Top 10 Nutrients You Need To Beat Type 2 Diabetes
And where to get them from
Disclaimer: This content is not intended as treatment or support for any medical condition. Content for entertainment purposes only. Not medical or health advice.
What many don’t know is that micronutrient deficiencies, especially those of certain key micronutrients, are at the core of the diabetic condition. These deficiencies, when severe, are enough to lead to the development of type 2 diabetes!
While diabetes is often said to be a disease caused by the consumption of carbohydrates, it is not. It is a disease characterized by the inability to burn carbohydrates well.
Diabetes is a disease (or rather, a state) of cells that struggle to burn fuel well as a whole. This is why diabetics tend to have high blood glucose, but also high levels of free fatty acids in the blood, high ketones and high lactic acid.
This inability to burn fuel well is often brought on by high levels of stress hormones (cortisol, adrenaline, and estrogen), low thyroid function, micronutrient deficiencies, and environmental pollutants. It is not brought on by the consumption of carbohydrates.
The nutrients recommended in this article support the proper burning of sugar (carbohydrates) for energy, supporting the body’s energy creation process, and supporting balanced blood sugar levels.
Top 10 nutrients for Type 2 diabetes
1. Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)
“Thiamine is an essential source of energy generation from glucose, via the conversion of pyruvate from glucose into acetyl-Coenzyme A for access to the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and lack of thiamine leads to alterations in intermediate metabolism that end up in lactic acidosis.”1
“Carbohydrates cannot be metabolized in the absence of thiamine.” - From the book “Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone,” by Dr. Abraham Hoffer & Dr. Andrew W. Saul
Your cells require thiamine (vitamin B1) to convert pyruvate (a molecule that glucose gets converted to in the process of energy generation) into another molecule called acetyl-CoA, which can then be burned for energy.
Without enough vitamin B1, the body fails to convert pyruvate from glucose into energy and turns pyruvate into lactic acid instead. Diabetics are known to have high lactic acid levels. In other words, glucose can’t be turned into energy without B1.
Diabetics tend to have low thiamine stores in the body.2
Factors that predispose to a thiamine deficiency are:
History of surgeries requiring anesthesia
Head injuries, such as concussions
A history of alcoholism/high alcohol intake
Diets high in white sugar or white rice (since thiamine is used to turn sugar into energy, sugar sources that don’t provide thiamine can deplete thiamine)
Diets low/absent in pork, sprouted/fermented whole grains, and citrus fruit (which are some of the highest dietary sources of thiamine).
Best dietary sources of vitamin B1 (thiamine):
Brewer’s yeast
Lean pork (such as pork loin)
Tamarind
Oranges & freshly squeezed orange juice
Sourdough bread
Many processed foods (such as commercial breads and cereals) come fortified with thiamine (at least in some countries). However, the form of thiamine used to fortify these cereals is usually thiamine HCL or thiamine mononitrate. These forms of thiamine have a very low bioavailability - they are not well absorbed, nor converted to the active form of thiamine well.
The active form of thiamine in the body is thiamine pyrophosphate.
Thiamine pyrophosphate as a supplement
B-complex with thiamine pyrophosphate (use code KAYA5 for 5% off)
(The only supplement forms of thiamine pyrophosphate that I’ve been able to find ship from the UK. An alternative for those who want a product that doesn’t ship from the UK is the benfotiamine form of thiamine. It is far more bioavailable than thiamine HCL. However, benfotiamine is a synthetic form of thiamine, and thiamine pyrophosphate would be my preference.)
B-complex with benfotiamine (use code KAYA10 for 10% off)
2. Chromium
“A certain desert rodent, the sand rat, develops diabetes when raised on laboratory food. When the sand rat is returned to the desert, its diabetic condition disappears. What is the key nutrient missing from [laboratory] rat food which the rat finds in its natural forage? Extensive laboratory analyses indicate that it is chromium.” - From the book “Zinc and Other Micronutrients” by Dr. Carl C. Pfeiffer
“Chromium is essential for the body to utilize sugar properly. Diabetes may be caused, in part, by a deficiency of this trace metal.” - From the book “A Physician's Handbook on Orthomolecular Medicine” by Roger J. Williams
Chromium has been shown to increase the effectiveness of insulin, lower blood glucose, lower inflammatory cytokines (such as TNF-a) and reduce oxidative stress.
Chromium levels decrease during infections, as chromium participates in the immune response. This might be why blood sugar levels tend to be higher after experiencing an infection. Those prone to infections should especially focus on replenishing their chromium levels.
Best dietary sources of chromium:
Brewer’s yeast
Beef
Liver
Sugar beet molasses
Black pepper
Brewer’s yeast has the highest chromium content.
Since chromium is a metal, there are some concerns with chromium being potentially toxic in large amounts. For this reason, whole food sources of chromium are my preference over a chromium supplement.