Hello, good morning, good afternoon, good evening.



 Wherever you are in the world, it is good to speak to you. And I hope that you are having a good day, good evening, good afternoon. It's Mark Ashford here. I just wanted to record a quick introduction to a new book that I've written, Early Mistakes Cause Diabetes. And it's all about my history over the last 30-35 years.



 Consuming food or food products or ultra-processed foods. Foods which I never really questioned at the time because of the marketing and my intention or my need to consume something. But not necessarily a nice whole food that has been prepared for me. Or I should say, prepared by myself, for myself.



 Basically what we're looking at here is lifestyle.



 When I was consulting for 20-25 years,



 the food court was my friend. I'd go there for lunch, I'd go there for snacks during the morning or the afternoon. Convenience stores provided me with packaged



 protein bars and other types of things that I would purchase and consume back at my desk.



 And apart from the sedentary lifestyle of working at a desk for 7.5-8 hours a day,



 these foods were not natural. They were not created from a whole food environment. They were highly manufactured and what we're referring to now is ultra-processed product rather than food. And they contained additives which I also refer to in my book on ultra-processed foods. We're looking at sedentary regulators, colouring agents, emulsifiers, flavouring agents, leavening agents, particularly in bread products,



 egg goods, phosphates, sweeteners. These are all things which have that are just generally considered to be safe. They're not proven to be safe. And they're affecting our consumption of foods that are encouraging us to eat more. The rise in being overweight and obese in blood pressure is significant. And these are problems that are not specific to me or to where I'm living in Canada.



 They're across the world. We're looking at issues developing in USA, Canada, UK, the European Union. And these things are also being seen in second and third world countries that previously had no history of diabetes or obesity.



 These additives and these manufactured products are displacing regular healthy food diets. And when I look back over the previous 30 years I could have, I'm more convinced now today than ever that I could have prevented my type 2 diabetes by maintaining a more healthy diet rather than a diet that is significantly heavy on alto processed food. A recent French study showed that in a year the average French person would be consuming about 10 kilos of food additives. There is a very interesting video on YouTube. It's a BBC video.



 They took a UK doctor and switched him to an 80% alto processed food diet for 30 days. 30 days, think about it, is only 1-12th of a year. And in that year the before and after photographs of his body show how it deteriorated, how he



 acquired a lot of extra weight. And also those are before and after



 MRA scan which showed that after the 30 days the renewal connections which are very similar to those of someone who has an addiction, a chemical addiction. He was becoming addicted to the additives in his food but also the links are someone who has a substance abuse problem.



 So anyway, the book is retrospective. Looking back over things which I could have changed, which I could have avoided,



 looking at my lifestyle, I'm not sure how I could have avoided those things because a lot of these additives and food problems are related to our lifestyle.



 Very fast food, fast living, or seriously living that is not related to a slower, more contemplative lifestyle. And I'm thinking of



 the drive-through which I used fairly regularly and packaged food which I could just simply put in the microwave and nuke it for 5 or 10 minutes, whatever is set on the box. Take it out, peel off the plastic film on top and then just dig in.



 That is the type of lifestyle, food lifestyle which is not good for us. And these additives are creating this very problem. Anyway, prevention,



 what I could have done to prevent my diabetes and what I've done to reverse my type 2 diabetes and get off medication, get off CGM's and just monitor my blood sugars periodically with the doctor.



 If I had applied what I know now to the past, I would have been good. We would probably not have been talking, you would not be listening to me. But anyway, that's life. So I hope you have a good evening. I hope you enjoy.



 There are some things in the book which will help you learn and show what you can do to prevent and reverse your type 2 diabetes, and your diabetes too. But also listen,



 there are other things that we are talking about here. We are talking about obesity, weight gain which is linked to blood pressure, which is linked to a sedentary lifestyle. If you are 60 pounds overweight, you are less likely to go out for a walk or go for a bike ride or have some sort of physical activity. So these things all add up and they add up to my early mistakes which caused my type 2 diabetes.



 Take care and enjoy. Bye now.