A man approached me at a Latin grocery store and asked whether I would buy him a small serving of rice and beans.
Then he told me he had diabetes and was taking metformin.
I told him I would gladly buy him food—but I would buy him meat instead.
That may sound harsh until we ask the uncomfortable question:
Why are we still treating carbohydrate-heavy foods as automatically harmless for someone whose body is already struggling to control blood sugar?
Rice and beans are not “poison,” and one meal does not cause diabetes. But rice and beans both contain substantial carbohydrates, and those carbohydrates are eventually broken down into glucose.
Meat, by comparison, contains virtually no carbohydrate and generally has very little immediate effect on blood glucose.
This was not about judging the man or pretending that one grocery-store conversation could solve his health problems. It was about challenging the advice many people receive: take the medication, but continue eating many of the same foods that keep creating the blood-sugar problem.
Metformin can help lower blood glucose, but it does not make carbohydrate intake irrelevant.
Sometimes helping someone does not mean giving them exactly what they request.
Sometimes it means offering them a different option—and starting a conversation they may never have heard before.
Be aware.
Other links related to this post:
Keto Isn’t Controversial. Forgetting Human Biology Is.
