Tom Hanks, Diabetes and YoYo Dieting

Tom Hanks has had high blood sugar levels on and off since he was 36 years old, and he was diagnosed as being diabetic in 2013 at age 57. A major cause of his diabetes was having to gain or lose large amounts of weight for films, such as Oscar-winning “Castaway” in 2000 and “A League Of Their Own” in 1992. 

He plans never again to take roles that require drastic weight change and has stated publicly, “I’ve talked to a number of actors who have gained weight for roles and — just out of the sheer physical toll on one’s knees and shoulders — no one wants to do it again.” 

Other stars who have become diabetic include Halle Berry, Paula Deen, Larry King, Nick Jonas and Sherri Sheppard. Hanks used pizza as his main food to gain weight, with huge amounts of fat from cheese and other toppings, and sugar from the flour crust.

How Gaining and Losing Weight Can Lead to Diabetes

Every time you lose weight, you lose both fat and muscle. However, when you gain weight by overeating, you gain only fat. So with every rise or drop in weight, you are fatter than you were previously.

Having excess fat in your liver causes high blood sugar levels, a condition that affects more than 50 percent of North Americans. 

You can find out if you have a fatty liver with a simple, safe and relatively inexpensive test called a liver sonogram. Your liver controls your blood sugar levels. When blood sugar levels rise, your pancreas releases insulin into your bloodstream. 

Insulin drives sugar from your bloodstream into your liver. When your blood sugar level drops too low, your liver releases sugar from its cells into the bloodstream. 

However, when you have a fatty liver, your liver cannot accept sugar from your bloodstream. Instead it releases sugar from its cells to raise blood sugar levels even higher.

What Causes a Fatty Liver?

High rises in blood sugar causes fat to be deposited in your liver. When blood sugar levels rise, your liver can use the sugar immediately for energy or store a small amount in your liver and muscles. All the remaining sugar is converted to a fat called triglycerides, a small amount is used for energy and the rest is stored in cells in your body, primarily the liver. 

As you keep on getting high rises in blood sugar, more and more fat is stored in your liver until you have so much fat in your liver that your liver stops accepting sugar from your bloodstream to cause blood sugar levels to rise very high, leading to diabetes.

When blood sugar levels rise too high, sugar can stick to the outer membranes of every type of cell in your body. There the sugar is converted by a series of chemical reactions to sorbitol which destroys the cell. This is how high blood sugar levels can cause dementia, heart attacks, arteriosclerosis, strokes, impotence, certain cancers and all of the other consequences of diabetes.

What You Can Learn from Tom Hanks
• Avoid overweight and yoyo dieting
• Eat lots of vegetables and fruits
• Avoid sugared drinks and sugar-added foods, and restrict other refined carbohydrates such as foods made from flour (bakery products, pastas)
• Avoid red meat (blocks insulin receptors).
• Avoid fried foods (contain Advanced Glycation End products that raise blood sugar levels)
• Exercise (converts sugar to energy instead of storing it in your body primarily as fat)
• Keep blood levels of hydroxy vitamin D above 75 nmol/L (low levels of vitamin D block insulin receptors)

Tom Hanks
Born July 9, 1956
Tags: diabetes
Category: Health Fitness & Nutrition

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