Any follow-up info on Newcastle diet?

Hi Mrswombat, I do know someone who did the Newcastle diet and was very successful at it, but before that I have a suggestion for you.

Have you tried cutting back on your carbohydrates? This might be a first step that could make a difference. Your brain actually only needs a tiny amount of glucose which can be synthesized from vegetables that you eat or converted from protein and fat in your diet, it does not need to come from carbs or glucose.

I say this from direct experience - I have pretty much entirely cut out bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and flour based products from my diet, I only eat about 30-50g of carbs a day and these mostly come from vegetables and a limited amount of fruit. I work in an office doing lots of analytical work and have found this lots easier since changing my diet. I don't get the post lunch snoozies either!

Have a look at www.dietdoctor.com/lchf this is the eating plan I follow. Its amazing when you cut out the carbs in your diet you are much less hungry, I don't need even half of the volume of food I used to eat. I don't get the highs and lows, the shakes before lunch etc that I used to have.

If your hubby didn't manage to have enough food on a vegetarian diet then the shock of going to the Newcastle diet will be pretty intense, I would recommend changing the diet first to reduce the appetite before trying anything as drastic as the ND. As my friend who did it said, it requires an incredible amount of determination and committment - don't start something you are not completely determined to see through to the end. Maybe try replacing one meal a day with a shake for a week and see how you feel.

Good luck, please ask questions

mrswombat said:

We were just hoping that Newcastle diet may give him a cure or at least a year-long remission in which time he could enjoy his life without constantly worrying about BGL and what he eats.

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Hi Mrswombat and welcome to the forum, there are many threads here relating to the Newcastle Study/Slimfast Diet just use the search feature at the top of this page and enter "Newcastle" in the search window and you should find them.

The Newcastle study worked well with 70% of the participants that tried it, the others I suspect dropped out as it is obviously a very strict diet and wont suit everyone. It was stated in the original trial that the participants were all newly diagnosed and it works by reducing the visceral fat around the internal organs that will cause insulin resistance, by the use of a very low calorie diet the idea is that this visceral fat is reduced to the extent that the insulin resistance is also reduced which will greatly improve blood glucose (bg) levels.

This is not a cure and as of this moment in time there is no cure for either T1 or T2 diabetes BUT if you reduce your visceral fat and THEN manage through strict dieting to keep it off you will manage to keep your bg levels in the safe range and hopefully keep any diabetic complications at arms length. Its worth bearing in mind though that diabetes is not called the silent killer for nothing and if tight control is not kept on bg levels it will awaken the sleeping diabetes which will return.

Diabetes is for life and your husband needs to find a lifestyle that not only keeps his bg levels under control with or without medication but also one that is sustainable for life, what that lifestyle is is up to the individual and your husband will need to find his own path.

If your husband wants to try the Newcastle study diet then I would say give it a try but do consult his doctor and ask his/her advice or at least keep her/him in the loop in case there are other medical conditions unknown to us, always talk over internet information with your doctor before blindly following it :thumbup:

You original post mentioned the possibility of tiredness and the inability to work whilst on this diet, again this will no doubt be an individual thing and some will work through it whilst others may well feel very tiered. All I can say is that when I tried a similar meal replacement diet many years ago pre my diabetes I managed to carry on working even though I was employed in the building trade at the time and doing fairly physical work but I did feel very tired at the end of every day and did not keep up with the jogging or circuit training that I started at the same time due to the tiredness and lack of energy.

Finally the N.S. diet will work and reduce both weight and insulin resistance but it is NOT a cure for diabetes and care will have to be taken to maintain the weight loss if it is to offer a long term benefit.

Hope this is of some help, do use the search facility as there are several very long threads on this diet which I'm sure will be of interest to you :thumbup:

Hi mrswombat

The advice given by Fraddycat was very good. At a normal weight, would it be advisable to go on a very restricted calorie diet?

Do you both work at the same place? Could he be eating high carb snacks that you don't know about? These could be the reason for levels increasing

You mention that he had his medication reduced. What was he taking? What is he taking now?

We have no idea what state our pancreas is in, how damaged it was before diagnosis. It could be that his is now wearing out and now needs more medication to achieve the levels that fit the guidelines.

You also mention tiredness. Has he been tested for Vitamin D deficiency, Vitamin B12 deficiency, Anaemia and underactive Thyroid as these along with high blood sugar can be silent causes of tiredness.