Cure and prevent diabetes mellitus with diet, not drugs

Part 6: The correct diet for a Type-2 diabetic, (or treatment without drugs)

Let's start from scratch and pull all the evidence together.

Why Do Adults Become Diabetic?

Adults and children develop Type-2 diabetes as a consequence of eating a high-carbohydrate diet — and for no other reason.

As a diabetic, there is only one way to 'cure' the condition and lead a normal drug-free life again: stop doing the thing that caused the disease. Diabetes is caused by a chronic high intake of carbohydrates — sugars and starches

The current "healthy" dietary recommendation advise a chronic intake of carbohydrates

The evidence says that a low-carb diet is healthier. The reason why is explained in part 5 and my vegetarian pages .

Eskimo food 'igloo' cartoon showing five ways to eat blubber

The Balanced Diet

There is nothing so dear to a nutritionist's heart as the idea of a "balanced" diet.

DiabetesUK say: "Foods can be divided into five main groups. In order for us to enjoy a balanced diet we need to eat foods from these groups."

And the ADA say: "No single food will supply all the nutrients your body needs, so good nutrition means eating a variety of foods."

Here is my definition of a balanced diet: A balanced diet is any diet that supplies all the nutrients the body needs in the correct proportions.

If you accept that definition, then a diet entirely of meat — so long as the organs (liver, kidney, etc) and fat are included — is a balanced diet.

Don't believe me? Then consider what the Inuit (Eskimos) eat, as conveyed in the Eskimo food "pyramid" cartoon above.

Main Points

Diabetes is not caused by obesity; both conditions are caused by the same thing

Dietary carbohydrates cause obesity

Dietary carbohydrates cause diabetes

Obesity is merely evident before diabetes

To reduce disease, reduce carbohydrates.

In Natural Health & Weight Loss I showed pictures of my wife, Monica, and how her weight had stabilised for more than 40 years on a low-carb diet. Similarly, I wrote about William Banting and the follow-up research which showed time and again that a low-carb, high-fat diet was best for weight loss.

Why? It's really quite simple. It's because that is our natural diet!

Q. What have all wild animals got in common?

A. None is overweight and none gets diabetes

Q. What have all primitive humans got in common?

A. None is overweight and none gets diabetes

Q. What have westernised industrial humans got in common?

A. Many are overweight and many get diabetes

Q. What have westernised industrial humans' pets got in common?

A. Many are overweight and many get diabetes

Do you see the pattern?

What Is Our Natural Diet?

For details see my pages on Vegetarianism .

Summary of Evidence

Agriculture very recent in history.
For 2.5 million years — diet high-protein, high-fat, low-carb.
99.9% of our genes formed before advent of agriculture.
We evolved eating an animal sourced diet.
The current concept of a "healthy' diet quite different — and unnatural.

Now let's get back to sorting out the diabetes problem.

The conventional approach to diabetes treatment is with dietary means PLUS drugs and there is a good reason why this is not a good idea

Two Types of Disease

There are two distinct types of disease.

1. Diseases caused by living organisms: (typhoid, measles, colds). In these cases drugs, to kill bacteria, viruses, etc are the best answer.

2. Diseases caused by environment / lifestyle: (obesity, diabetes, ischaemic heart disease). In this class of diseases, drugs are rarely successful. In these cases it is better to find and modify the cause. And the cause in pretty well all of them seems down to unnatural diet.

The Alternative Approach

For that reason I believe, and teach, that the correct way to treat diabetes is with weight loss by dietary means alone — without the use of drugs.

The strategy is to reduce excessive insulin with a very high fat, low-carb diet. Trials prove that it works — see Part 5 .

Forward to the Past

All this isn't new. Before 1984, diabetics were treated with low-carb, high-fat diet. Think about it: a low-carb, high-fat diet reduces postprandial (after meals) glucose spikes. If there are no glucose spikes there's no hyperinsulinaemia and with no hyperinsulinaemia there's no weight gain and no diabetes.

Summary of Protocol

The diet is explained in my book Natural Health & Weight Loss This book is written for people who are overweight but otherwise healthy. It advocates 60 grams of carbohydrate a day. For diabetics, this should be reduced to around 30-40 grams a day.

The amount of calories lost through cutting down on carbs must be made up in some way from other foods. It is important that you do not go hungry.

It is equally important that these calories come from dietary fat — NOT from protein. The aim is to reduce blood glucose and insulin levels. Our bodies will make glucose from protein — they don't make glucose from fat. And fat is a much better fuel anyway (see my page on diet for athletes ).

To help you here is a list of foods to avoid, a list of foods to eat and a simple carb counter

Given this, the ratios you should adopt for your daily meals are:

10% — 15% carbohydrate
20% — 25% protein
60% — 70% fat

The amount of fat might seem too high to manage. In fact, it isn't too difficult if you fry as much as possible, buy the fattiest meat you can find — and don't cut the fat off, eat full-fat cheeses, put cream on the small amount of fruit you are allowed and spread butter on cooked vegetables or fatless meat.

As an example, here is an actual menu for my meals for one day:

Breakfast 8:00 am

72g extra large egg

120g fat bacon

70g mushrooms (these soak up fat)

15g lard

75g banana

70g single cream (in drink)

C= 24.5g: P=37g: F=67.2g

781 cals

Lunch 1:00 pm

300g fat pork chop

40g carrots

70g runner beans

60g squash

50g onion

Butter on vegetables

C=16g : P=57g : F=90g

1098 cals

Evening 6:45pm

140g brie cheese

75g apple

50g cream (in drink)

C=13.9g : P=31g : F=45.9g

593 cals

plus 2 litres of water as plain water or in tea/cocoa

Totals for the day	Carbs	Protein	Fats	Grand total
	54.4g	125g	203.1g
Calories:	217.6	500	1827.9	2545.5 kcals
Percentages of calories:	8.6%	19.7	71.7%	100%

That is an example of what I use as a slimming diet — Does it really look so difficult to live on?

Do I exercise to burn off all these calories? Not really, I spend most of my day in front of a computer.

NOTE: There are two points from a diabetic point of view:

A diabetic should cut out the fruit at breakfast time if he/she notices the "Dawn Phenomenon" (higher blood glucose levels on waking than before going to bed).

The small meal in the evening will ensure that blood glucose overnight and in early morning does not go too high

Introduction
Part 1: The scale of the problem
Part 2: What is diabetes -- Are you at risk?
Part 3: Conventional treatment for Type-2 diabetes – and why it fails
Part 4: Why carbs are the wrong foods for diabetics
Part 5: The evidence
Part 6: The correct diet for a Type-2 diabetic, (or treatment without drugs)
Part 7: Treatment for Type-1 diabetes
Suitable foods for diabetics

Last updated 6 February 2008

another website, Diabetes Diet spells out in easy to read terms just what causes diabetes and how best to treat diabetes.

"One must attend in medical practice not primarily to plausible theories but to experience combined with reason." Hippocrates

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