I was diagnosed in 2012 and have been diet only apart from a couple of months when my hba1c rose quickly and I was prescribed sitogliptin (sp) for a while until we realised it was the statins that has caused the rise. I don’t think it is a cult at all but people learning what foods they maybe able to or should not eat. Within my own family there are various allergies including fish, dairy, nuts, eggs etc and, at one stage, there were 3 cealiacs including my aunt and brother - preparing foods for a family get together can be a nightmare!
I am lucky in that I seem to be more carb tolerant that many diabetics and average between 100 - 130g carbs per day (although I have been known to have more) and my hba1c has been within non-diabetic levels for approx 5 years. I also eat full, as opposed to low fat, yoghurts, milk etc. This is a useful forum with a lot of good information, links and experiences for those newly diagnosed however, and I am going to put my head above the parapet here and this is purely my interpretation, reading some of the posts there seems to be an underlying trend of people becoming afraid of food to the extent that they seem to need to ask the forum permission to eat it when all they need to do is test and make their own mind up. We are all individuals and, as such, react differently to food and, in the case of Diabetes, carbs.