I’ve talked about this movie before. You can see previous discussion by simply searching for “Cousens.” The movie raised quite an uproar for it’s claims that you could reverse T1 diabetes. Gabriel Cousens is really kinda a sleezy guy, having had his medical license revoked among other things. And the movie was backed by PCRM and PETA raising serious questions about motivations. Everything I’ve read suggests that humans long ago adapted to an omnivore diet, with significant portions of our fuel coming from animal proteins. Our digestive tracts are no longer able properly able to digest raw foods. And the raw vegan diet is simply a new spin on the Allen starvation diet. It may well work quite well for a few weeks, but after that bad stuff starts to happen.
Thanks, bsc. Agree. Had to shake my head at Cousens’ statement about the body going into “insulin shock” at using less insulin. He doesn’t look healthy to me. He looks skeletal from the result of a low protein/low fat diet. Quite unhealthy.
@ BCS, I don’t knock the Gabriel Cousens method, because that’s how I got my blood sugar from 425 down to 120’s, and my triglycerides from 1180 down to 150 in 3 months, without medication. People used to say the same things about Atkins, and Dr. Bernstein. They were considered quacks, and were pushed away by many, many people when they brought their theories to the world. Now their considered gods amoungst men in many circles.
The muscle loss & weakness you mention was from the low protein Cousens approach. Low protein is extremely risky. Aside from what you experienced, there are many other harmful effects of insuffient protein on the brain including depression & anxiety. Protein suppresses appetite. Carbs increase appetite.
You said when you went back to the Cousens diet, your BG increased. Curious why you’re interested in returning to that way of eating.
Not that it proves or disproves the methodology but here’s some interesting background, scroll down to ‘Dr. Gabriel Cousens’:
There are lots of things that you can do in the short term to lose weight or improve your blood sugar/cholesterol. But that doesn’t make them healthy in the long-term. I am glad it helped you. All I want is for you to be healthy in the long-term.
Going Vegan is a difficult choice, but not impossible. However, restricting your protein sources so severely will make it difficult.
Whatever path you choose, test the resulting menu with your meter. This may help you do that: Test, Review, Adjust
If that confirms that Vegan can work for you, great. If not, it may be time to accept that human beings are omnivores.
gphx, that’s one incident. would it be possible if you could provide 10 more incidents similar to that one.
Alan, I somewhat desagree with that. I train mauy thai, most or the guys I train with and know follow a vegan dietkl, and their in great health, and trust me no strength loss either.
I have to tell you, I investigate my doctors. In Virginia you can look up your doctor and find out about any censures or lawsuits. Having had his license taken away, been censured in another state and then been denied a medical license on top of this incident of wrongful death. Personally, I don’t wait for a pattern of 10 more incidents to pile up before figuring things out.
Your training friends may be in great health with no strength loss. However, unless they also have type 2 diabetes, that is totally irrelevant to whether their vegan diet may be suitable for them - or for you.
If they have diabetes, ask them what their post-prandial blood glucose levels are an hour after their meals. Or ask your own meter about yours.
Cheers, Alan, T2, Australia.
--
Everything in Moderation - Except Laughter.
http://loraldiabetes.blogspot.com (Kitchen Essentials: Steamer Saucepan)
Hey everybody, thank you all for your feed back, and answers. You’ve all been a great help.
one of the issues one can run into on a vegan diet and or for full low glycemic diet is the ability of ones liver to properly add correct amount of glucose when bg goes below 70. In my case, my liver overloads me and buggers my BG by shoving BG to 278.
I would offer that you need to check on your liver as well as ensure you are getting enough protein and sufficient carbs to keep
liver occupied.
Jim, I get plenty of protien, I follow a low carb diet, or primal diet. I just wanted to get some different opinions on different ways of eating for diabetics. The liver overload, I’ve heard about that. It’s just weird how our bodies work.
Rob:
Thank you for reply.
I was just commenting based on my own experience. You indicated numbers were better whne meds added.
I was just curious as you indicate you needed some meds to crank you down the last excellent a1c gain.
That is suggestive that someone in the multi organ orchestra set was playing a little off key requiring some meds tuning. Hence my comment. Apologies for any added confusion.
That is suspicious but not unlogical as indicated by your comment.
Our bodyies were optimized 10000 years ago to get our butts out of the teeth of the saber tooth tiger.
That is why there is spare glucose loaded up in skeletal muscles all over ( more than liver has)
and why liver does the dawn effect in am.
My problem is that I do not do French Foreign Legion desert survival march each am across Sahara contrary to
what my liver and brain think. ( years ago I worked in freezers at -39 Deg F freezing salmon /fish and assorted other
fish protein.)
Best wishes and good luck.