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A low GL diet works

F

Froid

Member
Messages
6
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Insulin
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.
 
Hi. For those who have T2 diabetes due to excess weight it is sometimes possible to reduce the carbs in the diet and come back to normal sugar levels with no meds. You were obviously seriously overweight and the diet has helped a lot which is good news. For many however, depending on genetics, it is not possible to come back to normal. That is certainly true for those with T1 and LADA on insulin. I think you might find that the supplements you took were not the cause of your remission; it was the diet. BTW diabetes is best defined as a condition where the body cannot process carbohydrate properly. It is not in itself an eating disorder but if you do have a poor diet then diabetes may result
 
@Froid

I am delighted with the success of your diet, but I think it is unwise to make generalisations based on your personal experience.

Patrick Holford's low GL diet was far too high in carbs for me. I tried it for about 3 months. Loved eating that way. Enjoyed the food. Thought the recipes were great. But my blood glucose was too high after meals and I started experiencing carb cravings and too frequent widdling. Eventually I came off it and went back to lower carbs. Sad, but necessary. So eating that way is definitely not a 'cure all'.

I also agree with @Daibell that there are many, many different reasons why someone's body stops producing enough insulin to cope with the carbs in their diet. Being overweight is a common one, usually linked with genetic pre-disposition. But for many others, excess weight is a symptom, not the cause. Others are not over weight at all. Then there are the type 1, 1.5, and even type 3s (as some people are classing dementia).

One word of warning. It is marvellous (and I really do mean that!) your diabetic symptoms have gone and your blood glucose has returned to normal. However, you are probably at increased risk of the symptoms returning for the rest of your life, and if you ever put the excess weight back on, the symptoms will almost certainly return.
 
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.
 
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I agree on a low GL diet and I'm glad it's worked for you. There are many books that give information about how to lower the overall glycemic load of your diet.
I'm not so certain about the chromium, I wonder if you would have done as well without them.
(I won't link but if you want to read a sceptical analysis of his advice about chromium and cinnamon google Holford Watch chromium)
 
@ 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.
 
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