Vegan Diet
Tweet Many people instantly recoil at the idea of a vegan diet, but this attitude is gradually changing, particularly amongst people with diabetes. Can people with diabetes use a vegan diet to improve blood glucose control? Absolutely. By eating a healthy vegan diet low in cholesterol and saturated fat, but balanced enough to include fibre and protein, blood glucose levels can be made easier to control. This type of diet, particularly when combined with exercise, can help to lower blood glucose levels and better manage diabetes. What is a vegan diet for diabetes? A vegan diet effectively means cutting out meat, dairy and animal products whether you have diabetes or not. So what do you eat? Vegan diets, whether for people with diabetes or not, are usually based around plants. Particular foods eaten include vegetables, fruit, grains, legumes. Animal products such as meat and dairy are avoided, as are added fat and sugar. People on vegan diets often take vitamin B12 deficiency supplements. Isn’t a vegan diet for diabetics hard to stick to? Eating a vegan diet does require some compromise, but getting the right diabetes recipes and planning your diet well will make following a vegan diet for diabetes easy. When planning your vegan diet, you need to make sure that protein, carbohydrates, fat, vitamins and minerals are balanced. Vegan diets do not usually demand that portions be stuck to or calories counted, making them easier to follow than some diabetes diets. Can I lose weight using a vegan diet? Many people with diabetes, particularly type 2 diabetes, have a firm goal to lose weight. Weight loss is well understood as one of the best ways of achieving diabetes control. Vegan diets with a lower glycaemic index and a higher level of fibre are an excellent way of losing wei Continue reading >>
Balancing Your Blood Sugar Levels On A Vegan Diet
Getting your blood sugar levels correct can easily be managed through a vegan diet. Alessandra Felice shows us how it’s done… Glucose (the sugar in our blood) is essential to health because it’s required for the formation of ATP, the energy molecule in our bodies, which is necessary for every organ and cell to function. The two key hormones for blood glucose regulation are insulin and glucagon. When blood sugar is high, such as after a meal, insulin is released and helps to bring glucose circulating in the blood from the breakdown of food into the tissues for use and storage; when blood sugar is low, glucagon is released to break down glycogen (stored form of glucose in the tissues), causing the blood sugar to rise again. The body tries to maintain a constant balance between the two to function properly. But a state of continued elevated blood sugar can have a very negative effect on it as the body must release a consistent stream of insulin into the bloodstream to maintain healthy sugar levels. This will cause the tissues to become what is known as “insulin resistant”, due to the constant exposure to insulin, which causes more and more insulin to be released to remove circulating sugar that keeps rising as tissues are not responding to insulin anymore. Besides potentially contributing to diabetes, heart disease and other chronic metabolic diseases, long-term blood sugar imbalance may contribute to other conditions like increased fat storage in the abdomen, which is also dangerous for heart health and also cause inconsistent and poor energy. Balancing blood sugar is essential for our mental and physical health! Let’s take a quick look at what items or habits are best to reduce or eliminate to avoid blood sugar spikes. Avoid refined sugar and refined carbohyd Continue reading >>
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The Causes Of High Blood Sugar
The causes of high blood sugar are not a great mystery, although you'd think that must the case with so many people suffering from diabetes, candida, and many connected health complaints. Controlling blood sugar and maintaining a healthy sugar equilibrium is as easy as stepping away from dietary fat and processed foods and embracing whole, raw fruits and vegetables. This goes for all but type 1 diabetics, who can improve their situation but not reverse it by adopting these methods due to their inability to produce insulin in sufficient quantities. The Causes of High Blood Sugar: Looking At The Problem In Reverse Viewing the causes of high blood sugar as too much sugar intake and not enough insulin is a mistake. Neither is at the root of the problem. But because many seem to target sugar and insulin, high blood sugar is usually viewed as something that must be knocked down with drugs, insulin injections, and a diet limiting food intake. Of course, this does not get rid of diabetes or the high blood sugar levels, as any diabetes patient knows, but merely treats the symptoms. Blood tests usually register regular swings in sugar levels among those using these methods. Fat, not sugar, is generally the cause of high blood sugar and diabetes. Surprised? You don't hear about it much, but it's been known by the medical community for a long time. If you know much about diabetes, you've probably heard the name Dr. E.P. Joslin, founder of the famous Joslin Diabetes Center. As far back as 1927, he began to suggest that his diabetes patients were bringing their problems on themselves with their high-fat diets (1). By 1959, the Journal of the American Medical Association had published its first study showing that dietary fat was responsible for causing type 2 diabetes and high blood s Continue reading >>
5 Surprising Food Habits That Raise Your Blood Sugar
Taking care of your blood sugar is one of the most valuable things you can do for your mood, weight, and even your heart health. It’s essential for keeping your body’s chemicals (a.k.a. your hormones) in check and also helps stabilize your appetite. If you’re having a hard time finding some balance with your blood sugar, and constantly hungry no matter what, or jittery and shaky, then it’s time to turn to some tips for taking care of your blood sugar ASAP! Surprisingly, it’s not just the sugary white stuff that raises your blood sugar, and not even the fruit in your diet like some might say. It can also be caused by other factors that you’ll want to be aware of when going throughout your day. Your blood sugar really boils down to your insulin (the sugar hormone, as many call it), which also stores fat and secrets glucose into the cells. Your insulin isn’t your enemy when you care for it. It can help keep your energy stable, but the key is to slow it down for a steady walk, not send it on a rollercoaster ride. Here are some things you might not realize affect your blood sugar: 1. Too Much Caffeine Caffeine also raises insulin when consumed in excess. While a cup (or even two cups) of coffee a day is actually beneficial for your insulin, more than that can cause it to sky-rocket. Even when consumed from healthier sources like yerba mate or black tea, caffeine can make your insulin surge, which leaves you moody, shaky, irritable, and craving sweets. Then you become tired and exhausted when levels drop, which leads you to reach for more caffeine or more sugar, depending on your vice. See how to Eat Your Way to Energy: No Caffeine Needed here if you need some help, or these 14 Natural Caffeine-Free Choices to Help Mellow You Out if you’re stressed. 2. Sugar W Continue reading >>
Diabetes - Cause, Prevention, Treatment And Reversal With A Plant Based Diet
Summary This is a long article, so here's the summary: In the next 25 years 1 in every 3 Americans will have developed type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a serious progressive disease. Type 2 diabetes is largely a lifestyle-related disease and is preventable. Caused by diets high in saturated fat, not high in carbohydrates. Animal products and processed foods contain the vast majority of saturated fat in our diets. The excess fat inhibits insulin's effect so blood sugar levels remain dangerously high. By following a low-fat plant-based diet your risk of developing diabetes is very, very low. People with diabetes are at high risk for heart disease and stroke. Removing animal products from your diet helps lower your risk of having a heart attack or stroke. A low-fat plant-based diet has been proven to treat and reverse diabetes. Heart disease risk is also lowered by following a low-fat plant-based diet. A plant-based diet has been shown to work better than American Diabetes Association's guidelines in treating diabetes. Patients switching to a vegan diet didn't find it any harder to stick to than the ADA's recommended guidelines. Diabetes will affect 1 in every 3 of us Introduction Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition with the exact cause is currently unknown. It is partly inherited with multiple genes influencing the overall risk. Type 1 diabetes means the body doesn't produce insulin on it's own so insulin injections are required. There is currently no known way to prevent type 1 diabetes, but this form of diabetes only accounts for 5–10% of all cases of diabetes.[1] However type 2 diabetes is far more common. This form of diabetes accounts for 90-95% of all diabetes cases, and is characterised by insulin resistance. Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle related disea Continue reading >>
How To Follow A Vegan Diet With Diabetes
The same day now-58-year-old Nara Schuler was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2010, her doctor told her she’d have to start medication immediately — and stay on it for the rest of her life. But Schuler refused to accept this treatment recommendation. “I have to at least try to do something for myself,” she recalls thinking. With some research, Schuler learned about the potential benefits of a vegan diet for people with type 2 diabetes, and she began cutting meat and dairy, as well as packaged, processed, and fast food from her diet. Her new eating plan consisted mainly of nonstarchy vegetables, plus some fruit, beans, nuts, and seeds. And, to her delight, her diabetes improved. Within three months, her A1C, a measure of average blood sugar levels over the past two to three months, returned to normal. “I could see that the blood sugar was lowering every single day,” Schuler says. Within seven months, she had shed 90 pounds, helping to increase her insulin sensitivity. “I felt so empowered — it was amazing,” Schuler says. “It gave me a feeling of accomplishment that’s indescribable.” The Pros of a Vegan Diet for Diabetes “There’s a lot of new evidence showing up telling us the benefits of following a plant-based diet,” says Marina Chaparro, RDN, CDE, a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics who has type 1 diabetes. A review published in June 2016 in the journal PLoS Medicine suggested that following a plant-based diet rich in high-quality plant foods may decrease the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. And a vegan diet may also provide benefits if you already have diabetes, according to a review published in May 2017 in the Journal of Geriatric Cardiology. This review cites a small randomized controlled study published in A Continue reading >>
For 26 Years, I’ve Managed Type 1 Diabetes With A Plant-based Diet
Until age 35, my health was very typical for an American. Then in November of 1988, all that changed: my immune system suddenly decided that my insulin-producing pancreas beta cells were foreign and attacked and annihilated them, leaving me with type 1 diabetes. In less than 30 days, I lost 45 pounds and grew deathly weak. Eventually, I was found barely conscious at my work desk and rushed to the hospital, where I immediately received my first shot of insulin. My doctor’s grim prognosis hit like a ton of bricks: even with the best possible diabetic control, I would still suffer many debilitating, chronic complications of the disease. I envisioned myself disabled, blind, amputated, and living in a wheelchair. More on that later… A few days into my hospital stay, a fill-in doctor literally saved my life with a very simple short statement. He said, “No doctor can manage your diabetes.” He explained that the insulin doses are dependent on metabolism which changes from minute to minute, and so are too variable to be predetermined or managed by any other person. He recommended that I keep a log and learn the effects of everything I ate and did, and adjust my diabetes control and lifestyle accordingly. The geek in me took that advice to heart. Back home, I immediately bought a glucometer, a kitchen scale, a nutrition facts book, and a notebook in which to begin logging my new life. I began to learn how to match up the food I ate, my activity levels, and my insulin intake to keep everything in sync. My Doctors Prescribed a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet All of the nutritional information from my doctor, diabetes magazines and books, and even diabetes management classes strongly promoted a low-carb, high-fat diet. Confusion started to set in, however, as all my test-and-measure Continue reading >>
Type 2 Diabetes And Vegan Diets
The only prospective study measuring rates of diabetes in vegans, the Adventist Health Study 2, found them to have a 60% less chance of developing the disease than non-vegetarians after two years of follow-up. Previously, a cross-sectional report from the Adventist Health Study-2 showed vegans to have a 68% lower rate of diabetes than non-vegetarians. A number of clinical trials have now shown that a vegan, or mostly vegan, diet can lower body weight, reduce blood sugar, and improve other parameters for type 2 diabetes. 2017 Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies A 2017 meta-analysis reviewed 14 studies published in 13 papers ( 17 ). Two were cohort studies and the other 12 were cross-sectional. Vegetarians had a lower incidence of diabetes in eight of the studies while there was no difference in the other five. Based on the pooled analysis of the studies, vegetarians had a 27% lower risk for diabetes compared to omnivores (OR 0.73, 95% CI: 0.61, 0.87). When the researchers looked at effects in different groups, they found that vegetarian men were less likely to have diabetes than omnivore men, but there was no difference in risk between vegetarian and omnivore women. The researchers also looked at different types of vegetarian diets and found that risk for diabetes was lowest among vegans and lacto-vegetarians. Pesco-vegetarians did not have a lower risk for diabetes compared to omnivores, although semi-vegetarians did. The main limitation of this meta-analysis is that most of the studies were cross-sectional. In addition, the studies were from diverse populations throughout the world where definitions and composition of vegetarian diets may differ. This might explain why among these studies, the findings were stronger in studies from North America, Europe, and the We Continue reading >>
Hypoglycemic Vegan
Hi Sassy, I have been a vegan for over a year. I have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) so I avoid many items. I'm about 20 lbs over weight & at times seem to fall in same eating pattern. Breakfast is the worst. I can't eat oatmeal, cereal, soy yogurt. they all have too much carbs or sugar and my sugar bottoms out. I'm trying to avoid carbs but it seems like the only thing available at times. Will your weight loss course work for me? Tricia New York Sassy Sez: Hi Tricia! Let's talk for a minute about the basics of blood sugar. It's really quite shocking how many people out there have a challenge with keeping their blood sugar balanced. When we eat simple carbs or sugar, blood sugar can skyrocket making us feel tremendous energy, but eventually those same simple sugars cause a pretty severe crash, making us feel tired and drained. So then you reach for MORE simple carbs or sugar so you get that energy back. It's a vicious cycle. And an unhealthy one too. In addition, if you have too much glucose (sugar) circulating, the excess gets converted by your body into fat. If you don't have enough glucose, you feel hungry, lazy, nervous, depressed, etc. So the trick (whether eating a vegan diet or not) is to keep your blood sugar as balanced as possible. Some people think this means avoiding all carbs, but this is a mistake because not all carbs are created equally. There is a big difference between simple carbs and complex carbs. Simple carbs (such as white rice or foods containing added sugars) cause that spike I mentioned above because all the sugar gets dumped into your body immediately -- there is no "filter" of sorts. Complex carbohydrates digest more slowly, offering your body the important glucose it needs in a more even manner, which helps to keep blood sugar more balanced. Continue reading >>
Help!!! Vegan Diet And Diabetes
Diabetes Forum The Global Diabetes Community Find support, ask questions and share your experiences. Join the community I have just adopted a Vegan diet (about a week and a half in) and need some help with developing a meal schedule and determining amount/balance of foods to eat at each meal. I am also in the process of healing and preventing cancer. I had planned to do intermittent fasting (16hrs/day) but so far that does not seem to be working and has been resulting in higher BG. Not sure if I just need to give it more time. Does it take a while for things to balance out after switching to a Vegan diet? Also...I completed a 3-day fast a couple of days ago...mostly water. I am a vegan with type 2 and saw a significant drop in my levels when I changed last year from veggie to vegan. I eat low carb but don't count carbs. I just avoid the big hitters such as rice, pasta, potatoes, cereal. There are many alternatives which I believe are more nutritious such as courgetti spaghetti, cauliflower rice, cauli/celeriac/turnip mash. I still eat a little bread. Lower carb vegan breads on the market include Lidl high protein rolls, Tesco high protein loaf and Burgen soya and linseed loaf. Best get a meter and test how foods affect your blood glucose levels. You may be lucky (like me) and tolerate chickpeas, beans and lentils. Other great choices are nuts, seeds, nut butters, plant milks, yogurts and ice cream (little bit). Seitan is low carb, Tofu, some Quorns are now vegan, many supermarket minces and burgers, several Linda McCartney foods, Fry's, Taifun. Search Sainsbury's for Gary. And loads of vegetables of course! The ones that grow above ground are best, but test the others. Test fruit too. Berries and rhubarb are often well tolerated. Here is the Basic Information we give t Continue reading >>
Serious Question, How Could A High Carb Vegan Diet Possibly Be Good For A Diabetic? : Vegan
"Veganism is a way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing and any other purpose." - The Vegan Society This is a place for people who are vegans or interested in veganism to share links, ideas, or recipes. 1.Links to elsewhere on reddit must use np.reddit.com. All others will be removed. 2.No more than 10% of your submissions may link to your own blog/vlog/website/instagram/etc. Such links from brand-new users will be removed. Please read Reddit's policy for more information. 3.Civil discussion is welcome, trolls and personal abuse are not. 4.If you have come here just to argue against veganism, try /r/debateavegan instead. 5.All posts must have something to do with the topic of veganism; if an implicit connection to veganism is vague, then the title or text of the post should explicitly make the relationship clear. This applies only to newly submitted posts, and not comments on posts. Continue reading >>
Top 3 Diabetes Myths, Busted: Fruit, Starchy Vegetables, And Blood Glucose
Almost 10 percent of Americans have diabetes and that number is growing. Unfortunately, the myths surrounding diabetes are as widespread as the disorder itself. Here we debunk the most common diabetes myths. For the past 50 years, people diagnosed with all forms of diabetes have been advised to eat low-carb diets high in fat and protein, and to avoid eating high-carbohydrate foods like fruits, potatoes, squash, corn, beans, lentils, and whole grains. Despite this popular opinion, more than 85 years of scientific research clearly demonstrates that a low-fat, plant-based whole foods diet is the single most effective dietary approach for managing type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This means that a low-fat diet—not a low-carb diet—has been shown across the board to minimize oral medication and insulin use, stabilize blood glucose, and dramatically reduce long-term disease risk in people with diabetes. Myth #1: You Develop Type 2 Diabetes From Eating Too Much Sugar Eating sweets is not a direct cause of type 2 diabetes. People develop type 2 diabetes over time by slowly developing a resistance to insulin, the hormone that escorts glucose out of your blood and into tissues like your muscle and liver. I like to think of type 2 diabetes as a very advanced form of insulin resistance in which glucose remains trapped in your blood because your body cannot use insulin properly. In this way, elevated blood glucose is a symptom of diabetes, and NOT the root cause. The real cause of insulin resistance is dietary fat. We discussed it at length in this article. People with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are told to eat foods that are low in carbohydrates and high in fat and protein simply because they don’t create an immediate need for insulin. But in the hours and days after a meal hi Continue reading >>
How Becoming A Vegetarian Can Cure Diabetes: Plant-based Diets Improve Blood Sugar Levels, Scientists Claim
Switching to a vegetarian diet could help reverse diabetes, a new study claims. Millions of people battling the killer disease could improve their blood sugar levels by eradicating meat from their weekly shop. Scientists believe removing animal fats could help cure the condition, leaving patients free from the disease. They said changes to diet could be used as an alternative treatment for type 2 diabetes. An analysis of previous studies revealed removing animal fats from diet helps improve insulin sensitivity. Scroll down for videos Eating a vegetable-based diet reduced levels of a key blood-protein called glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c). For people with diabetes, the higher the HbA1c in their blood, the greater the risk of developing diabetes-related complications such as nerve damage, eye problems, and heart disease. The study found a vegan or vegetarian diet lowered HbA1c by an average of 0.4 percentage points, and up to 0.7 points. This is comparable to the effects of drugs given to help patients with diabetes control their blood-sugar levels, researchers said. 'A diet change beats a pill,' said dietitian Susan Levin, one of the study's authors. 'A plant-based diet improves blood sugar, body weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol all at the same time, something no drug can do.' Dr Neal Barnard, of the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, added: 'Plant-based diets work in a different way than "conventional" diabetes diets. 'We now know that type 2 diabetes is caused by insulin resistance. Getting the animal fat — and fats in general — out of the diet helps repair insulin's ability to function.' He told the Daily Express: 'We tell patients they can eat as much as they want – and as much whole wheat pasta, whole grains, and brown ri Continue reading >>
Beating Diabetes: Vegan Diet Improves Blood Sugar Control
Caroline Trapp is convinced that consuming a vegan diet reduces the incidence of type 2 diabetes and its complications. A recent National Institutes of Health-funded study by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), George Washington University and University of Toronto confirms her conviction. A nurse practitioner, Trapp has been treating patients with the disease for 20 years. She found even though she was writing increasing numbers of prescriptions for oral medications and insulin, diabetics continued to develop kidney and heart problems and required even more medication. Frustrated, she began researching the disease and discovered PCRM's recommendation for a plant-based, high fiber, low-fat diet. At the same time Dr. Neal D. Barnard was just completing the PCRM study which demonstrated the vegan diet was more effective in controlling blood sugar and cholesterol in type 2 diabetic patients than a diet based on American Diabetes Association guidelines. When the opportunity arose to become part of a PCRM pilot project that spun off from the research Trapp was eager to introduce healthy eating to diabetics seen at the Millennium Medical Group in Southfield. The cooking classes ran seven-weeks and included a field trip to Panchero's Mexican Grill in Southfield. The pilot project took place in Washington, D.C. where PCRM and George Washington University are located. "We focus first on foods that don't come from animals," said Trapp, director of diabetes care for Premier Internists and Northwest Internal Medicines, Divisions of Millennium Medical Group. "The concern is that something as healthy as chicken or fish has almost as much fat as beef. Low fat diets have not been effective in curing diabetes. The old way of thinking is focusing on sugar and starch Continue reading >>
Plant-based Diets & Diabetes
Weve known for a half century that plant-based diets are associated with lower diabetes risk, but how low does one have to optimally go on animal product and junk food consumption? Decades ago we started to get the first inklings that a plant-based diet may be protective against diabetes. Studies going back half a century found that those eating meat one or more days a week had significantly higher rates of diabetes, and the more frequently meat was eaten, the more frequent the disease. And this is after controlling for weight. Even at the same weight, those eating plant-based had but a fraction of the diabetes rates, and if anything, vegetarians should have had more diabetes just because they appear to live so much longer so had more time to develop these kinds of chronic diseasesbut noapparently lower rates of death and disease. Fast forward 50 years to the Adventist-2 study, looking at 89,000 people and we see a stepwise drop in the rates of diabetes as one eats more and more plant-based, down to a 78% lower prevalence among those eating strictly plant-based. Protection building incrementally as one moved from eating meat, to eating less meat, to just fish, to no meat, and then to no eggs and dairy either. We see the same thing with another leading killer, high blood pressure. The greater the proportion of plant foods, the lower the rates of hypertension. The same with excess body fat. The only dietary group not on average overweight were those eating diets composed exclusively of plant foods, but again this same incremental drop with fewer and fewer animal products. This suggests that its not black and white, not all or nothing; any steps one can make towards eating healthier may accrue significant benefits. Followed over time, vegetarian diets were associated with Continue reading >>
