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The Rich Roll Podcast

Cyrus Khambatta, PhD & Robby Barbaro, MPH Are Mastering Diabetes

The Rich Roll Podcast

Rich Roll

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Society & Culture

4.812.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2020

⏱️ 132 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A full blown epidemic in the developed world, diabetes currently afflicts an astonishing 30 million people in the US alone, despite the fact that 1 out of 4 don’t even know they have it. Even more bewildering, over one-third of all U.S. adults have prediabetes. That's more than 84 million people, 90% of whom are unaware of their condition. Not enough? Over the last 20 years, the number of adults diagnosed has more than doubled, with no end in sight. For purposes of clarity, 90-95% of all diagnosed cases of diabetes are the Type 2 form. The good news is that Type 2 isn’t just treatable, it’s actually reversible -- often to the point of undetectability. And for those suffering from Type 1, certain diet and lifestyle changes render the illness more manageable than ever. To learn more about the nature of diabetes, how to avoid it and the many things you can do if you have it, I sat down with Cyrus Khambatta, PhD and Robby Barbaro MPH -- the team behind Mastering Diabetes, an online coaching platform for people living with all forms of diabetes that focuses on low-fat, plant-based, whole-food nutrition. Living with Type 1 diabetes since 2002, Cyrus received a degree in mechanical engineering from Stanford University and a PhD in nutritional biochemistry from UC Berkeley. In addition, he has co-authored many peer-reviewed scientific publications. Robbie has a master's degree in public health from American Public University, spent six years helping build Forks Over Knives, and has been living with type 1 diabetes since 2000. Experts in the science of insulin resistance, together they have successfully helped thousands prevent, navigate and reverse diabetes not by way of medication, but rather through simple changes in diet and lifestyle -- all principles beautifully chronicled in their new book, aptly titled Mastering Diabetes -- hitting bookstores February 18. Current medical dogma urges a very low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet for anyone suffering from diabetes or prediabetes. But is this actually true? Today Cyrus & Robby put this paradigm to the test. While it is true that a low carb approach may improve short-term blood glucose control, such a diet also increases the long-term risk for an array of chronic diseases. Although it may sound counter-intuitive, perhaps even radical, the hard science is ironically quite clear: eating a high carbohydrate, low fat, plant-based whole-food diet rich in fruit (yes, fruit) and vegetables is actually the most powerful way to reverse insulin resistance in all types of diabetes -- while also simultaneously preventing a litany of chronic disorders typically linked to today's popular low-carb approach. Whether or not you have diabetes, chances are you care for someone who does. For those who fall into this category, I truly believe that this conversation is potentially life-saving. The visually inclined can watch it all go down on YouTube. And as always, the audio version streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. I appreciate the work these two young men are doing to positively impact a disease that unnecessarily debilitates millions. It's an honor to share their message. And . I sincerely hope you take it to heart. Peace + Plants, Rich Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

I think part of the problem here is that doctors are not training nutrition first of all.

0:05.0

So they go through medical school, you know, they go through four years of medical school,

0:08.5

plus a residency, plus a fellowship.

0:10.9

Sometimes I can be almost a decade worth of schooling.

0:13.5

And you ask your average doctor, hey, how much nutrition do you learn?

0:15.8

And they're like, I don't know, I learned one class, one day, maybe six hours, right?

0:19.7

And there's studies that actually show that your average doctor learns nutrition for a maximum

0:23.6

of 20 to 25 hours while they're in medical school.

0:25.4

So they're just not given the training to talk about food.

0:29.6

And it's not their fault because doctors are phenomenal human beings, and they go into it

0:32.9

with altruistic tendencies, but they're just not given the right toolset.

0:36.3

So they leave medical school, they go into their practice, and then when somebody with

0:40.7

diabetes or high cholesterol or hypertension presents to them, their solution is like, well,

0:46.3

I have this pill that I, you know, can prescribe for you because that's the system that I know

0:50.6

how to do.

0:51.6

And that's part of the confusion around diabetes.

0:53.8

It's one of the few chronic conditions you can monitor on a meal by meal basis.

0:58.7

You can look at your own cousin getting feedback all day long, getting data.

1:03.2

And like you said, we're going to get into the weeds on, you know, the cause and what's

1:06.6

going on here.

1:07.6

But yes, there is particular confusion in diabetes that is very nuanced.

1:12.4

And that as part of the reason I think this approach has not caught on yet because people

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