Any follow-up info on Newcastle diet?

[mrswombat]

Hi, I am a first-timer here.
My partner has Type 2 DB and we did some research on the web for the best way to control his BGL. We are inclined to try the Newcastle 800 Calory Diet.
We have some questions.

After 8 weeks on the diet, how long have you been able to keep DB at bay? Long enough to call it a "cure"? Or does it entirely vary by the individual?

After 8 weeks on the diet, did your lifestyle change voluntarily? Did you crave for the foods you used to eat, or did your taste in food change as a result of the diet. In other words, do you feel that an extremely strict lifestyle choice is forced upon you to keep DB at bay, or do you feel that you can eat almost anything you want, except that you don't really want to eat that much any more?

During the 8 weeks on the diet, did anyone work normally 9 to 5 or 9 to 6, five days a week? My partner tried some vegetarian diet in the past but it was very hard because I packed so much vegetarian food as his lunch and it still was not enough for him to get through a work day. Both of us find that when you have to do a lot of desk work involving PC work with high level of concentration, we tend to get really hungry, and we blame it on the brain needing to consume more glucose to do the desk work. My own experience tells me that desk work sometimes makes me more hungry than running more than ten kilos. We are wondering if my partner needs to secure 8 weeks of holidays before he embarks on this experiment.

Finally, was it okay for you to find a GP to support you? We have no idea how our local GP may react to our idea of experimenting on this diet, and if we cannot find any GP to monitor his progress, we wonder if it is safe for him to even try it.

Thank you very much for your help!

 

[Fraddycat]

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]

Hi, Fraddycat,
Thank you very much for responding.

Actually, my husband is already following Dr. Bernstein's no-carb hi-fat diet. It reduced his BGL drastically, his weight and BMI are now in the normal range, and his medication has been reduced accordingly. However, his BGL is creeping back up. Particularly, his fasting (dawn-effect) BGL is getting higher and he is feeling the tingling sensation in his toes again. So we are worried.

There may be a number of factors such as less exercise (in December, he could not exercise as much as he did before) and more rest (in holidays, he may be sleeping longer burning less energy). But I also wonder if he has still a high level of fat storage in his liver. I am not a medical doctor so I am only guessing these things. I have noted that the Newcastle diet is not recommended for not-so-fat people, so maybe this is a bad idea. But if no-carb hi-fat diet still gets his BGL into 9 to 10 mmol/L (162 to 180 mg/dL), we don't know what else to do. Increase drugs?

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.

BTW, I am a low-carb near-vegetarian recreational runner and I know what you are saying about low-carb diet making you more energetic. I used to have terrible hunger pangs from desk work before I switched my diet and started running. Nowadays I have the hunger pangs only when my job keeps me from preparing proper meals and I start eating whatever I can get my hands on.

The trouble is that my husband does not seem to feel the high energy from the no-carb high-fat diet or no-carb vegetarian diet. But it is only natural if your body cells forgot how to use the energy available in your blood circulation. His blood insulin level is within the normal range and he does not need any insulin injection. So it means that we have to find a way to make his body cells remember how to consume glucose. I don't know if the Newcastle diet is it, or if more high-intensity exercise should be introduced, or if we should simply ask the doctor to give more drugs to him.

 

[Sid Bonkers]

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.

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:

 

[))Denise((]

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.

 

[mrswombat]

Hi, Sid,
Hi, Denise,

Thank you both for your replies.

I have found and read other threads on Newcastle diet, and I now understand that it is not a "cure."

In that case, my husband would be happy to go back to no-carb diet afterwards, so it will be okay for him. He does not have a sweet tooth to begin with, and giving up carb was not very hard for him. I do not work in the same workplace with him, but it is very unlikely that he is eating high-carb snacks at his workplace. It is likely that he is eating too much animal fat and depositing more fat on his liver, which may explain why his fasting BGL is so high. So, if he can stay on Dr. Bernstein's zero-carb high-fat diet without suffering from hyperglycemia, we would consider it a "cure."

We will definitely find a GP who is willing to monitor his experiment, which may turn out to be very difficult. Where we are (Australia), apparently, it is "unethical" for hospital staff to discuss any diet other than carb-counting. When we asked questions about zero-carb or low-carb diet, they flatly refused to talk about it, saying, "Oh, I would lose my license." But our local GP seems to be a bit more open-minded, plus the Newcastle study was a legitimate medical study. We will print out all the resources and bring them to our GP. Hopefully he will agree to monitor my husband for 8 weeks. But if the doctor says it is too dangerous for him to do it, we will not go ahead.

His weight is at the highest-end of normal so he could lose 5 more kilograms without risking his life. But again, if the doctor doesn't think so, we will not go ahead.

And finally, I don't know the state of his pancreas but he was told the blood insulin level was normal, so his pancreas are still producing insulin normally.

He is taking Janumet 50mg twice a day.

Thank you so much for your reply again, and a very happy new year to you!