I've been on the low carb diet for three months now. I've dropped over two stone and feel amazing. I avoided pills by getting on the low carb diet from day one, and not telling my doctor until a couple of weeks (and minus 10lbs) later.
What happened for me was I had a friend, who is a nutritionist, point me in the direction of the Bergstein Diet when I was first diagnosed diabetic. To me, it feels as if she saved my life that day. She told me not to tell my doctor I was on a 'low carb' or 'keto' diet because there is still a mix of opinion in the medical profession about it--I can't remember the name she told me to use now, meto-something-or-other diet. Some doctors are amazing and open to the concept of low carb diets, others stick to what they know--the archaic theory about carbs being a good thing.
I told my doctor I was on a diet. I didn't mention which one. Two weeks in, I'd lost weight and my blood sugar had dropped by astronomical amounts. I then told my doctor what diet I was on, and she was pleased with it and told me to try it out for 3 months to see how I go. No medication, no worries, just three months to get it working, which I think I've done. The blood test results for that come back in three days, and I'll then be able to call it a success *fingers crossed*.
At the end of the day, it's your body and it's your choice on what opinion you choose to listen to. I listened to Dr Bergstein and an independant nutritionist, rather than tell my doctor what kind of diet I was going on, because apparently a lot of doctors will advise their patients to get loaded up on pills and eat a lot of carbs, rather than suggesting the Bergstein diet, which from what I can see is the best solution for Type2 diabetics.
I'm no expert, but the scientific fact that there is nothing nutritional in a carbohydrate that the human body needs was a big decider for me. "Carbohydrates are a common source of energy in living organisms; however, no carbohydrate is an essential nutrient in humans." - Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbohydrate
Also, the fact that the word 'carbohydrate' is scientifically called saccharide, which comes from the Greek meaning for 'sugar' kind of makes me sceptical about the need for carbs at all, especially when your'e trying to lower your blood sugar. Carbs are sugar at the end of the day. There's a lot of hype around the subject, and I'm not a scientist who can argue it, but there really isn't any scientific proof that I can find which shows that a low carb diet is bad for you. There's a lot of statistical data that proves high-carb foods are cheaper to produce and just about every major food industry relies on them to make their products, but very rarely have I seen big business benefit anyone's health.
There's a lot of sniping about the low carb diet. 'May cause bad breath' was the dire warning on one site that made me p*ss myself laughing. I'd read around and make the decision on your diet based on the hard facts.
For me, I look at the bread counter and see brightly packaged poison these days. But it's an ongoing argument, especially in the medical profession. I think the answer is to follow the science and your body's reaction to a diet, to figure out if it is the right one for you. Not all doctors are going to agree with a low carb diet, but then, it isn't their body that's suffering is it? Not all diets will suit everyone. You need to test them out and see how you feel.
My choice was pretty easy. I've been misdiagnosed by doctors a few times now, whereas my nutritionist friend is a member of Mensa with an insanely high IQ, who has never been wrong about anything in her entire life. She pointed me to the Bergstein Diet and links to all the research about it, and I jumped on it because it has an 84% reversal rate for Type2's.
