Diabetes
Type 2 is a Western epidemic which is often only treated with lifelong
medication and in most cases get progressively worse over time. Doctors are prescribing medicines to mask
the symptoms but they don’t treat the cause of the illness. In the majority of cases patients are not
given the opportunity to get well and reverse the disease. I have researched the effect of diet on Type
2 Diabetes and found it is possible to reverse diabetes, reduce or come off the
diabetes medications. My research has
lead me to a plant based diet. A lot of
the information below is condensed/edited from The Physicians Committee
diabetes resources website and their
vegetarian-starter-kit.
(If you want to
read it in full see the web address in the resources below).
 |
| “Our efforts are dramatically changing the way doctors treat chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and cancer. By putting prevention over pills, doctors are empowering their patients to take control of their own health.” The Physicians Committee |
You
may live a long life with type 2 diabetes with the support of diabetic
medications and or insulin injections or you may not! Yes there are people who
drink, smoke, have diabetes, are overweight, eat high fat diets etc. and live
to see an old age, but these are the exception.
Diabetes is a serious condition. Don’t rely on being one of these! Type
2 Diabetes leaves you at a much greater risk of an early death or compromised
life enjoyment. Heart disease, heart
attacks and strokes, cancer, kidney disease, eyesight problems including
blindness, nerve pains in hands and legs and even amputations in the worse
scenarios.
“If you manage your diabetes properly, you can prevent or delay diabetes
complications harmful effects of diabetes such as damage to the eyes, heart,
blood vessels, nervous system, teeth and gums, feet and skin, or kidneys.
Studies show that keeping blood glucose, blood pressure and low-density
lipoprotein cholesterol levels close to normal can help prevent or delay these
problems. However, diabetes causes more deaths a year than breast cancer and
AIDS combined. Two out of three people with diabetes die from heart disease or
stroke condition caused by damage to blood vessels in the brain; may cause loss
of ability to speak or to move parts of the body.” http://www.diabetes.org
It often takes something
serious like a stroke or a heart attack for people to take action and change
their diet but surely it is wiser to take action now and prevent these potentially fatal or life
debilitating things happening to your body.
Your diabetes diagnosis and initial treatment
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| tonyandtawni.com/picskhx/heart-disease-cartoon |
When you were diagnosed with pre diabetes or type 2 Diabetes – how much time and investigation went into your eating habits and life style? What was done to help you get your insulin working naturally again? Or were you given your medication and sent to a government funded dietician for an hour of government subsidised food advice? (Which is sadly biased towards the government subsidised industries like dairy and meat.)
Was
your doctor just following what they are taught to do …… give you a quick
prescription that will help to mask or cover up the problems and leave you
dependant on medication for the rest of your life. Yes doctors do a lot of good
but they don’t have the time or resources to each patient. They are mostly trained to diagnose and
prescribe medication (often funded etc. by the pharmaceutical giants.) on
average it seems as if Doctors only
spend between two and twenty five hours learning about nutrition. They are not trained to help people heal with
nutrition. (There are some doctors who have a personal interest in alternative
health treatments but these are not the norm.)
I believe people should be given the option of reversing their illness with diet changes and lifestyle changes before they are put onto medication for the rest of their lives. People deserve to have a choice. If Type 2 Diabetes is a progressive disease then I struggle to understand why there isn’t more work done on fixing the initial problem rather than masking the problem with long term meds.
 |
| These T2 diabetic drugs seem to reduce life span by approximately ten years . http://mdcurrent.in/primary-care/new-diabetes |
The
diabetes pharmaceutical industry is a big $$$$$$$ industry. It is not in their interest for you to get
better – each patient with diabetes each year is worth thousands of
pounds/dollars. I found some of the websites advising on diabetic treatments
and management were actually funded by the pharmaceutical companies! There is little information on the main
diabetic advice sites explaining how people can reduce or come off their
meds. There seems to be a pharmaceutical
monopoly idea that once you are on diabetic type 2 drugs – you are on them for life! It seems they don't want people to know that they can get better without the drugs.
Investigate- why or how you got Type 2 Diabetes
Yes
you can be genetically disposed to the disease but something you are doing or
not doing is turning these genes on. Or your lifestyle choices have caused your
pancreas and cells functioning as they should.
When your body is in a state of dis-ease it is a warning signal
something in your lifestyle needs to change.
Ignoring the warning signals or masking them with drugs will in the long
term lead to more illness. You need to
make changes to help your body get back to its happy, functioning state of ease
and preferably without drugs. This can involve: changes in diet, improving exercise,
improving sleep and lowering stress levels all of which effect the body’s
harmonic balance
Traditional nutritional guidelines for Type 2 diabetics:
Low carbohydrate, high protein & high fat
In the past diabetes diets have focused on cutting out/down carbohydrate and eating high fat and protein. These ‘Atkins style’ diets may help people lose weight short term or help to manage blood sugar levels. The downside is theses diets do not address that a diet is high in saturated fat and protein (found in dairy products like cheese milk butter and meat, fish and eggs) are all linked to heart disease, strokes, kidney disease and cancers such as bowel cancer. It is very important that T2 diabetics take this into serious consideration because these illnesses/diseases that are the main cause of premature deaths and diabetic related complications such as eye sight degeneration or nerve problems that eventually result in loss of limbs etc. in T2 Diabetics.
Food can be powerful in preventing and reversing
diabetes
As a T2 diabetic you don’t need to follow a
special diet. I believe T2 diabetics
should follow the same diet that everyone who wants to live a happy, healthy
life should eat. A diet based on
vegetables, legumes, beans, fruits, and whole grains, which is also low in fat
and processed sugar and salt can really change your health for the better –
there are no negative side effects form eating this way!
Not
only can it help to reduce T2 Diabetes it seems to lower cancer risks, heart
disease risk, kidney disease, auto immune disorders etc. We need to make connections with the
food/drink we eat and the illnesses people are suffering from. The junk/fast food people are eating is more
damaging than cigarette smoking. Can you
imagine if mothers and fathers were giving their children cigarettes a few
times or more a week!
This plant based diet is shown to improve your insulin sensitivity, kick start you pancreas and give you a chance of coming off your meds or reducing your meds.
A
study on a group of T2 diabetics found
“21 of 23 patients on
oral medications and 13 of 17 patients on insulin were able to get off of their
medications after 26 days on a near-vegetarian diet and exercise program.” These patients were checked 2-3 years later
and most had managed to stay off their diabetes meds. So this isn’t a short
term fix – if you stick with it will change your health long term.
The problem is that the majority of our current Western society is eating very poorly and a ‘plant based diet ’ can be viewed as extreme. But surely when your body is sick and you have to take medicine every day is actually extreme. A lifetime sentenced to taking numerous prescription meds, heart operations, physical pain etc. is really the extreme measure. Medicines and surgery play their part in supporting health but these should be last resort measures, they should be viewed by society as extreme. Eating nutritious food is not extreme.
*Remember
cigarette smoking used to be the norm, now less and less people do it because
they know and understand the damage it does.
In the same way in fifty years people will realise that eating a diet high
in animal products is damaging to your health and less and less people will
do it.
Why wait fifty years or until you have a life threatening complication
like a stroke to make the change?
People from Asian countries where they
traditionally ate a diet high in carbohydrate, beans and vegetables had very
low diabetes rates. It is only now that
these countries are adopting more westernised diet and upping their meat and
dairy intake that are they beginning to follow with the diabetic trend of the
West.
Saturated
fat is the T2 Diabetic enemy
Low fat now is the focus of diabetic diet not the carbohydrate count. Fat is the diabetic enemy. When there is a lot of dietary or body fat it makes it hard for the insulin to get glucose into the cells. The fat is blocking the glucose from entering the cells so it means the glucose stays in the blood causing high blood sugar readings which in time begins to cause damage to the nerves etc.
A few of the other major benefits
from eating a plant based diet:
Lowers
your risk of heart attacks and strokes and other heart and cardiovascular
problems. This diet will support
your heart health as it has a very low cholesterol and dangerous fat
content. (Damaging fats such as
saturated fats and Cholesterol is found in animal products such as meat, dairy,
and eggs). Tran’s fats and other processed fats which are damaging out bodies
and minds are found mostly in processed and baked goods so by eating more
natural and homemade foods you automatically eliminate them. People who eat
this way have great cholesterol levels.
Improves
your blood pressure eating
this way without animal products will improve your blood pressure and might
help you to reduce or get off your blood pressure meds.
Lessens
the risk of colon cancer: This diet is naturally high in fibre which will support your
bowel health and lower your risks of colon cancer the 3rd largest
cancer in the world. Eating meat and
colon cancer are not coincidental. Also
eating this way will lower your risk of other cancers too especially breast,
lung and prostate cancer.
Healthy
Plant Based eating guidelines:
You will be surprised how much of your food is already plant based –
just by tweaking a few little things and swapping some dairy for non-dairy you
can make dramatic changes to your health without really suffering!
1.
Don’t eat anything that
once had a face.
Animal products contain a lot of fat, especially
saturated fat,
which is linked to heart disease, insulin resistance, and certain forms of
cancer.
Avoid Red Meat
Red meats are a source of unnecessary and unhealthy fats and cholesterol. The leanest beef is about 29 percent fat as a percentage of calories. | |
Avoid Poultry and Fish
Many people imagine that chicken and fish are healthy and low in fat but-  |
-Fish vary in their fat content, they all have
fat and cholesterol. Some fish contain omega-3 (“good”) fats but they also
contain saturated fats.
-Fifteen to 30 percent of the fat in fish is
saturated (“bad”) fat.
-Also fish and shellfish can contain unsafe
levels of contaminants and are often high in mercury and other environmental
toxins.
-Fish, especially salmon, is one of the primary sources of PCBs and other industrial toxins,
which may play a role in the development of diabetes.
2.
Avoid anything that has
been made by anything with a face
Avoid Dairy Products
Milk, cream, cheese, yogurt, butter, etc. Most dairy products are high in fat, particularly saturated fat. Non-fat versions are typically high in sugar (lactose). Non-fat milk, for example, is about 55 percent sugar, as a percentage of calories. As a T2 diabetic you are best without dairy but if you do have it, it is better to have the low fat milk and cheese. Avoid low fat, sweetened yogurts with artificial sweeteners.
Milk, cream, cheese, yogurt, butter, etc. Most dairy products are high in fat, particularly saturated fat. Non-fat versions are typically high in sugar (lactose). Non-fat milk, for example, is about 55 percent sugar, as a percentage of calories. As a T2 diabetic you are best without dairy but if you do have it, it is better to have the low fat milk and cheese. Avoid low fat, sweetened yogurts with artificial sweeteners.
Eat low
fat – Try
to eat foods that are 10% or less fat (10% or less per 100grams.) Eating a vegan diet doesn’t mean you are
eating healthily you have to keep an eye on the fat and salt too.
Even vegetable sourced fats and oils are still
fatty and will lead to weight gain. Avoid margarine, olive oil based spreads
like the plague – these are very processed fats and are dangerous to your
health. (see below for advice on cooking with fat.)
Why no eggs?
As a diabetic you are at great risk from strokes and heart disease –
eggs are very height in fat (70% fat and a lot of that fat is saturated which
is known to cause problems/blockages with the heart and arteries. Also gain high cholesterol is a marker for
heart disease stroke etc. and eggs are really high in cholesterol – so eggs are
not a diabetic’s friend.
Egg whites are high in
animal protein, the type of protein that, when eaten in a large quantity, can
be harmful to the kidneys and can contribute to calcium losses. Diabetics need
to take care of their kidney too.
Egg
alternatives for cooking:
·
1 table spoon of ground flax seed mixed with 3
table spoons of water will make egg like consistency
·
Add a couple of extra tablespoons of water for each
egg eliminated to balance out the moisture content of the product.
·
Use 1 heaping tablespoon of soy flour or
corn-starch plus 2 tablespoons of water to replace each egg in a baked product.
·
In muffins and cookies, half of a mashed banana can
be used instead of an egg, although it will change the flavour of the recipe
somewhat.
·
For vegetarian loaves and burgers, use any of the
following to bind ingredients together: tomato paste, mashed potato, moistened
bread crumbs, or rolled oats.
·
Making sandwiches – good toppings for sandwiches
are spreads like hummus (mashed chick peas, coriander and garlic) or white bean
pate (mashed white beans with lemon and garlic & pepper)
Why no dairy milk?
We
have been sold a very convincing story for a long time that milk is a health
drink and it is good for us – this is a big lie and milk is only good for the
baby claves it was made for. The government
subsidise the milk production too so we will never get the truth when $$$ are
at stake.
Going Dairy free- not as difficult as you might think!
Don’t worry about your
protein
·
This
is largely a myth that we need so much protein. If you eat a good range grain, beans,
legumes fruit and vegetables you will get all the protein you need. Google
any vegan body builder– yes they eat extra vegetable based protein but you
can see they still make great gains with only plant power. People in the West do not suffer from any
form of protein deficiency even when they are on plant based diet.
·
Excess protein has been linked with osteoporosis,
kidney problems, calcium stones and some cancers.
·
Even too much plant protein can be dangerous to
the body. People need to stop focusing
on are they getting enough and know if they are getting too much.
·
Diets that are rich in animal protein cause
people to excrete more calcium than normal through their kidneys and increase
the risk of osteoporosis. Countries with lower-protein diets have lower rates
of osteoporosis and hip fractures.
Starting a
new eating plan
Eating this way 100% of
the time might be too much for you to do at once.
Some people like to do
things cold turkey and others do better when they ease themselves into things
gently. It is up to you! But if your blood sugars are crazy and you are
overweight and you are on a lot of meds the sooner you address your health
and take your health seriously the better it is going to be for you.
Ways of easing yourself into plant based eating
gradually
This is just an example of changing habits very slowly – you will know what sort of person you are and if you put up resistance to change. You can adapt this any way to suit you and your family) Use these weeks to experiment with new foods and find suitable replacements for your old favourites.
Week 1
Make your breakfast 100% plant based – work on developing a healthy,
nutritious, tasty breakfast you can really enjoy. (Or a few different ones)
Generally most breakfasts are plant based anyway– you might just need
to change your milk or try adding a bit of fruit to add the sweetness you
would have got from the lactose in the milk.
Try some of the different grains to make porridge with rye, barley and
steel cut oats all are great for diabetics.
Add some frozen berries, banana, chopped apple or pear, sultanas etc.
Look at some of the different breakfasts on the meal ideas sheet –
lots to choose from.
Week 2
This week make your snacks plant based
This week explore different fruits, raw veg, nuts, seeds etc. – see
how you can tweak your old favourites to make them plant based. Again you
will find a lot of your snacks are already plant based and non-dairy creamers
in your drinks. Remember your taste
buds will resist change at 1st – so things might taste a bit weird
or different but over time you will begin to like certain new things. And nothing tastes as good as health feels J
Experiment with different plant/nut based milks
Week 3
Maybe start with 3 plant based evening meals. Adapt your favourite meals with soy, fake
meat, fake mince etc. Then look to
find a few more new meals that you like the sound of and try getting some new
tasty foods into your diet.
Week 4
Try Mon-Fri plant based foods
only
Week 5
Clear out anything that isn’t plant based out of the cupboards and
fridge and try a full week of plant based eating. (maybe have one non-plant meal if you feel
you need it)
Week 6
If you feel ready set yourself a 21 day plant based challenge – and
see how much your health improves over that 3 week period.
Supplements needed on a plant
based diet
1. Vitamin B12 10 micrograms a day (also written μg or mcg) OR take one supplement containing at least 2000 micrograms of vitamin B12 every week.
*Anyone
who is taking Metformin should be taking this supplement as well because it
reduces the absorption of B12
Why you need B12 …..Vitamin B-12 is one of water-soluble vitamins that your
body needs for normal nerve function and blood cell production. A
B-12 deficiency can cause several different problems such as a type of anaemia called
megaloblastic anaemia that occurs when red blood cells can't
develop properly, or the deficiency may cause neurological
problems. The symptoms due to the
anaemia include: fatigue (feeling tired most of the time), weakness in parts
of your body, loss of appetite, weight loss, constipation. The neurological symptoms of vitamin B-12
deficiency may include any of these: numbness and tingling in your hands or
feet, loss of balance, depression, confusion and loss of memory, burning pain
or soreness of mouth or tongue (Source: http://nutrition.about.com/od/therapeuticnutrition1/a/Vitamin-B12-Deficiency
2. Vitamin D supplement- especially if you are living ain a country where you don't access the sun very often.
3. Also
it is important to take 1 to 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds each day – (sprinkle
onto your porridge etc.) to ensure the balance of omega 3 and omega 6 is more
level. You must grind the flaxseed or
you won’t get the goodness from it.
This will help with your brain health.
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Things you can do alongside the plant based diet that
might support your blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity:
·
Exercise
is also very important to help keep you feeling good, levelling your blood
sugars and supporting your heart/cardiovascular health. This article is mostly about the diet side of
reversing diabetes but you need to be at least walking 10,000 steps a day or
doing an hour’s equivalent like swimming, cycling etc.) Exercise
helps the cells to take in the glucose and use up excess blood sugar.
· Take 1 tea spoon of cinnamon a day (as long as you don’t have any pre-existing liver problems
· Take 1-2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar with each meal and before bed in a glass of water
·
Add resistant starch to your
soups etc., and eat foods high in resistant starch such as bananas (not over
ripe)
·
Some diabetics do better without wheat in their
diet – the protein in wheat can cause spikes in blood sugars. There are many wheat free pastas, bread
etc. If you want experiment with your
blood sugars when you eat wheat – it is different for each person. (But wheat
pasta has been shown not to spike some peoples bloods because of how it is
made)
·
Eating high fibre foods will slow down the
breakdown of foods and slow down the blood sugar rise. Fibre also helps to sweep out your
intestines.
·
Eat lots of blueberries,
cranberries, apples melon, raspberries, red grape fruit, tomatoes asparagus,
carrots, red onion, spinach and broccoli to name a few – all have some positive
effect on diabetes
What oils to cook with
Try not using oil or fat at all – you can often
water fry/sauté onions garlic etc. You can get used to not using oil quite
quickly and save yourself a lot of calories.
If
you must use oil use it sparingly- 1 tablespoon of oils approximate 120
calories – this will take about 20min to walk off and about ten minutes to jog
off depending on your size. So if you
have weight to lose and you don’t want extra fat clogging up your cells
reducing the insulin sensitivity.
· Cooking your own food and limiting the fat content is very effective way of shifting extra fat from your body – restaurants and cafés don’t care about your arteries!!!
· Olive oil has been promoted as a health oil but really it is only of benefit when it is at low temperature and isn’t really suitable for cooking at high temps. When olive oil is heated high it loses its health benefits and the oil structure changes.
· Coconut oil also has been touted as an amazing health food- again it is high in calories- 117 calories per tablespoon and is 59% saturated fat. So maybe not the best for a diabetic trying to keep their fat low.
· Avocado oil is one of the better oils to heat up and cook with it is still over 120 cals per tablespoon but only 9% of the calories come from saturated fat.
·
Avoid using these oils vegetable, Soybean,
sunflower, canola, cottonseed, corn oils – they are all too high in omega 6
fats (we need to balance the amount of omega 3 and 6 fats in our diets. In a
plant based diet flaxseed is a good simple source of omega 3.
FAT FACT :The body treats carbohydrates differently than fat
calories. The difference comes from how the body stores the energy of different
food types. It is very inefficient for the body to store the energy of
carbohydrates as body fat. When your body tries to turn carbohydrate into fat,
it wastes 23 percent of the calories of the carbohydrate. But fat is easily
converted into body fat. Only 3 percent of the calories in fat are burned in
the process of conversion and storage. It is the type of food that affects body
fat the most.
Other things to do to support your general
health:
·
You never have to go hungry you can eat as much as you
desire of fruit, veg, grains, beans ,legumes – no measuring or weighing – eat
until you feel satisfied. If you are hungry snack on veg fruit etc.
·
Grains –experiment with new grains – try ones you
are not familiar with – quinoa, rye, barley, millet, couscous, steel cut oats,
whole oats.
·
Legumes/Beans – Convenient in cans but better and
cheaper if you buy them dry and boil them – just google how to if you are
unsure – you can do a whole pack at nice and then split them up into portion
bags and put them in the freezer – this way you can just throw them in a soup
or stir fry when u need them. There are lots to try. Lentils don’t need soaking
overnight and some of the little beans. To make the bigger beans it just takes
a little organisation.
·
Fruit –fruit is sweet and contains fructose sugar, it tends
not to greatly increase blood glucose levels.
·
Vegetables – No one ever got fat or sick from over
eating vegetables. If you are peckish –
have some veg sticks or cherry tomatoes to snack at hand, See how your body
responds to white potatoes – sweet potatoes are better for some people bruise
of the high fibre content which slows down the blood sugar rise. Again as long as you are not eating it
alongside fatty cheese or butter you might find you can handle them pretty
well.
·
When you start out this new way of eating if you
are already low weight you may want to monitor your food intake for a few weeks
just to ensure you are eating enough.
· Eat 2 Brazil nuts a day for selenium
· Use Powerful spices whenever possible– oregano, cumin ginger, rosemary, turmeric – anti oxidants (use these as much as possible to flavour to your foods)
· Try to keep your Blood pressure @
120/80 (‘pre high blood pressure’ = 140/90)
Keep in mind the next time you go to visit your doctor/nurse and you have managed to stabilise your bloods, and your blood pressure is better, how impressed they will be! Make it your goal to reduce your meds and take control of your health!
If I can help you in any way with ideas for suitable food or exercise plans or you want me to have a look at your food diary to help you reach your health and happiness goals - email me at foodmoodhealthhappiness@gmail.com Ruth
Other diabetic info.
Vegan Diet May Reduce Diabetic Nerve Pain August
8, 2014…A low-fat vegan diet may reduce pain associated with diabetic
neuropathy, according to a presentation this week at the American Association
of Diabetes Educators Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla. In a randomized
controlled trial of 35 type 2 diabetes patients with painful neuropathy, half
followed a vegan diet and took a vitamin B12 supplement for 20 weeks, while the
other half only took the supplement. The diet group showed greater improvements
in some pain measures and body weight, as compared with the control group. This
study demonstrates the promise of a dietary approach to diabetic nerve pain and
other microvascular complications.
Michael
Gregger M.D. ·
Last Updated on May 29, 2015
Disclaimer – You should consult
your diabetes nurse/Doctor or health practitioner before taking on a new
eating/exercise plan. Consult your
doctor before you alter your medicines.
References/Sources of information:
Further reading (on the net just google/search
these names and diabetes and viewing (You Tube)
·
Dr Neal Banard (Tackling
Diabetes) – he has a book and part of the book is on you tube as an audio clip
– e had a lot of videos on you tube
·
Dr John Mc Dougall – Book
The Starch Solution - lots of You tube
Vids
·
Dr Dean Ormish – Reverse
Heat Disease (Bill Clinton followed this man’s advice after he had heart
issues) more to do with heart disease
but advocates a similar nutrition plan
·
Dr Michael Greger – lots
of great video clips about diabetes - health and nutrition Nutritionfacts.org
·
Dr Caldwell Essylsyn –
again more heart health – but is totally relevant to a diabetic as heart
disease is the big killer
·
Dr. Joel Kahn, the Vegan Cardiologist
To watch:
·
Dr Neal Banard – Tackling Diabetes new approach on you
tube
·
Simply Raw Reversing Diabetes in 30 days a documentary
approx. 1hr 40mim – You tube
-
These clips will
lead you to many other relevant clips that you can explore for yourself
Websites used:
www.pcrm.org/health/diets/vsk/vegetarian-starter-kit
www.pcrm.org/health/diabetes-resources/the-vegan-diet-how-to-guide-for-diabetes
www.nutritionfacts.org/about
www.Diabetes.org
www.Diabetes.org.nz
www.Diabetesselfmanagement.com
www.webMD.com
www.cornerstonescare.com
(sponsored by a diabetes drug company!!!)
www.caloriecount.com – the amount of fat, carb,
protein in different foods – good tool
http://www.sarahbesthealth.com/think-doctors-know-about-nutrition/
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