I’m new here and this is my first post. Diagnosed with Diabetes 2 May 2007. Hemoglobin was in 12+ range. Immediately switched to a very strict (but thoroughly enjoyable) “extreme” vegan diet. Meaning:
Mainly whole fruits and vegies
No processed foods - which means – no juice, no breads, no tofu, etc.
No alcohol (didn’t drink anyway), no salt, no added oils.
4-5 months later my traditional doctor took me off my Glypizide and all other medications.
My usual glucose is now 85-97 and my last Hemoglobin test was 5.6
Welcome. I’m very impressed with your control. I have Type 1 and have managed similar numbers with a partly raw food diet. I have been eating meat, eggs and cheese but since I have just recently been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and may need to make further adjustments. What do you do for protein? I do a lot of sprouting and find that sprouted legumes are easy on the blood sugar and provide some protein.
I once thought I could never live without bread, tofu, juices. But I really don’t miss them at all.
My philosophy is to stick to the whole food as much as possible. Therefore:
Instead of tofu I eat soybeans
Instead of orange juice I eat oranges.
Instead of breads I eat cereals – love oatmeal. And have it with water instead of milk, which I don’t miss at all.
My approach is that my body has enough to do with just handing the diabetes. I don’t want to “distract” it by having to handle food that has been processed and who-knows-what by food market-engineers.
My taste buds might be swayed by food marketing campaigns, but my internal organs only want the best nourishment it can get – and is not designed to have to fight processed food which by itself (so far as I am concerned) puts a strain on the human body. And even worse all the artficial ingredients, sweeteners, fake flavors – our bodies are assaulted enough.
So I gave my body a chance to recover by eating only whole foods as much as possible. And to my pleasant surprise I am off all my pills and my doctor can’t believe it!
I am not putting down other approaches but for me my “extrEEEme” approach is not extreme at all. It’s very normal.
Vegan4Diabetes