In 2009, Steve Cooksey of North Carolina was hospitalized on the edge of a diabetic coma. Type 2 diabetes. He left on insulin, told he would be drug-dependent for life. Instead he cut the grains and sugars and went low-carb. He lost 78 pounds, and under his doctors' care came off insulin and every diabetes drug. Then he started a blog to share what worked. In January 2012, the North Carolina Board of Dietetics and Nutrition called him. He was under investigation. Days later they sent him 19 pages of his own website, marked up in red pen. Line by line. What he was allowed to say, and what he was not. Answering a diabetic's question, they said, was practicing dietetics without a license. A jailable misdemeanor in North Carolina. He was never charged. He did not need to be. The threat worked, and he shut his advice column down. Then he sued, on the First Amendment. In 2013 a federal appeals court unanimously revived his case. In 2015 the board surrendered and rewrote its own rules so ordinary people can give ordinary diet advice. His results are his own, achieved under medical care, and nobody should quit insulin off a blog post. But notice what the state never argued. Not that he was wrong. That he was not allowed. The truth does not need a license. #NSNG #NoSugarNoGrains #type2diabetes #lowcarb #freespeech #diabetes #censorship #vinnietortorich