[edvegan]

I'm 3 months into Dr. Barnard's program to use vegan diet to reverse diabetes. Meanwhile, my wife Julia experimenting with cooking vegan meals. I cut down Lantus from 170 to 80 daily, and Novolog from 80 to 20. My A1C went down from 9% to 7.3%. I'm looking forward to learn more about the "beast", since 2004, I was mostly degrading with progressing neuropathy, so as blood sugars (up to 350mg/dL), now I keep them below 200.

 

[foxl]

Well, Ed, glad that diet works for you!

I prefer a low-CARB vegetarian diet myself -- controls my blood sugar, and I always feel sated and happy.

 

[edvegan]

low-CARB vs. VEGAN

Thanks for your input, Foxl. Before vegan I was working on carbs with FitDay, logging all the food into it. But I felt hungry often and end up my day with 300g of carbs. With Barnard's vegan diet I can eat with no counting; in 3 months I lost 10 lb and I can see my insulin sensitivity upped. I would relly appreciate your input on cravings and carb monitoring and do you separate sugars from fiber? Thanks!

 

[foxl]

I do not count fiber grams in my carbs. I eat somewhere around 30 - 60 g carb per day -- I do use insulin.

I use Truvia, erythritol and stevia sweeteners.

I do not really have cravings that cannot be covered effectively in my diet ... although I do miss peanut butter occasionally. The starch in spikes my blood sugar.

Other than that, I do not have carb cravings on this diet.

 

[Shanny]

Well Ed, congratulations on bringing your numbers down under 200. I hope in the NEXT three months you'll be able to get under 100.

Take care and good luck.

 

[jwags]

To eliminate cravings I found I had to eliminate the carbs in my diet. I did a diet similar to Dr Barnards before I was dx'd. It was a vegetarian with almost no fat. Even with tons of exercise and a normal weight my bg climbed to 240 fasting. I now eat meat, preferably organic and freerange and have reduced bgs to under 100. Today 75. The only thing I count is carbs , usually between 30-50 a day. For breakfast I rarely have more than 3-4 carbs, Lunch and dinner I allow myself a little more 15-20. I eat to my meter, which means I choose food which keeps my after meal bgs no higher than 120, usually less. I found that was the only way I could finally get HbA1c close to normal. No one knows where damage starts. It could be 100, 120 or 140, we just don't know so we need to get as close to normal as possible.

 

[not yet]

... although I do miss peanut butter occasionally. The starch in spikes my blood sugar.

Question: How do you determine starch in peanut butter? I thought peanut butter was mostly fat, with a little bit of protein.

 

[not yet]

I'm 3 months into Dr. Barnard's program to use vegan diet to reverse diabetes.

I'm learning to eat vegan too, but not because of Dr. Barnard's book. In the past eight months, I've figured out that proteins cause intense muscle pain. The grain carbs I eat are usually low on the glycemic scale, and they have fiber. i.e. steel cut oats, barley, quinoa, buckwheat, and millet.

 

[foxl]

Read the nutrition label -- carb grams, and those not sugar or fiber are likely to be starch. Or maybe phlogiston?

Peanuts are a legume. The seed of this plant stores much of its energy as starch.

 

[jwags]

I usually buy the natural peanut butter which only has peanuts and salt in it. I think it is 5 carb and 2 fiber per 2 T so not much. Beware many of the commercial peanutbutters may have added sugar, avoid them. Most of my diet is proteins and fat. Unfortunately I have had to give up things like steel cut oats, whole grain bread, quinoa, barley,etc.

 

[foxl]

Does not matter to me -- natural is just as bad. I must restrict to a serving of 2 tsp, not TBS, too!

 

[edvegan]

carbs control works!!!

Hi foxl! Thanks for your input. Yes, with sweeteners you can go down on carbs! My problem, so far, I didn't find a sweetener I would be able to consume on regular basis... Would you elaborate on kinds of insulins u use: regular, slow (like Lantus) or fast(like Novolog)? On 30 - 60 g/day of carbs, do u feel, u can function same as on 150 g/day (FDA RDA)?

Thanks,
edvegan

I do not count fiber grams in my carbs. I eat somewhere around 30 - 60 g carb per day -- I do use insulin.

I use Truvia, erythritol and stevia sweeteners.

I do not really have cravings that cannot be covered effectively in my diet ... although I do miss peanut butter occasionally. The starch in spikes my blood sugar.

Other than that, I do not have carb cravings on this diet.

 

[foxl]

I use Levemir, 9U per night, and Novolog, prn, 2 - 4 U, mostly at dinners but also some corrections for DP in the morning. I refer to myself as insulin-assisted -- neither dependent nor independent at this time, but it helps keep my A1c in a range acceptable to me -- under 6.

How do I function on low carb? Quite well -- the past 2 years I have had fewer illnesses than the last 10! And I am running (barring injuries) 5 - 6 times per week.

 

[Shalynne]

I can no longer function at all on a "normal" carb count. Was malfunctioning for a very long time, and now my strengths are coming back.

Some other diabetics can -- or even must -- do carbs, each to a different extent. Our needs vary greatly.

 

[onlymep]

welcome Edvegan it's great to hear you've found a diet that is working for you. It does take some time to get good control of BGLs. I'm sure you'll find this a great place for support and info. Keep us posted on how you're doing.

 

[edvegan]

You guys really cool!

I love this forum; it gives me support as well as "reality check". Yes, there are approaches and there are people who benefit from one approach or the other. There are more than 40 type 2 diabetes different in their underlying mechanism, nobody can tag them yet, we just try something, see, and share, kind of a mission how I understand it. Am I right about it? Do you agree?

 

[edvegan]

forward from older thread

This is from this forum circa Mar 2009 and right to the point that I'm a kind of trying to make a statement about...

jimvdn
Junior Member
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Posts: 1

Barnard Vegan Diabetes Diet

Just to share my experiences with the Dr Barnard diabetes diet which, simply, is low fat (not zero fat) vegan (not vegetarian), no calorie restriction diet. In 10 months I have gone from 260 pounds to 210 pounds (still 20 pounds overweight, but I’m 69 years old, so that’s good enough). Morning fasting whole blood glucose is 65. A1C is 5.8. I have eliminated Actos and Glipizide and half of my Metformin, down to 500mg of that. I have eliminated two of my three blood pressure medications, down to Lisinopril 40mg and my blood pressure is 120 over 50 and I get dizzy when I stand up sometimes so that medication may be lowered by my doctor soon. According to him, my HDL and LDL cholesterol and my trigycedrides are that of a new born baby. The downside of vegan is that there are so many nice things that can’t be eaten, but on the upside, there are many that are great. Tonight I had vegan broccoli soup and cornbread (a half an egg in that so I do cheat a tiny bit). On the subject of cheating, as soon as I reached my target numbers, I now eat whatever I want when I eat out, but follow the regime religiously for routine meals at home. Finally, the clincher to me is that I am rarely hungry eating at home, but when I’m out, particularly when there is a plate of cheese and crackers for appetizers, I change in to a ravenous beast and eat far too much. But, the lack of hunger when I’m being good which is most of the time, is dramatic. I even have to remind myself to eat lunch sometimes.

 

[Shanny]

Thank you, Ed, for your research.

Two things bother me a bit here and I'm going to be blunt: You've described having a "mission" here, and if your mission is to bring your blood sugars under control, that is altogether praiseworthy. If your mission is to persuade us that we all should try what works for you & jimvdn, well - we can keep that in mind for whenever our own methods aren't working, but YOU keep in mind that right now our own methods ARE working for us.

And then you say you're trying to make a "statement". I'm not sure why that is necessary. We already know about Dr. Barnard & his claims - all the good, all the bad & all the ugly. If his program is working for you and continues to keep your blood sugar safely low, by all means stay with it. You are more than welcome here, for support, comparing notes, etc. What we will not accept is missionary zeal regarding any specific program or method of control.

 

[edvegan]

mission statement

I withdraw it. I didn't mean "my mission statement", I meant "our mission statement" as a forum, like every company has one. Honestly, I don't care if this wording prevail or else. Let's go with your "mission statement": "The Diabetes Forum - Building a New Community to Serve Diabetics Online".

Generally speaking to me "mission statement" is a consolidating value we are commited to in our pursuit.

Ilya

 

[edvegan]

on "statement" wording

Shanny, you are right: that was not a "statement", that was "my 2 cents" kind of things.

Ilya