blood sugar and consuming carbohydrates to counterbalance low blood sugar, you are pouring gas on fire, and that is, partially, why we are the sickest and fattest country in the world, and we spend twice as much money on healthcare than everybody else, creating, in the process, even more sick people.

In no way do I wish to imply that our doctors are incompetent or don‘t mean well. Unfortunately, competence, compassion, and good intentions aren‘t enough when confronting complex challenges. In fact, according to the American Medical Association, the rate of obesity, and, by logical extension of pre-diabetes and diabetes, among medical doctors is similar to that of the general population.

The picture on the left is a good example of what I am talking about. I found this advertisement from St. Mary's Hospital in Passaic, New Jersey in The Leader, a free local newspaper that we get stuffed weekly into our mailbox.

Nine medical professionals of various ages are featured in this ad. Seven of them, apparently, are nurses and physicians, and two others are administrators. From these nine, at least four appear clinically obese (BMI≥30), and another four are visibly overweight. Only one physician — the second in the top row — seems like normal weight.

This hospital is located in the heart of the New York's metropolitan area, about 30 minutes away from midtown Manhattan. If this is happening in this hotbed of medical academia and pharmaceutical research, just imagine what is it like in the rest of the country?

So, as you can see, medical professionals in the United States are just as much victimized by this institutional problem and faulty groupthink as their patients, and it shows...

Q. Why is it so difficult to lose weight, particularly for people affected by type 2 diabetes?

Sustained weight loss is hard because the human ability to gain and retain weight is an evolutionary survival trait. That is why people with an easy ability to gain weight are more likely to survive serious trauma, infection, or surgery than people who are underweight.

A deliberate weight loss diet requires extended periods of semi-starvation, which your body resists by stimulating hunger pangs, excessive appetite, and cravings, all to encourage overeating. These physical sensations, which so many diet plans erroneously promote as “manageable” are primarily subconscious and can‘t be controlled by mere will.

Weight loss diets affect the conscious mind just as much as the subconscious. To extend survival while experiencing undernutrition — which is what dieting really is — the energy and structural metabolisms slow down, and, in turn, cause fatigue and depression in some, and aggression in others — all common manifestations of endocrine dysfunctions related to unstable blood sugar, chronic protein undernutrition, hormonal deficiencies, pernicious anemia, reduced immunity, and related complications.

Even after a minority of dedicated patients manage to get around the initial hardships of dieting, they often encounter a weight loss plateau. Overcoming the weight loss plateau is particularly hard for persons with reduced energy metabolism, such as older adults, women near or past menopause, persons of small height, and patients who are taking blood sugar reducers because they stimulate appetite and induce weight gain.

Finally, a conventional treatment of diabetes with sugar-lowering medication makes permanent weight loss almost impossible because these drugs stimulate weight gain and inhibit weight loss, as is explained in this quote from Dr. Hamdy already mentioned above:

“For 30 years, the treatment for type 2 diabetes has been to add more medications to get blood glucose under control. Many of those medications cause weight gain, so people end up with too much medicine and more weight.” [link]

My program is effective precisely because it recognizes all of the above difficulties, doesn‘t offer a near instant gratification without any sacrifice, and is specifically designed to overcome weight loss plateau, reduce hunger and appetite, normalize energy and structural metabolism, improve digestion, eliminate medication, and anticipate all other known diet-breakers. In other words, being realistic (rather than overpromising) is what makes my program so effective.

Q. I am overweight, have high blood pressure, and get up to urinate several times each night, but my blood sugar is still normal. Do you think your program will help me?

Until very recently (the spring of 2010) the test for fasting plasma glucose (FPG) was, in most instances, the sole diagnostic criteria for type 2 diabetes while ignoring all other primary symptoms [described in your question] of diabetes that are also typical for pre-diabetes and weight gain. There are several practical problems with this approach:

● For starters, expecting someone to have elevated blood sugar after fasting for 12 to 15 hours is a fool‘s paradise. In fact, most people already affected with pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and particularly overweight individuals, are more likely to have low blood sugar than high. For this reason millions of people, particularly under age 50, are undiagnosed.

● Second, the act of inserting a needle into one‘s vein to take a blood sample is a very stressful event for most people, and, when fasting, stress causes the release of hepatic — meaning from the liver — glucose. This near instant glucose surge may be quite high, and that is what is registering as elevated blood sugar. If your mouth goes dry shortly after you see a needle or even a doctor, this is an outcome of this surge. For that reason millions of healthy people, particularly sensitive types, are often over-diagnosed.

● Third, as you get older, your fasting blood glucose tends to rise simply because your body does not need or no longer can quickly metabolize as much glucose as before; or because of delayed stomach emptying; or because of an inflammatory condition, such as osteoarthritis or periodontal disease; or because of stress and anxiety related to life events; or because of the side effects of medication, and so on. According to the Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, it is a well known phenomenon:

“Plasma glucose levels reach higher levels after eating in older than in younger adults, especially after high carbohydrate loads, and take longer to return to normal, in part because of increased accumulation of visceral and abdominal fat and decreased muscle mass. [link]”

For these reasons many older people are routinely and thoughtlessly over-diagnosed and placed on drugs or insulin, turning marginal blood test results into bona fide diabetes.

Unfortunately, over-diagnosing or under-diagnosing type 2 diabetes is just as bad as making an arbitrary distinction between pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and obesity because, clinically speaking, they are near identical metabolic disorders.

If, for example, diabetes remains undiagnosed and untreated — the damage to the heart, to the liver, to the kidneys, and to digestive organs accumulates very quickly, and it is often irreversible.

If, on the other hand, diabetes is over-diagnosed, an even more common occurrence in older people, the treatment, with sugar-reducing medications, starting with the “almost benign” Glucophage, known under its generic name as metformin, quickly leads to weight gain, liver damage, unstable blood sugar, and hypertension, requiring more and more powerful drugs, and causing even more damage and more side effects.

To avoid all of the above diagnostic errors, I urge you to recognize the imprecise nature of the fasting blood glucose test, and, instead, rely on periodic A1C testing. You should also pay attention to other primary symptoms of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes [some already described in your question], such as weight gain, elevated blood pressure, intermittent fatigue, occasional blurry vision, irritability, dry mouth, and frequent urination, particularly at night.

Keep in mind, that if your A1C is within the normal range and you have no other primary symptoms, but your fasting blood glucose is still high, this isn‘t necessarily type 2 diabetes yet, but simply human nature. Alternatively, if your fasting blood sugar is still normal, but you already have some or all of the primary symptoms of type 2, it may be type 2 diabetes in full bloom.

I have described all of these diagnostic problems in my Russian-language book Reversing Metabolic Syndrome back in 2002, and have been advocating using the A1C blood test instead ever since. Guess what? My recommendations were finally adopted by the American Diabetes Association in 2010 [link], but it may be too late for millions of undiagnosed or over-diagnosed people.

Q. I don't have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Can I still enroll into your program?

As I already pointed out in prior answers and videos, up to 80% of all people diagnosed with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes are also overweight. And those, who aren't, can't gain weight because of their genes, or because their condition is inching closer to type 1 diabetes than to type 2.

In essense, your question is closely related to the one above, and I can only add the following response: if you would rather not gamble that diabetes will happen, I welcome you to enroll into my diabetes revesal program. Otherwise, it isn't the question of if it will happen, but the question of when will it happen.

Q. I‘ve been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and am not overweight. Doesn‘t this fly into the face of your “theory?”

No, it doesn‘t. Weight gain is one of the primary symptoms of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes syndromes, and it affects up to 80% of patients. The remaining 20%, those having normal weight and type 2 diabetes, are not genetically predisposed to gain weight. As a rule, these individuals suffer from diabetes far more than people who are overweight, and are more likely to develop type 1 diabetes and die earlier from related complications than those who have a greater reserve of fat cells that, in essence, provide a reliable “storage” to buffer excessive glucose.

The ability to gain weight actually delays the onset of type 2 diabetes because the adipose tissue “buffers” excessive calories from foods, and holds down the level of blood sugar. That is also why not every overweight person is a confirmed diabetic — ironically, their bodies have a better coping mechanism for dealing with overconsumption than those, who can‘t gain weight.

Will my program help you? Yes, for as long as your pancreas is still functional. Interestingly enough, your concern throughout the program will be the complete opposite of a person who is overweight: — How do I get rid of diabetes without losing weight (due to body wasting)? For this reason managing diabetes reversal for clients who aren't overweight is far more challenging and complicated then the management of gradual weight loss.

Q. How come you are against dietary fiber, while practically everyone in the field of diabetes treatment is advocating fiber for weight loss and diabetes?

The answer to this question is self-evident — natural fiber doesn't come by itself, but with a load of carbohydrates. To illustrate what I mean, let me quote myself:

“Here is how many fresh fruits you'll need to eat throughout the day in order to obtain those 30 to 40 grams (1-1.4 oz) of [recommended] daily fiber:

That comes to five apples, three pears, and two oranges. A small apple contains 3.6 g of fiber and 15.5 g of sugars. A small pear—4.6 g and 14.5 g; and a small orange—2.3 g and 11.3 g respectively (USDA National Nutrient Database; NDB #s: 09003; 09200; 09252).

These ten small (not medium or large) fruits will provide you with 36.4 g of indigestible fiber and a whopping 143.6 g of digestible sugars, or an equivalent of that many (ten) tablespoons of plain table sugar!

And that‘s before accounting for all the other carbs consumed throughout the day for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and from snacks and beverages.

The ratio of digestible carbohydrates (sugars) to fiber in vegetables, cereals, breads, beans, and legumes is, on average, similar to fruits. Thus, no matter how hard you try to mix'n'match, you'll be getting screwed all the same. [link]”

If that daily overload with carbohydrates isn't enough to decry fiber's devastating impact on obesity and diabetes, there isn‘t a shred of legitimate scientific evidence that fiber is somehow protective from diabetes. And whatever “evidence” there is, it has been intentionally fabricated to mislead consumers, nutritionists, and physicians alike by companies that market fiber as a health food, and make a killing from peddling what not so long ago was discard or second rate livestock feed.

To learn the facts, please watch my investigative report entitled What is so menacing about dietary fiber. This report presents the unfortunate truth: dietary fiber, in fact, is squarely behind the epidemics of diabetes and obesity in the United States on an unprecedented scale. This

And consider this undeniable fact: when the first fiber-fortified morning cereal was marketed to Americans back in the nineteen thirties as a health food, type 2 diabetes wasn‘t even on the medical radar, clinical obesity was practically non-existent, and the number of overweight people was under 10%.

Today, after three generations of relentless promotion of fiber (and most of it in the last 30 years), we have over 80 million Americans affected by pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Close to 30% are clinically obese, meaning their body mass index is greater than 30, and, overall, almost 70% of the population is overweight. And it ain‘t eggs-and-bacon that most of these people are eating in the morning, but morning cereals fortified with fiber.

Q. You talk a lot about weight loss to reverse diabetes, but you don‘t mention exercise. Isn‘t exercise the best tool for losing weight?

Exercise helps in more ways than one, and I highly encourage it. Unfortunately, moderate exercise alone is not sufficient for full recovery from type 2 diabetes for most people.

Realistically, becoming a gym jockey — something that is definitely great for weight loss — in the style of Jane Fonda or Jack Lalanne is too late for most people already affected by diabetes because of age, complications, and for safety reasons.

This position is well supported by mainstream experts in this field:

“In general, exercise by itself is pretty useless for weight loss,” says Eric Ravussin, a professor at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., and an expert on weight loss. “It‘s especially useless because people often end up consuming more calories when they exercise. [link]”

For these reasons my program does not expect exercise to materially contribute to weight loss, unless, of course, you can enroll yourself in the “Biggest Loser.” Alas, weight loss made for TV and weight loss for patients with diabetes are two different animals.

Q. Why do you use the words “prevention” and “reversal” of type 2 diabetes interchangeably?

Yes, I realize that there is a semantic difference between “prevention” and “reversal.” However, this difference is meaningless for anyone with a still fully functional pancreas, as is the case in all early to moderate cases of type 2 diabetes.

For all practical reasons, there are absolutely no clinical, physiological, or logistical differences between bringing down the blood sugar to norm with proper diet and weight loss, or preventing the blood sugar from rising above an arbitrary cut off point with the exact same proper diet and weight loss.

Q. Does your program works for type 1 diabetes?

My program is not intended for patients with type 1 diabetes because this condition requires a different treatment approach, and is not reversible. Preventable at any age — yes! Reversible, unfortunately, no!

There is, however, one big exception. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, type 1 diabetes is misdiagnosed in up to 50% of all cases, particularly in young children. Thus, in some cases of misdiagnosed cases of type 1 diabetes my program may, indeed, help a lot.

I actually believe that the rate of wrong diagnosis in children is higher than 50%, and describe the reasons behind this error and the dominant preventable cause of juvenile (type 1) diabetes on my site [link].

When this error happens, your absolutely healthy child or grandchild may be put on insulin. The problem is, this barbaric treatment kills most of its victims before they reach their early forties.

Q. Can you make it simple?

I wish. This well-known fable about Euclid, a famous Greek mathematician known as the “Father of Geometry,” and Ptolemy I, a Macedonian Greek general under Alexander the Great, highlights the reason why I can't:

 “...Ptolemy once asked Euclid if there was not a shorter road to geometry that through the Elements [one of the most influential books in the history of mathematics authored by Euclid — ed], and Euclid replied that there was no royal road to geometry.” Proclus: A commentary on the first book of Euclid's elements. Translated by G. R. Morrow

In other words, “there is no royal road” to weight loss or diabetes recovery. It takes time and effort to learn and master this subject even if you are a royal general.

Q. How did you, and not the medical doctors, come up with some of this information?

Many people have this question on their minds, but aren't likely to ask them for fear of embarrassing me or themselves. Actually, I find these concerns absolutely legit, and deserving detailed, explicit answers:

Medical training. First, I went to a medical school that was also attended by future doctors, and received a similar base medical education from the same professors, in the same lecture halls, in the same morgue, and using the same lancet to dissect corpses.

To a large extent, the specialized curriculum of a pharmacist is closer to what I do now — analyzing the connections between foods and diseases — than the ‘clinical sciences‘ that are taught to medical doctors. In other words, I don‘t need to know a vagina‘s anatomy and physiology in the same minutiae as a gynecologist does in order to become a better lover.

Interpreting facts isn't science. Second, I do not make science, but report it. My analysis of medical controversies is based entirely on the fundamental academic and clinical research emanating from the medical doctors themselves.

Anyone telling you otherwise — that all of this is just Mr. Monastyrsky's opinion, — is being coy with the facts. In other words, no one can watch my video or read my books, and claim with a straight face that I make science. I don‘t, nor do I pretend that I do, and I have no interest in doing this.

All I do is read the available and up-to-date research, think it over, analyze my thinking, and report my conclusions. Any unbiased investigator doing the same will come up with similar conclusions.

When all is said, done, and delivered on a silver platter, it sure looks simple. Third, I work with what I have — medical textbooks, journals, and references, and address what I can — basic human physiology, evolutionary anthropology, forensic nutrition, and common sense. Then, I wrap up my findings in accessible language, and work hard to make it fun by using irony, humor, and occasionally indignation. And there isn‘t anything easy or simple about it.

Anyone confusing the apparent simplicity of my writings with “simplicity of mind” must be an imbecile! Describing complex medical or scientific concepts in accessible language is ten times more difficult than writing in “medicalese.” This “scientific” lingo is inaccessible to an average reader not because the people who use it are great scientists or good doctors, but because they are bad writers and terrible communicators. Unfortunately, this style of writing (i.e. academic medicalese) is not only tolerated, but encouraged, so it looks “scientific” and intimidating to pumpkins like you and me.

The whole purpose of science is to make one‘s findings accessible and clearly understood. The sole purpose of the above pseudo-science is to make the writer appear smart (and the reader — stupid), or to obscure the findings, or to make the trivial appear significant.

Independent investigator. Fourth, to be fair to medical doctors, I am not a part of their guild, so there is no peer pressure to conform to the prevailing groupthink or fear professional ostracism for “paddling” against the current. Nor do I need to be concerned over a professional reprimand for questioning the prevailing wisdom or fear losing my license and livelihood for breaking down profitable rackets. I also discuss these underlying issues in the following sections:

» Doctors and fiber: How livestock feed became health food;

» Respect Thy Doctor;

» Why isn't my doctor telling me about your approach if it is so simple and effective?

Looking at the big picture. Fifth, As a broad generalist and independent investigator, I have a substantial advantage over narrowly-focused specialists. Each of them looks only at their own very limited field of research, and is doing his/her best to solve their individual ‘puzzle.‘ I, on the other hand, look at the whole picture, take advantage of all available findings, and put the entire puzzle together.

Here is a good example of a very simple jigsaw puzzle, just 108 shuffled pieces. Do you have a clue what this puzzle represents?

Actually, this is my portrait from the Biography page. A medical doctor investigating a certain aspect of metabolic disorders may only see 10-15 random pieces out of 108 in this picture. Can you expect that doctor to guess what‘s behind those limited pieces when you have just failed to figure out what was behind the entire set?

And that is what I do — deliberately collect all of the jigsaw puzzle pieces, and take time to put them together. When the final picture is finally assembled and explained, it looks so darn simple: look, guys, this is that Russian dude!

Alas, it isn‘t that simple, and even if it was, medical doctors aren‘t paid for putting together puzzles or writing in Pulitzer-style prose. And that is why I, not them, came up first with this information about colorectal screening.

And if this still bothers you, then do what any well-trained scientist does in a similar situation – bring this information to an unbiased person with a background in medical research, and ask his or her opinion. Hopefully, that will put your mind at ease...