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Does vegetarianism help lower blood sugar?

If they are "intact" i.e. unprocessed then surely they pass through untouched?
Who actually eats kernels of unprocessed wheat for example
 
bulkbiker said:
If they are "intact" i.e. unprocessed then surely they pass through untouched?
Who actually eats kernels of unprocessed wheat for example
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No. Intact refers to the parts of the kernel that are present when you eat them. It has nothing to do with how the human body digests them. They most certainly do not come out our other end ”intact.”

I, for one, eat intact wheat kernels, called bulgur wheat. They are quite good, particularly in a salad of green and various veggies or in a stew. Given how popular they are in online stores, I’m clearly not the only one.
 

Interesting definition of "intact" then..
 
Just to answer the question directly- 'No'.
Vegetarianism, in itself, will not help lower blood sugar.
If you can work out a low-carb vegetarian diet, that could lower blood sugar, but the key would be the low-carb side, not the vegetarianism.
 
You don't have to low carb to be successful, my husband doesn't. For him exercise, losing weight and controlling his junk food intake seems to solve most of the problem. He does take metformin because he still likes to eat some pure junk food so he will probably stay on it. But he is a vegetarian.

I think it's more sometimes about the quantity of what processed foods you are eating..
 
I think in a nutshell: no, vegetarianism, in and of itself, will not help lower blood sugar. Or put another way, in a clinical trial where the only intervention was to remove all meat from the diet and replace it with plants, I would not expect markedly lower blood glucose to follow.

On the whole, it's a negative from me. An appropriate diet that is also vegetarian may be help lower blood glucose, but it will be the appropriate part that did it, not the vegetation. I don't doubt that many diabetics have success with vegetarianism, but I think we would find most were previously eating S.A.D (Stupid American Diet) high in carbs and fat (the perfect storm of metabolic calamity) that also happened to include meat.
 
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Some type 2 diabetics appear to be successful without low carb. They are very much in the minority.

Vegetarianism without also low carbing is not successful, from anecdotal evidence, for the majority who share their experiences here.
 
Would you mind sharing what average carb level your husband eats daily please? Low carb can mean different things to different people.
 
lucylocket61 said:
Would you mind sharing what average carb level your husband eats daily please? Low carb can mean different things to different people.
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Out of interest - not vegetarian but i probably get through 150g - 250g of carbs spread through the day. All from whole grains, fruit or veg (Not potato/bread/pasta/rice etc).


I went from 87 HBA1C to 33 on that diet. Though with significant exercise driven weight loss and incrased muscle mass.
 

Marie 2 said:
You don't have to low carb to be successful, my husband doesn't. For him exercise, losing weight and controlling his junk food intake seems to solve most of the problems.
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I think your experience shows that for some type 2 at least, weight is a major factor and shedding it makes a big difference. As if the pancreas/liver are misfunctioning due to being suffocated by fat. Once no longer covered in said fat they work better and insulin resistance is thus reduced.

Also exercise and extra muscle can help burn off excess glucose but not everyone is in a position to do this.

A diet previously ridiculously high in carbs brought down to reasonable levels may be sufficient change for those not highly resistant. Perhaps simply no longer pushing their personal limits so hard if not too much metabolic disfunction had occurred as yet.

If you are in these categories you may well be able to tolerate more carbs and maintain good levels.

Those that either don’t have huge changes to make, don’t have the weight to lose or remain highly reactive to carbs even after weight loss perhaps have different mechanisms at play (genetic?) causing or aggravating their insulin resistance.

All goes towards the argument there are varying versions of type 2 that as yet are as undifferentiated.
 
225g is around the maximum daily allowance recommended as a proportion of 2000 Cal's for everyone, not just diabetic or those who are pre- diabetic.
 
lucylocket61 said:
225g is around the maximum daily allowance recommended as a proportion of 2000 Cal's for everyone, not just diabetic or those who are pre- diabetic.
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Current NHS guidelines is "at least 260g"

Not saying I agree with it but what is considered a normal diet is high in carbs if you include all carbs including fruits and veg. The lower number is the maximum of strarchy carbs of which I eat few for example.
 
I’m not sure I could even begin to tell you his carbs. He likes to eat and has always had a habit of grabbing the quickest thing to eat when he was hungry. If he had brought home 4 bags of potato chips for the week, 4 bags would have been consumed. At least he wasn’t a soda drinker. But if there was ever a case of someone eating the wrong stuff that caused their own issue it was him.

So he snorkels 4 times a week, takes a walk every day. He also is out and about, errands etc, yard work daily? He now snacks on healthier things when he’s hungry, like carrots, mushrooms, he loves cherry tomatoes. He’ll make a quick salad or fake hot dogs on whole wheat bread, bean burritos as quick meals now. Besides not eating “junk food” all the time he doesn’t restrict other foods in general. He has asked me along the way though what foods will spike his sugar levels etc and I have told him a lot of it is portions and his junk food snacking. I had a couple of extra Libres and that was the best thing for him because he could see directly what was going on.

But I would have to say he probably eats a regular carb level daily. Since he had slowly kept gaining weight he was eating “too much”. The solution for him is to keep losing weight and a high activity with exercise. And stopping all that junk food as fill up food.

I am just saying some people don’t need to low carb, just clean up their eating habits and adding exercise or losing weight can make a difference. I’ve seen that in several people. It does run in his family. His mom didn't develop a problem until she was in her late 70's, and always a normal weight, but his one sister who has been overweight for years developed a problem years ago, It's interesting to note the one sister that is not overweight and is a pescatarian, has always been highly active and careful about what she eats does not have any sign of a sugar problem. The weight issue/eating patterns? seems to be a real key in his family.
 
Very fortunate for him that it seems so simple to fix and manage. Probably doing him no harm at all in other health aspects too. Oh that it were so simple for me and many others though. As often repeated in here, we’re all different
 
@Marie 2 I'm not saying this is or will be your husband, but my experience has been that over time, the level of dietary intervention needed to control my HBA1c has gotten worse over time. In other words, cleaning up my diet a little was enough to put my numbers in a good range in the beginning, but it only bought me some time, as the disease still progressed.

Mechanistically, it seems the explanation is that my insulin resistance continued to worsen, even though my glucose was back to a near normal reading.
 
His A1C has been steadily going down over years now. They only have him come back every year now and he has no other issues. He keeps track of BG's at home.

This might not work for everyone, but weight loss, regular exercise and stopping most of his junk food eating made a huge difference for him. Some people don't do well with a low carb diet or they don't want to do one. There can be other choices out there as long as those choices work. I think it boils down to what you are eating and lifestyle changes on how well you do on any diet. The mastering diabetes program is high carb almost no fat and no processed food at all and has been successful for a lot too.
Different things work for different people.

It's just too easy and cheap to eat a lot of junk food nowadays and get into bad habits.

Being a very strict vegan for so long has protected me from that thank goodness.
 
lucylocket61 said:
Vegatarians can and do eat cheese, milk and eggs.
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How much cheese and eggs can you eat EVERY day ?

Before 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.
That's what I been trying to find out. The way my legs been betting worse despite my HbAc-1 value of 31 and fasting BG value hanging at remission level. Based on my experience the answer is: not much.

But one of the first things I learned is everybody and everyone's body is different and react differently to different things with different tolerances.
 

Mike, I don’t think it’s helpful to make such unsubstantiated statements. I’m not aware of any evidence which backs those claims up - please do post links if you have any.
 
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