A low GL diet works

Six months ago I was taking 150 units of insulin a day with a hb1ac of 11. Last week, my hb1ac was down to 6 and my doctor took me off all medication - no more needles!

Being 5 stone overweight and desperate, I tried a starvation diet. Four months on 600 cal/day! I lost four stone but my hb1ac was still 7.8. I then tried a low GL diet. Six weeks later my hb1ac was down to 6.1, much to the surprise of my doctor. It would seem that diabetes is an eating disorder, not a lifelong disease, and is reversible with proper diet - even if you're on insulin.

For those who are interested, I followed Patrick Holford's 'Say no to diabetes' diet. I thought it was a little over the top on supplements but I followed it to the letter. The diet means giving up all processed carbs but, as long as you keep the GL count below 40, you can eat what you like. The main supplements are mega doses of Vit. C, B and chromium. There are lots of other supplements too but they can be dropped when your blood sugar levels out.

It was a pain free diet and my meter readings started dropping within a few days. Six weeks later, I was off insulin.

Thanks for the replies and to answer the points raised:

I was a type 2 diabetic and obese. I tried a starvation diet and lost a lot of weight but it did not rectify my diabetes. I dropped my insulin from 150 units/day to 20 but I was only eating 600 cals/day so I didn’t need so much. The reason I mention this is to show that obesity was not the cause of my diabetes.

According to Holford, type 2 diabetes is cause by insulin resistance which is caused by eating too many processed carbs like biscuits, crisps and bread. Processed carbs are absorbed very quickly and give you a sugar spike. This is followed by an insulin spike which turns the sugar into fat and you then get a mini hypo which gives you a craving for something sweet and the cycle is repeated. The insulin overload makes your cells resistant to insulin and you finish up with too much glucose in the blood a.k.a. diabetes.

A low glycaemic load diet reverses this process. You mostly eat foods with a low GL, this means the carbs are absorbed slowly so you don’t get a sugar spike. This means much less insulin is needed and so your insulin resistance improves and everything gets back to normal.

As Daibel said, it was the diet that reversed my diabetes, the supplements recommended by Holford are only there to speed up the process. Chromium for example is chronically low in western diets and it is essential to processing sugar and vital to diabetics.

As I said in my post, this diet worked for me and I am now off insulin. I still check my blood sugar before meals and it is usually below 6 and often below 5. However, as Brunneria rightly says, low GL is not so much a diet as a way of life. If I reverted to my old, bad eating habits, my diabetes will return.

I know there are several causes of diabetes but I believe that late onset type 2 diabetes is mostly caused by poor diet. Our bodies evolved for 3 million years eating what is generally called a caveman diet and they are simply not suited to all the processed junk food we eat today. I’m not proposing a low GL diet as a cure all and I know it won’t help everyone but it worked for me. After being told by every doctor I have spoken to in the last ten years that I would be on insulin for life, I am insulin free today.

As Brunneria says, a low GL diet is great. You eat plenty of food and you’re never hungry and the amazing thing is that, after a couple of weeks, you lose all craving for sweet things. I really don’t miss the crisps, biscuits and chocolate at all – and I was a chocaholic.

A few tips: Give up coffee, tea and cola, the caffeine magnifies the sugar spike you get after eating. Take a 500mg chromium supplement a day with ½ teaspoon of cinnamon, this combination better than metformin at reducing insulin resistance. If you do buy supplements get them from amazon, they’re much cheaper but do check the dosage. I’m sure I don’t need to say it but don’t make any changes to your medication without talking to your doctor.

Finally, I didn’t really believe it was possible when I started but for the first time in ten years I am off all medication and my blood sugar is (almost) normal. A low GL diet really can reverse diabetes.

@ phoenix, thanks for the pointer. I checked out the watch site and you're right, the evidence for chromium may not be as certain as holford indicates but the wording does indicate that there is some evidence. I'm not pushing holford's views, all I'm saying is that I tried it and it worked for me. He pushes lots of supplements and, as I indicated, I think he goes over the top. Resveratrol is another supplement, for example, there are some indications that it may help but nothing definitive as yet. It's like all drugs, everyone has a different response. I think holford uses the 'if you throw enough mud' principle. Even if supplements only make a small difference, they add up. All I know is that after after four weeks, my BG dropped from 8 to 6. If I waited for the medics to decide which supplements work, I'd probably be still taking insulin ten years from now.

As you say, maybe I would have done just as well without the supplements and they ain't cheap (£70 for 8 weeks supply) but I took them anyway. Maybe I could have done without but it doesn't matter to me now that I'm off insulin. Maybe someone else can try a GL diet without the supplements and let us know. I just want to pass on the good news that it worked for me in the hope that it can help someone else.