Studies show both vegan and ADA diets improve blood glucose and blood lipids in Type 2 people with diabetes. However, improvements were greater with a vegan diet. The study resulted in decreased medication, body weight, LDL, urinary albumin and hemoglobin A1c. Portion sizes and total daily calories were unrestricted on the vegan plan.
So what exactly is a vegan meal plan?
A vegan meal plan is plant-based and consists of vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes. Animal products, such as meat and dairy, are avoided. There are no limits on calories, carbohydrates, and portions, which make it easier for some people to follow.
People who are on a vegan diet are at risk for vitamin B12 deficiency. The Vegan Society, the Vegetarian Resource Group, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine recommend that vegans consistently eat foods fortified with B-12 or take a daily or weekly B-12 supplement. Fortified breakfast cereals are a source of vitamin B-12 for vegans. Vitamin B-12 can be supplemented by liquid, strip, nasal spray, or injection and is available alone or in combination with other supplements. The Dietary Reference Intake for an adult ranges from 2 to 3 µg (micrograms) per day.
If you would like to consider a vegan way of life, here are links with meal ideas to get you started:
Yes,I do beleive in vegeterian food at least every now and then.I continue eating fish,legumes,nuts and lots of steamed green vegetables.I do feel better,it improves mood!! Citrus fruits are antioxidant and useful.
I love eating a vegan diet! What really surprises me is the huge amount of carbohydrates I eat and maintain really good glycemic control. The carbs seem to process better without animal products. There is such a wonderful variety of foods it never gets boring. It is also very colorful eating which includes a wide variety of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients our bodies need.
I don’t really see the point in avoiding eggs and meat, but whatever. Enjoy! My bg’s do far better but avoiding white foods, too many carbs, and too much volume of food. That reduces my dependence on large boluses, which means I’ll have less highs/lows from bolus mistakes. Anyone who can claim their boluses always match their large carb intake…well, I don’t believe them.
I’ve read and heard several claims in the last year or so about people who minimize fat while eating very high carb. They claim that it’s the fat that causes insulin resistance and they end up moderating their insulin to carb ratios so that they don’t take nearly as much insulin per gram of carb than they do when eating a normal or high fat diet.
But this means that they’re still taking large doses of insulin while depending on their estimate of the carb content of what they eat. A carb counting mistake can lead to a significant overdose of insulin and a severe hypo. I see this method as a high stakes game. You might get your dose right 99/100 times but that one insulin/carb mismatch can wreak havoc. Since you don’t know when that 1 time of 100 will occur, it think it makes for an uneasy existence. Well, to each his own!
I wouldn’t say that anyone who is a T1 can get their bolus correct 99% of the time. For me, “correct” means neither going so low postprandial that one needs to eat more carbs to fix the low, OR going high and by that, I mean above roughly 160. For argument’s sakes I’ll even agree to 180 being the upper limit. I’d wager that the percentage would be closer to 50%. Keep in mind that I’m referring to bolusing for high-carb meals (and I don’t distinguish between low fat and high fat, for this discussion–save that for another convo).
I have been a Vegan for over 40 years, I am a LADA. Most of the time I stay under 150 carbs a day. It’s not any harder being vegan and type 1 than a “normal” person switching to a vegan diet. It’s a change of the way you eat for anyone. It does take a little more care to be under 120 carbs a day, I am doing that now because I am inactive from an injury. But it is just counting carbs which you have to do anyway as a type 1. I stay in range 75% of the time. My target range is 100-170. It’s obviously easier to bolus a lower carb meal. Avocados, thumbs up!!!
Do you mind posting your A1c? I’d tell you more about my numbers but I need to get to my computer and take a look at my clarity reports before I can finish posting what I intended to
Yes. I’m T2, 11 years now with no meds yet. Plain old Very Low Carb has done it for me. Opinions vary on what that means—for me it’s 20-35 carbs/day…
And, though my exercise has had to adapt hugely through injuries and worsening arthritis, it happens everyday in some form, 7 days/week……
Oh, for that 11 years, my A1cs have ranged from 4.9 to 5.6…
I am “close-to-vegetarian” with some regularity, eating very little meat now, but have never even considered vegan. I love Dairy too much!..
ah, somehow my previous comment didn’t get linked to Marie’s–she is the one I was asking, but that’s cool. Nice A1c’s BTW. As a T1 I’m happy that I’m finally in the 5’s–5.7 instead of my usual 6.1. I owe the reduction to the use of Dexcom G5, as well as my own determination to make maximum use of it’s continuous data.
My Time in Range for 90 days is 86% with the range being 70-160. I’m above 160 8.7% of the time, as tracked by my G5 which is decently accurate.
6.4 , I doubt I will ever go into the 5’s? Before I got diabetes I would test myself and my fasting level was always 100-105 and when my levels first went off, I was waking up with 110-120 I tested at 5.7. I generally feel bad below 90 even sometimes below 100. and can’t go to sleep unless it’s over 100. So to get it below a 6, I would need to compensate by some numbers below 100. And I’m not sure I will ever feel okay with lower numbers. That’s for me at least, I know other people feel fine. I have friends in the 80’s all the time with no issues. On the other hand I can go (before insulin) to 450 and not feel bad. That’s not a good thing either! Not a clue if I’m 300 or 120!!!
I’m not vegan, but I am attempting a very low carb diet free of dairy, eggs, and processed and red meat. The first two because I have an allergic/immune disorder and have to avoid them, the third because I have a family history of colon cancer and it’s also very hard to find ones that are free of allergens, and the fourth because I don’t like cooking it.
I’m finding eating both very low carb and mostly vegan quite challenging, and will probably increase my carbs a bit to compensate. I do know there are some people who are vegan and eat very low carb. And I think I’ll probably get better at things like baking without eggs as time goes on. But part of my problem is that I also can’t eat soy or wheat, something that’s in a lot of meat substitutes, and I’m deathly allergic to potato, something that’s in virtually all vegan cheese and egg substitutes. And I’m also allergic to some low carb foods like tomatoes and avocados. So the net effect of this is that I have to cook virtually everything from scratch, which gets very time consuming.
For the i’ll likely buy vegan bread, pasta, oats, quinoa, apples, peaches and chickpeas from the store and keep the other foods I eat more low carb. And I’ll just try to deal with the blood sugar instability. For me, lower carbs definitely equals more stable blood
Yes, that’s got to be very hard. I knew someone that was allergic to soy, wheat, peanuts and potatoes. You can just omit the eggs in a lot of recipes and be okay. Cake recipes etc abound, even in premixes, that don’t require eggs for baking. follow your heart has come out with an egg substitute from algae, also gluten free that is supposed to be able to use in baking, although I haven’t used it yet. I have scrambled it! There are a couple of companies that have been aiming for wheat free, soy free meat substitutes, they have been using chickpeas or lentils or mushrooms as their base. treeline makes a vegan cashew based cheese, kite hill almond based cheese, no dairy, no soy, or potatoes in either one. Before vegan cheese I used to make my own from cashews.
It is a lot more time consuming to make everything from scratch. The good news there are a lot of vegans out there now, plus it fits people that don’t do dairy, eggs etc too. And now a lot more people are going gluten free so more stuff should start to show up you can eat hopefully!! Not eating potatoes might be the biggest hurdle, they seem to be using that a lot as a substitute.
Nice A1c’s BTW. As a T1 I’m happy that I’m finally in the 5’s–5.7 instead of my usual 6.1. I owe the reduction to the use of Dexcom G5, as well as my own determination to make maximum use of it’s continuous data.