Jumia Books Become The Real Deal: The Proven Path To Influence And Executive Presence Book By Connie Dieken

This very accessible book is a godsend for people of middle and greater age who may have a scare about type 2 diabetes, or prediabetes. I recently had my HbA1C measured – advised because I had renal stones and diabetes is one of the causes – and to my horror, it was very slightly elevated. Horrified, because I am a fit, healthy 64-year-old, not overweight or only marginally so, who takes regular exercise, so it came as a shock.

I immediately researched the field and came across this book. My partner told me tackling the issue is all about carbohydrates and insulin resistance, and that is what the book is about.

Mosley is a doctor and journalist who has communicated on medical topics his entire career. He knows how to put a point across.

The first part of the book is a series of anecdotes about obese, middle aged mostly men who discovered they had type 2 diabetes in their 40’s or 50’s. Their doctors had done little except put them on metformin, and eventually insulin, but most had inexorably worsened and gained weight. The anecdotes are heart-warming, because they are mostly success stories, of men and women who went on calorie restricted low carb diets, lost tens of kilos in a few weeks, and mostly reversed their diabetes.

Mosley is critical of the medical profession in two ways: firstly, for our nihilism about dieting, based on years of clinical practice in which we have found it well nigh impossible to persuade patients to lose weight – so who can blame the doctors? Secondly, for being stuck in the dogmas of the 50’s and 60’s, in which low fat diets were introduced and widely championed to beat the scourge of a raging epidemic of cardiovascular disease.