- Hi, this is Lea Woodford with Between the Lines
and I am in beautiful Las Vegas with amazing
new author, Kim Minert talking about your new book,
Derailing Diabetes.
- That's right.
- And you know something about this
up close and personal.
- I do, I do know a lot about diabetes
because I personally am a diabetic.
And I understand what we need to do to derail it.
- You know it's becoming an epidemic.
- It is an epidemic.
And the sad thing about type two diabetes is
that 1/3 of people don't even know they have it.
- That's frightening - I know.
It creeps up on you.
So we're anxious to talk to people
who are at risk for diabetes, if they have a family history,
people who have been told they have pre diabetes
and they think that means they don't have it
when in actuality they are on the road
and 50% of their insulin-producing cells
have already died.
So we wanna catch people at risk and with pre diabetes.
- You know one of the things that I loved
about this book is I've really embraced
the low-carb lifestyle.
And that apparently is really good for diabetics.
- It's very good for diabetics.
And it's very good for people in general
and it's good for people who want to keep
their weight stable and minimize their risk.
- Well you know one of the great things
about this book is you know what, I was not reading
a medical journal.
- That's right.
I tried to make it fun and funny.
And actually the man who drew the cartoons for this book,
Randy Glasbergen, is a world famous cartoonist
and he himself had diabetes.
And so while we were negotiating the cartoons
and I was choosing which ones I wanted,
he actually passed away from complications.
And I spoke to his wife and his daughter,
and they gave me so much great information
about his life.
And when you look at his humor, it's so down to earth.
Like I love the one that said, doctor, I was doing
so well on the low crab diet.
(laughing)
He said, I'm sorry, it was a typo.
But he just has great humor.
So I wanted to incorporate humor, real life stories
and the latest science but told in a way
that people can understand it.
- Well it's really common sense, and not that hard.
And you and I have actually shared a few meals.
- Yes, we have.
- And what I like about it is you don't have
to change the way you eat, in restaurants even,
and I'm a low carb girl, no bread.
It seemed like it was an easy, easy transition.
And I could do a diabetic diet if I had to.
And it looks like I'm already doing it.
- Yeah, you already are because you don't want to get it.
And so that's the best way to prevent it
is just to rest those beta cells by limiting
your carb intake and primarily refined sugar,
refined flour, those things are so, they cause
your blood sugar to go up which causes your body
to produce too much insulin and then you're just caught
in this vicious cycle.
And it is so much easier than people think.
- You know that was the most amazing part for me.
It's like, oh my gosh, this is actually doable.
And my step father passed away from diabetes.
I mean I don't think that people know just
how deadly it is.
And again, so many people are not diagnosed.
- That's right, so when we got out and give talks,
I work a lot with my doctor, Dr. Helen Hilts.
And she wrote the foreword to the book.
She taught my husband and I both everything
that we needed to know to keep our blood sugars normal
which means we can have a life that's as long
as it's supposed to be.
We don't have to die early.
So it's a message of hope.
- But it's also a lifestyle change,
but it's not that dramatic as people think.
You know, unless you're eating 10 bags of chips
and you're in the McDonalds drive-through.
I mean this is practical and any parent
should be doing this.
- Oh, absolutely, I mean obesity, childhood obesity.
I mean it's on the news every day.
Healthy eating is becoming popular to talk about
but unfortunately there aren't enough people doing it.
- What was the hardest thing about writing it?
- The hardest thing about writing this book was
that I love to write but I had never tackled something
of this magnitude, of putting a whole book together.
And I was given some bad advice by someone
who claimed to be a writing coach.
So one of the things I like to tell people is
make sure that the people who are giving you advice
really know what they're talking about.
He told me just to sit and write, and write and write
and write and somehow the editor would fix everything.
So the best thing that happened to me
was I heard a speaker.
His name is Dan Pointer, and he talked about
building a book rather than just writing a book.
And so it finally clicked that I needed some structure
and organization, some foundation, some bones
of the book and then I could build it out.
And one of the best things he said is
to write the back of the book first because
that's the promise that you're making to your reader.
And so when you pick up the back of the book
and you write it first, now you can make those promises
come true in the chapters.
- You know and there's so many self published
authors out there.
There's so much trash out there.
And there's a lot of bad information about diabetes.
- Absolutely, and we don't need just another book
about diabetes.
We need something that written by people
who've actually lived it, who do it every day
and are successful at it.
- Well and that's what I liked.
It was from the patient perspective versus the doctor
or the research scientist.
I mean it was digestible.
It was fun, practical but really, I'm already doing it
and I wasn't even aware.
And I selfishly, I admit I did it for diet purposes.
- That's a good reason.
- It's harder to keep the pounds down as you get,
as the age goes up the pounds go wide.
And it's harder to get them off.
- And for me it was kind of the opposite
because I grew up in an eating disordered lifestyle.
I was a binge and starve person.
I was a closet eater.
In fact, I didn't eat in front of anyone
for over two years in my 20s.
Well people will always judge you.
You know 'cause growing up in the '70s,
we were always on a diet.
So then everybody thinks they need to become the diet police
and go why are you eating that.
And so pretty soon you're just like, well
if I'm gonna eat something that isn't on my diet,
I'm gonna go in the back room.
I'm not gonna eat it in front of anyone.
And so it just becomes this horrible cycle
of not eating during the day and then eating at night
to compensate for it.
So what happened to me is I actually went
through my 20s very overweight
and then I finally did some exercise
and made some modifications and added some fiber
and got myself kinda under control.
And then when I was 44 years old, I was put
in the hospital with a kidney infection
and they said, well how are you managing your diabetes.
And I said, I don't have diabetes.
My boyfriend has diabetes.
And they said your blood sugar is 367.
And here I had conquered the weight problem.
I was active, I was thin.
I was happy, and here I was type one diabetic.
- You know I think that's an interesting comment
because a lot of people don't understand
that thin people can get diabetes too.
- Absolutely.
- I mean we all know that the more overweight you are,
the more predisposed you are to.
But really weight isn't everything.
- It's not everything and right now in the United States,
four out of 10 thin people are pre diabetic.
And because they're thin and because their doctors
maybe don't think they're at risk or know
they're at risk, they aren't tested.
That's one of the problems with all of the pre diabetes
in our country, is people just don't know they have it.
- Well how can anybody diagnose it anyway
when it's three minutes with the doctor looking at you
over a clipboard.
I mean how can he really effectively diagnose
something like that.
There have to be tests.
- Yeah, you have to ask for the tests.
And the other thing you can actually do is go
to the drugstore and buy a brand name
or a generic blood sugar glucose monitor
and you can test yourself.
And the thing that you can do is go ahead
and eat your high-carb meal and one hour
after you've finished eating, test your blood sugar,
and two hours after your meal test your blood sugar again.
And if your blood sugar goes up above 140
you should probably go and get tested for pre diabetes.
- That is amazing.
Kim, this is such a fascinating topic
'cause I think so many people are walking around
and they have a ticking time bomb about ready to go off.
And children are really, I mean I am seeing
overweight children, and I really thought
for a long time that it was hereditary.
That's not necessarily the case, is it?
- Well it has a lot to do with lifestyle.
We have a genetic component obviously
that factors in and if your family members
are diabetic, there's a good chance
that you could become diabetic if you don't
take care of yourself.
But the good news is that it's preventable.
And if we could get this message out
how parents can stop this cycle of sugar addiction
and carb cravings and how it can be possible
that their kids can be filled up on fuel
that really fuels their bodies efficiently,
then they don't have to have those cravings
that drive them to eat more and more refined sugars
and chips and all that stuff.
- Absolutely, the convenience foods.
- The convenience foods.
And you know I'd like to say something about that
because I was thinking about this a couple
of days ago.
How many generations has it been that we actually had
food available 24/7.
Like my kids could go to a gas station and get...
- A hot dog.
- Chips and sodas and hot dogs 24/7.
My parents couldn't do that.
They grew up in eastern Montana, and you ate
when your mom made dinner and she called you in.
And you were out playing and you were active
and your mom called you in and say hey, it's time
for dinner, you ate your dinner and then you
went back out to play.
But kids now have 24/7 access to food
in their own homes and food in the grocery stores
and food in the gas stations.
- Well and have you seen what they're putting in schools?
- Yeah.
- I mean they actually cooked meals when I was a kid.
- Oh, I know, we had a cook.
- Now you see Taco Bell, you see all these
fast food places and it's all about convenience
and processed food.
- Exactly, when I took my daughter on a college tour
at NAU in Arizona, I was so shocked that
in every hallway, there was just vending machine
after vending machine.
And kids are hungry and they're busy
and so that's what they get.
- You know one of the things that I really want
to talk about is you also wrote a cookbook.
- I did, and I have to tell you, I think people
are more excited about the cookbook
than they are this book.
However this book, the last quarter of this book
is family recipes.
I have recipes for pancakes.
I have crepes, I have faux-tatoes which are amazing.
My daughter even asked for cauliflower mashed potatoes
at her wedding.
- See now I love those.
- I know, they're so good.
And they're light and you don't feel heavy
and weighed down after eating them.
And they don't make your blood sugar go up.
But I'm super excited about the cookbook
because I have a partner and she created 125
original recipes so people that like different flavors
and different ideas can eat and it's for less
than $5.00 a day.
- Oh my goodness. - I know.
So it doesn't have to be expensive.
- Well, per person. (laughs)
- Oh, okay, still that's great.
- That's really great, yeah.
- That is really great but I don't know about you
but anytime I've gone to a diet, it's been really
restricted and I hated it.
I felt like I was being punished.
- The lady who developed these recipes,
she actually had gastric bypass surgery
because they told her it would cure her diabetes.
And if you can imagine doctors cutting away
part of your stomach to cure a lifestyle disease,
that's crazy, and it didn't cure her diabetes.
But she thought that there was nothing she could eat.
And so we sat down and I showed her four pages
of food, and I said go through this list.
What foods here do you like and which ones
do you love.
And she's like, I can have that, I can have that,
I can have that.
And I said yes, you can have that.
And it'll fill you up.
It'll make you feel good.
It'll give you energy.
And so she took that list of foods
which are all recommended by Dr. Eric Westman,
who is the Chief of Obesity Medicine at Duke University.
- Wow. - I know.
And she took that list of foods and she created
the most amazing, tasty, fantastic meals.
And it's easy and it's not as expensive
as you would think.
- That is amazing, 'cause I know even going organic
it's really expensive.
- Right, but she shows how you can buy one organic chicken
and how you can make that cost effective
by providing all these different aspects
to your meals, your sauces, your bone broth
and your chicken.
And it can actually be very cost effective.
- That's amazing.
Well Kim, I hate that, I could talk to you all day.
- I know, I know.
- I don't have to go on a diet ever again.
- Ever again. - That's so great.
- One of the best things is that I can go
in my closet and I can wear the same clothes
I wore 10 years ago.
- Can you imagine that ladies?
We would all love to be able to say that.
- When I was in my 20s and I was on the binge
and starve cycle and I would gain weight
and I would lose weight, and I never knew
if it was gonna fit.
And now, what a relief.
It's such a joy.
- Well but you're just changing lives.
And I love the cookbook aspect.
Now Kim, can you show our viewing audience your book?
- Yes, I love this book and I love what it's
doing for people.
I get people calling me, sending me little clips
telling me I've lost 30 pounds, I've lost 40 pounds.
I'm off of my medicine.
- We didn't even go into that.
But oh my gosh, to be able to take people off medication.
- Right, right it's so wonderful.
And so Derail Diabetes, you can get it on the website,
deraildiabetes.com, and you can get a copy
of the book and the cookbook.
- And the cookbook. - That's right.
- Oh, Kim, thanks so much for coming.
- You're welcome, it's been such a great time.
- This has been Lea Woodford with Between the Lines.
Thanks for watching.