War on diabetes newsletter 5th August 2025
Welcome to the eighth War on Diabetes newsletter, your weekly tips and ideas from someone who has had diabetes for five years and learned a lot about it. It's a practical and actionable guide to details your doctor probably won't have time to tell you about.
I managed to have a whole week with no walking-related injuries, and am about to hit 500,000 steps, but had some problems with my BDNF-boosting plans. Trying to do too much too soon has left me feeling a bit overwhelmed and I've screwed up my blood glucose levels. I feel like I've learned a lot though and am confident I can improve things this week.
What I learned this week
...is taking a break for this week. I've started my new audio book, Nature wants us to be fat by Dr. Richard J. Johnson. It's a fascinating account of how fructose metabolism causes metabolic syndrome and eventually type 2 diabetes. Our bodies have evolved to do this by driving overconsumption of sugar to fatten us up in preparation for an ice-age winter that, with our modern food system, never comes.
Have a read/listen to how we have evolved to be efficient fat-storersMy attempts to get below 5.7 mmol/L aren't able to compensate for my excessive alcohol intake so I'm setting more realistic goals for this week.
Progress Update
My BDNF goals proved a bit too challenging for me last week and I need to re-evaluate my approach.
Read moreThis week's food heroes
Tuna and black bean salad
My local garden centre has a range of organic tinned beans which don't contain any preservatives such as sodium or potassium sorbate, which I avoid due to being paranoid about anything that looks like a UPF ingredient. I've read that draining tinned food often means losing a lot of key nutrients so I mixed the black bean juice with some tuna and it was surprisingly pleasant and made a nice change to my usual cottage cheese accompaniment.
Freshly ground coffee
Grinding your own coffee might seem like a chore but with a decent electric grinder, it's not that difficult and this way retains much more of the health benefits. I got a new drip filter as my AeroPress just seemed to be making a mess when making more than one cup of coffee. I'm really happy with it and because it's made from borosilicate glass, it can be heated on the stovetop so if you've made more than you can manage to drink in one go, you can reheat it later.
Dark chocolate batons from Hotel Chocolat
Regular dark chocolate has been on my BDNF to-do list for last week as it contains a stack of electrolytes and other nutrients. My favourite option is 100% dark chocolate batons from Hotel Chocolat. They have an intense flavour and richness that means you won't feel any need to overindulge. I would seriously struggle to eat more than three at once and two is plenty.
Sponsored
I struggled to find where to buy non-homogenised milk locally and eventually found The Modern Milkman. Their organic whole milk in my area is non-homogenised so I've been getting milk and eggs from them for two years now. Use this link to get 50% off your first two weeks and they'll give me 50% off my next delivery as well. Cheers!
