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'Newcastle diet' advice

I had a lot of resistance at first from GP. So I printed the info and left it with them. I had wanted to do total food replacement, though, and the meal replacement programme had to be with GP approval. There is no reason why anyone could not follow a Newcastle diet using commercially available products.
I was also told eating a balanced diet would result in weightloss. I followed the NHS guidelines, gained weight and became diabetic. I understand the reluctance of health professionals to recommend what they call 'fad diets', but the Newcastle method is not a company set up to make money out of gullible fat peopl. It is a programme still under development by an academic team trying to replicate the success of reversing diabetes that is seem in people who have bariatric surgery, without the trauma of having surgery.
It worked for me to return blood glucose to normal levels and they have stayed that way despite the fact that I still have weight to lose.
 


Hi @Crimsonclient I sent the Newcastle papers, links and information sheets for health professionals to the GP in our practice who runs the Diabetic Clinic who said at our second meeting that she had never heard of the Newcastle research and diet. To her credit, she read it all and has supported me with it over these past months. I just think there is real ignorance in the medical profession and a great need for doctors and DNs to be better educated. We have all made a real effort to learn about and understand diabetes and it is shocking that those who are meant to help us are at times more ignorant than we all probably were at the beginning of this journey. This GP said that she had never met anyone like me (not sure this was in any way a compliment!) who has set out to lose so many stones and has achieved it. She said most patients simply can't do it, so they continue simply to provide drugs. How very depressing!
 
I do wonder how many more patients could be encouraged to achieve something like you have @paulins . Maybe not many as it is not easy to stay as focussed as you have. However, as you say, knowledge among health professionals is limited. Fair enough GPs are just that GENERAL Practitioners and can't be expert at everything, but often diabetic patients are referred to the nurse, or put on a course, where the same old script is used, eatwell plate etc. they seem to have low expectations of diabetes patients and regard diabetes as a progressive illness. I have spoken with many people with T2 who are happy to have medication and been told to eat a normal diet. What if there normal diet is what is contributing to their diabetic state?
I think that those of us who have found an alternative method of controlling T2, or hopefully reversing it, need to educate our GPs and nurses. Sadly, some of them dismiss our efforts.
 
I have been 'sort of' Newcastle dieting since Wednesday.
Having been sidetracked and somewhat daft for a few weeks I am having the meal replacement shakes 3times a day with supplement of veg servings. On a maximum of 3 days a week I will have 2meal replacements and a meal of veg and some fish, meat or egg. I decided to do it this way, as I have in the past had periods of 13 weeks and 6 weeks of total food replacement. This was very effective in bringing blood glucose to non-diabetes levels, and I have been that way since September 2011. So I guess I should be satisfied, but I am very overweight and need to lose at least another 5 stones. Yup, I was enormous before I lost the original 42kg, and have regained around 12kg of those. So I need to get a grip before I start to get diabetic blood glucose readings again. The idea of having meals of real food a couple of times a week is to prevent me feeling deprived and to allow for social eating. (To anyone doing Newcastle diet primarily to reverse diabetes I recommend following the guidelines of Prof Taylor and his team).
I will report progress on here. I will be exercising as well. I do appreciate support and suggestions and please feel free to nag me if I start to get lazy.

Many thanks
Pipp
 


Brilliant @Pipp! We will all support and encourage you as you lose the weight steadily with the Newcastle diet! You have already shown you can do it - with the MASSIVE 42 kg loss! How absolutely impressive is that!
 

Good luck with it, You have to do whatever works best for you. I know I would go off rails very quickly on such a regime but am aware that I perhaps don't have the issues around overeating stuff ( other than carbs) that others on here have expressed. I'm sure that once you get back in the swing of it, the regained weight will come off and then you can reassess where you need go from there. I would like to lose 4st so I'll be keeping you company on the downward shift.
 
Thank you. Now I have made it public on here I will stick to it.
Oh @cold ethyl it really is not as difficult as is sounds. In fact taking food out of the equation can make it eady. The difficult bit is when you stop Newcastle method and return to real food.
 

I can see that it is perhaps easier to cut food out as far as possible, but I like cooking and eating with hubby so I think that any "diet" has to be worked round that for me. Plus I have seen people do the Slimfast shake thing, lose shedloads and then pile it straight back on as soon as they stop the restrictive diet. Perhaps with the motivation of controlling my diabetes I might stick to it but I am happy with my current weight loss and food intake. As long as we are losing weight and those numbers look ok on the meter I think it doesn't really matter what regime we choose. I just want to avoid the humiliation of the big fat tape that looks like the measures they used to use for long jump at school going round my waist every DN appointment.
 

You're spot-on about the motivation.

I eased off the dieting three weeks ago, with the intention that I should consolidate what I've lost and then restart the diet a few weeks down the line. So far, give or take a pound or two differences on the scales, day-to-day, I haven't put any of the lost weight back on but I do know that it's my T2 that's keeping me eating sensibly and exercising a lot more than I ever used to before I was diagnosed.
 
Keep at it Tom. This is the first time bar trying to get into a nice wedding dress that I've really stuck at diet since having my son 20 yrs ago. Part of it is the fear factor and part of it is wanting to show the health care team that we aren't all fat losers with no willpower. I can understand that they see hundreds of people who make no lifestyle changes re diabetes or other serious ailments, but with a bit less scepticism and a bit more support and compassion, I'm sure many more lives could be turned round. I think of all the things that they could offer and then see what is offered and get a bit peed off... My dad bad a bypass after a possible heart attack and he went on several exercise and dietary advice courses through the NHS and I can't help but think that running weekly exercise and diet groups at the surgery ( though not ones advising the Eat well plate) would in the long term save the NHS thousands.
 
That's great @cold ethyl. Glad you have found the right way for you.
However, with the Newcastle method you can still eat meals together with loved ones. For example, Mr P likes pasta, so I make a veg sauce with approved Newcastle veg, and he has his with pasta, mine is with sliced courgette. I also make soups that are permissible too.
I guess people do gain weight when they stop any diet if they go back to old way of eating. For me, I managed to maintain the weight loss for two and a half years. I had during the weeks on Newcastle diet first time taken time to consider how I wanted life to be in future. The weight gain came when I had been incapacitated and had healthy hospital food, then depended on others preparing my food for a couple of months. Also lost the plot a couple of weeks ago, testing how blood glucose would react with lots of carb food. A few weeks of daft behaviour.
For me the most motivation is thinking of the complications I have seen my late father suffer through uncontrolled diabetes. Won't go into too much detail, but the worst was vascular dementia.
My first reason for starting Newcastle diet 3 years ago was the hope to reverse diabetes. With non-diabetic blood glucose readings I now need to lose all the weight to avoid getting in that position again. Having tried other ways to lose weight, with some success, then followed by the weight re-gain, I need for the moment to stick with my tried and tested method. I will in the future be eating low carb, fresh produce, no processed foods. For the moment though I need to focus on the present time, and I am grateful for support and positive feed back I get here.
Thanks
Pipp
 
P.s. i also feel most healthy and full of energy eating Newcastle style.
 
My great-gran died of diabetic complications in her sixties and on my paternal side everyone seemed to have cardio-vascular issues so I am determined to shift the weight and lower my BP and BS levels. I think that you have to do whatever works for you best and what you have confidence in working. You have had great losses with the diet in the past and sustained your improved blood sugars so I am sure that you can do it again. As you approach your weight loss goal , like all of us, you can start to think about what is next. Like you I am keen to enjoy a diet of fresh, unadulterated foods as I am sure that they are the solution to long term health. I feel more energised without all the carbs clogging my systems up and am enjoying not feeling bloated all the time. I also don't feel that insatiable hunger that I used to and look forward to food at meal times and my small cheese portion or 1/2 sq 85% chocolate at bedtime a few nights a week. I honestly thought I was going to be fat till I dropped dead at 55 but now I see a glimmer of hope which I guess is the only upside of diagnosis.
 
Yes, great going @2131tom .
When I did Newcastle for first time 3 years ago I did an extreme form, as I knew no better, which was total food replacement. I stuck to that for 9 weeks, had a break then six more weeks. Not sure I could do that again, but my motivation to reverse diabetes is no longer there.
I do think if it is not possible to follow to the letter the Taylor Newcastle diet recommendations, then a good way is to take notice of your body but also your mind. It is no use if a way of eating makes you feel deprived.
Well done @2131tom for maintaining weight in between following the Newcastle method. That is good training for when you achieve your goals. I had been wondering where all the other Newcastle crew had gone. Keep up the good work and if you feel up to it do keep us informed. It helps to know others are doing well. We are in a minority on forum.

Thanks also @cold ethyl. So many posters do not agree with Newcastle diet and try to discredit it, or evangelise about their method being best. It is refreshing to have the respect of a no Newcastler.
 
Cheers @cold ethyl. I will enjoy cheese and choc again. Just not yet.
 

This seems such a good idea to me! I live in Scotland, and apparently we can get a letter from the GP which will get us a significant reduction at a local gym, which I suppose is something, but it would be good to have regular sessions advising us on the best exercise and diets for our own particular circumstances and our individual current health issues. I am not really a 'clubs' person, but would attend something like this to learn and educate myself - and to help sustain the motivation to keep going. I have recently come to realise that I will have to put just as much effort into maintaining the weight loss and keeping up the exercise when I reach my target, and there would be more chance of this I think if I was doing it with others. I genuinely feel we (and there are SO many of us!) are just left to get on with it, and certainly nobody has ever suggested that I see an endocrinologist or a diabetes specialist.
 
If you can cope with a virtual group @paulins , the thread on here 'sporty forty e.t.' Is very useful in exchange of ideas and support.
 
Pipp said:
If you can cope with a virtual group @paulins , the thread on here 'sporty forty e.t.' Is very useful in exchange of ideas and support.
Click to expand...

Thanks @Pipp - will take a look!
P x
 
A friend sent this to me today ... interesting reading! Has anyone heard of this? I see you can buy propolis in health food shops.



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...+S,+Toda+C,+Shimamoto+Y,+Iwanaga+T,+Miyoshi+I.

Beneficial effects of Brazilian propolis on type 2 diabetes in ob/ob mice: Possible involvement of immune cells in mesenteric adipose tissue.
Kitamura H1, Naoe Y, Kimura S, Miyamoto T, Okamoto S, Toda C, Shimamoto Y, Iwanaga T, Miyoshi I.
Author information

Abstract
The anti-diabetic effects of Brazilian propolis were examined using ob/ob mice. Although repeated injection of an ethanol extract of Brazilian propolis (100 mg/kg, ip, twice a week for 12 weeks) did not affect body weight gain and food intake of ob/ob mice, blood glucose and plasma cholesterol levels were significantly attenuated. Moreover, the propolis extract partially restored glucose tolerance and insulin resistance, indicating anti-diabetic properties of the extract. The propolis-treated mice exhibited lower weight gain in mesenteric adipose tissue, while weight gains in inguinal and epididymal adipose tissues were not modulated. Flow cytometric and microscopic analyses suggested that the extract promoted accumulation of eosinophils into mesenteric and epididymal adipose tissues. Alternatively, the ratio of M1-like macrophages to M2-like macrophages in mesenteric adipose tissue was reduced by the propolis injection, coincident with the decrement of the number of interleukin-12A(+) cells. Levels of M1 macrophage markers, such as Itgax and Il12b transcripts, were decreased in the vascular stromal fraction of mesenteric adipose tissue, whereas those of pan-macrophage markers Emr1 and Cd68 were not influenced. Microarray and subsequent gene ontology term analyses suggested that propolis attenuated immune activation in mesenteric adipose tissues. Taken together, this indicates that Brazilian propolis improves diabetes in ob/ob mice, presumably through modification of immune cells in mesenteric adipose tissues.

KEYWORDS:
adipose tissue macrophage; chronic inflammation; eosinophils; metaflammation; ob/ob mouse; propolis; type 2 diabetes
 
6 st 7 lbs lost now! Do 5k every day. BS this morning 3.9. Wonder if this means I have reversed diabetes? Recent liver scan and no fat in liver. Was gong time ask them to have quick look at my pancreas while they were at it but didn't in the end.
 
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