Does vegetarianism help lower blood sugar?

[MollieB]

I’m currently trying some days of eating no meat or fish. Noticed my blood sugars slightly lower not greatly different. Just wondered if anyone had successfully lowered their sugars by going vegetarian?

My cousin's wife, who has type 1 diabetes, went vegan several years ago to support her sister who had to do it for health reasons. I was really surprised by her insulin requirements afterwards. They were some of the lowest I've ever heard of. It makes sense to me that may be true with vegetarianism.

 

[Mike Sixx]

Mike, I don’t think it is helpful to make sweeping statements like this. Whether one is vegan, carnivore or something in between, it is the formulation of the way of eating that will determine whether or not it is helpful for managing diabetes. The medication that is being taken (if any) will also need to be taken into account.


This is much more helpful. Eating low carb, especially very low carb requires a lot more planning and thought if animal products are limited or excluded, but it is not impossible.

"Vegetarian diet" is a sweeping statement. At face value plant based diet is much worse for diabetes than meat based. As a sweeping factual satement plan based food has more carbs than meat. Many plant based food are mostly just carbs, some actually are nothing but. As you said your self "it is the formulation of the way of eating".
In other words the effort you put into your diet. And limiting yourself to vegetarian diet requires much more effort. Reversely with same amount of effort you get better results for diabetes as omnivore than you would with the vegetarian diet. So veganism itself does not help.
Question was not "is it possible to lower BG while on vegan diet" it was "Does vegetarianism help lower blood sugar"
And no, it does not HELP. At all. Not in any way.

Sure, you can nit pick how you could lower you BG while eating vegan food. But that would have absolutely nothing to do with vegan diet. You could just as well add moderate amount of lean meat and fish to whatever BG lowering "vegan" diet and not only would that be just as good but I would guess it would actually be better.

Many people have misconception that as vegetarian diet is generally healthier it is generally better for diabetes. That is not true.
Nuts are healthy, just not if you are allergic to them.

While on subject of misconceptions "Whole grain". For diabetes the carbs are the enemy. Grain regadless of it's type is almost all carbs. Some carbs are worse than others, but there are no good carbs.
Tolerance to carbs in general and each type of them varies from person to person.

Only way to know how your body reacts to any food or diet is to test and measure. Measure BG, eat little no more than 10g carbs, then measure after 1,2,3 hours. It your BG stays in acceptable levels than it is ok. If it raises less than with some other food/diet then it helps to "lower" BG (by not raising it so much) .
Switching to veganism might also help (motivate) person to also switch to low carb diet. So what ever works, but itself veganism does not help lower BG.

 

[Ushthetaff]

I was veggie for nearly 14 years ! Can’t really say if it lowered my bs as I didnt really take them back then but can say I felt really healthy , never felt “ bagged up” skin was great hair and nails great had plenty of energy , , I wouldn’t advise against it ,
Only way to find out is to try it , let’s face it it can’t hurt

 

[Brunneria]

your atreries glogg up and the already damaged blood flow to your legs sieze up and your legs start to turn black and rot away..

@Mike Sixx

you did not answer @Goonergal ‘s request for references to support your dramatic (and so far unsubstantiated) statement that I have quoted above. You seemed to be implying that eating a vegetarian diet will cause these symptoms.

Please confirm whether this is what you meant, and supply references if that is the case.

 

[Jaylee]

My cousin's wife, who has type 1 diabetes, went vegan several years ago to support her sister who had to do it for health reasons. I was really surprised by her insulin requirements afterwards. They were some of the lowest I've ever heard of. It makes sense to me that may be true with vegetarianism.

Hi,

Are you diabetic yourself @MollieB ?

It great your cousins wife is supporting her sister.
How low had her "insulin requirements" dropped by comparison to what was used prior, regarding the diatary change.?
Of course we are individual. I myself have managed to inject a nominal amount for a celeriac steak in a mushroom sauce this evening. It just depends on how many carbs are in the menu, along with the quantity. (Xdrip seems to concur.)
Primarily, I'm a meat eater. But have a little more freedom to try other options.

But we risk going off topic.

This is technically a type two dietary enquiry asking if the V diet can help lower BGs.
There is the factor of insulin resistance with the condition of type 2 & the OP does appear to be prescribed metformin from previous posts.

But please feel free to give account if a vegitarian diet has had a positive impact on your own condition.

 

[Marie 2]

I have a feeling it's all the processed food available, easy and cheap, that causes the biggest issue. If you live on cinnamon buns you aren't going to be healthy vegetarian, vegan or not.

 

[Vic fletch]

I’m type 2 and vegetarian and still struggle