A Taichung woman who lost 10kg by eating a fruit-only diet for three months has been diagnosed with diabetes, an endocrinologist said.
Taichung’s Feng Yuan Hospital endocrinologist Lin Cheng-hsiu (林正修) said the 44-year-old woman, surnamed Hsieh (謝), went to the hospital’s emergency room with acute abdominal pains and vomiting.
Lin said that blood and urine tests showed that Hsieh had ketoacidosis and that her blood sugar level was 686 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), a concentration that was six to seven times higher than normal.
Hsieh was admitted to the hospital and it took seven days before her blood sugar level dropped sufficiently for her to be discharged, Lin said.
Hsieh told doctors that she ate a fruit-only diet for three months and that she misinterpreted feelings of fatigue for weight loss, dropping from 64kg to 54kg, Lin said.
Doctors said that Hsieh’s diabetes is likely linked to her excessive intake of fruit, eating seven servings per day — the equivalent of 21 sugar cubes — instead of the recommended two servings per day — with a standard serving of fruit being roughly equivalent in size to a woman’s fist — disrupting the patient’s metabolism.
Hsieh also drank one cup of tapioca tea with half a sugar cube per day, as well as sweetened soy milk, Lin said.
Although there is no history of diabetes in the patient’s family, Hsieh’s total daily intake of the equivalent of 33 cubes of sugar was enough to cause diabetes, Lin said.
Early-stage diabetes has no obvious symptoms, but the blood sugar level at this stage still causes damage to the body, he said, calling on people to look out for subtle early symptoms, such as dry mouth and thirst, that typically occur when the blood sugar level is between 200mg/dL and 300mg/dL.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
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