Dr Neal Barnard 'Reverse Diabetes Diet'

[seadragon]

The vegan diets are first and foremost about animal welfare rather than human health so you do need to factor that into any info on diet from vegan sources. Chicken is an animal, Barnard is a vegan - hence read into that what you will. Personally I find the low carb/healthy fats diet to be very effective in controlling diabetes but apparently some people have success with high carb low fat but I know I could not bear to eat what they do - fats and oils are why gives food it's taste. This fact is why the many 'low fat' processed foods are full of sugar because taking out the fats takes out the taste and they have to make it palatable somehow. Also for me any carbs skyrocket my blood sugar and I'd rather avoid the hefty peaks and troughs. But if you like the idea of low fat then give it a try. Either diet is better than the Eatwell plate or Standard American diet.

 

[bulkbiker]

on a 700 calorie diet

700 calories of what though?
Why are you afraid of fat?

 

[Oldvatr]

Have a look at results from the Ma Pi diet. (interesting that one of the first results I got on google is one of my own posts which mentioned the gut biome and there is a recent paper on that) I don't give any credance to the Ying/Yang origins of the diet but it is an extremely high carb/fibre-low fat, vegan diet. The results of various small trials have been excellent. There are caveats but there are similar caveats for many of the low carb trials. For myself, I would find it an almost impossible diet to stick to but then I would find it hard to stick to some of the diets followed by people on here.

Thank you for this information. I have found the following study report on the diet.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/dmrr.2519/pdf

The study is only short term (21 days only) with small group sizes (between 16 and 61, [124 subjects in total]) who were given the same macrobiotic diets, but with local variations allowed for the vegetable choices.


Now the preamble in the report that justifies the reasons why the diet works is that whole grains slow down stomach emptying, and slow down the insulin response. In other words it is being presented as a low GI diet, So I am not surprised that the test method comprises of single glycemic measurements at 2 hr PP time only. So IMHO this will be missing any glucose spike registering if it is delayed. There is no attempt to measure HbA1c or other long term i,e, fbgl measurements to confirm an overall effect over the 21 days. So this is a bad test technique, and does not in my opinion confirm the claims for this diet,


There are other studies that do confirm that a low GI diet may be suitable for controlling diabetes (most notably the Mediterranean Diet and South Beach diet) and neither is based on Whole Grains. The important thing in most of these diets is to remove high GI carbs and processed foods, and the Ma Pi diet is not providing any extra special tweak that other diets would not achieve, I believe most of the diets we use here can be adapted for vegans quite successfully, and animal products are only necessary to supply fat soluble micronutrients such as B6 and B12 which can be supplemented outside of the diet.


Recent scientific meta studies have established a link between low fat or ultra low fat intake diets with an increased risk of early mortality, so I would myself be wary of attempting a low fat diet now.

 

[daisy1]

@yzablocki

Hello and welcome to the Forum As mentioned above, here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask more questions when you need to and someone will be able to help.


BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS

Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.

A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 259,000 people who are demonstrating this.

On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.

The role of carbohydrate

Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.

If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.

The bad news

Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.

The good news

People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.

Controlling your carbs

The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.

There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:

• Reduce your carbohydrate intake
• Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates

Reduce your carbohydrates

A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.

The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.

Choosing better carbohydrates

The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.

Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.

Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.

Eating what works for you

Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.

To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.

The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:

Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (adults)

• Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l

Blood glucose ranges for type 1 diabetes (children)

• Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
• 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l

However, those that are able to, may wish to keep blood sugar levels below the NICE after meal targets.

Access to blood glucose test strips

The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:

• structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
• self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education

Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.

You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.

Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.

Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of which are free.

• Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
• Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.

 

[LittleGreyCat]

T2. diagnosed 2.5 years ago. was on 4 medications which brought my fasting sugar down to 170. not really the answer. Im not obese just a bit overweight (5"7 185 lbs.). 6 weeks ago I dropped all medications and im on a 700 calorie diet. (slightly mimicking the diet of post by-pass patients). i dropped 18 lbs and my fasting sugar is 140. not good enough, but at least no meds. 2 more weeks of this diet and then i need to figure out what is next. Don't want to go back on the meds.
Im asking the above question because im leaning towards a low fat diet and possible a high carb vegan diet, but i dont want to give up chicken breasts if it has only 2-3% fat. i will give it up if we are talking 23% fat.
If it is low in fat, why is it so necessary to give it up? is it so much worse than avocado?

Avocado is allegedly 15% fat and 2% carbohydrate, so is a staple of a high fat diet.

Your approach seems at odds with many on this forum, as we tend to see the most success on low carbohydrate diets. This does not seem unreasonable because carbohydrates turn to sugar and we diabetics have a major problem processing all sugars.

Either way I wouldn't worry about the fat content of chicken breast. The figures for "skin off" are around 2.2 grams per 100 grams cooked.

I would respectfully suggest that you might increase the fat content in your food and drop any remaining carbohydrates.

You are doing really well with your weight loss and your BG improvement.

Be aware that it will take a while for your fasting BG to settle down as your body adjusts, and your true readings will be after you have settled on your long term eating plan.

If you are eating mainly carbohydrates you may still be maintaining a glycogen store in your liver and other tissues which is being dumped over night as your BG dips. So called Dawn Phenomenon.