Hi to all, I just signed on as a member here! I want to know if anyone has had success on a raw food diet. I just watched “Simply Raw”, a movie about 6 diabetics who went to this place in Arizona and ate only raw food for 30 days, and were able to stop taking meds/insulin. I wanted to know if anyone in real life has had this kind of success.
I tried the diet yesterday and my AM reading was better than it’s ever been, 113. But I am still on meds. I ate a banana and my blood sugar shot up to 200 2 hours later, so I won’t be doing that again.
I had previously been on a low carb diet, and that was working OK, but I still can’t get over the feeling that eating nothing but protein and fat just cannot be healthy!
I have read Dr Bernsteins books and have been on and off Atkins for years. Was diagnosed with type 2 4 years ago.
Anyone having success on a raw diet, please let me know!
Welcome, Susan. Glad you found us.
One the members, Mr. Peachy, is a raw food fan. Put his name in the search feature at the top right to find him.
Hope going raw helps & that you’ll keep us posted on your progress.
If your pancreas doesn’t make Insulin (mine doesn’t) then why could I give up Insulin?
Well I do love raw and whole foods. I am a Michael Pollan fan. It is good to have a wide range of whole and appropriately raw foods in your diet, but when I found out Joel Fuhrman was behind this movie. Yes, Dr. Joel of PCRM and PETA fame. Well, let me just end it there, my momma said if I can’t say something nice…
There was one guy in the movie who was a type 1, and he had to continue to take insulin, although he cut way back on the amount.
Hi, thanks. I have been on a raw diet 6 days and feel so much better already. My blood sugar is SO much better, even my morning readings are now under 100 (a miracle for me!). In October my A1C was 8.0 and my edno wanted to put me on insulin. I asked him for 3 more months to get it under control. I went on low carb (Dr. Bernstein), started running and lifting weights. While this helped, I still had high morning readings no matter what I did and still had to take a bunch of oral meds.
I have been on Glyburide and Metformin for years. Last night after dinner my bs was 84, so I decided not to take the Glyburide, not wanting to have a hypoglycemic episode, or not wake up in the morning (boy to prescription drugs scare the heck out of me!) So I took the Metformin only and this AM it was 99!
I didn’t know it was possible to get off of oral meds, but that is my goal. The only thing my endo knows about diabetes is how to prescribe drugs that cost $500 a bottle.
After years of no carb diets it is so nice to eat veggies again!
Susan,
This is Gabrile Cousens retreat at the Tree of Life and he has a book on this! It is called “There is a Cure for Diabetes”. It goes through the the 21 day program they do there too.
They also have a blog: http://treeofliferejuvenationcenter.wordpress.com/ which tells of the progress of the diabetes patients who go there. I have just recently been “diagnosed” and they want to start me on Metaformin but I don’t want to be on the meds track my whole life. I have been reading Dr. Cousens book and it is SO helpful and informative. I can’t afford to go to the 21 day program at the Tree of Life so this book is helpful. I know a bit about raw food so I am already familiar with it and have been on a raw diet before. But YES, he DOES do both Type 1 and Type 2. The Type 1’s apparently can take longer to get off their meds (esp if they have been on them for a long time) but it the program heals the body so the Type 1’s don’t need insulin anymore and the pancreas starts functioning again. I am not an expert or a doctor and I am just learning about how diabetes work but I know that raw food helps with all kinds of diseases. I think you would enjoy the book - lots of scientific fact etc. I can’t put it down!
But yes, the bananas are a no-no - super high in sugar. I know I love bananas too but no more for a while. The program concentrates on low-sugar, low fat and low carbs at the beginning and than you can increase and add as you get better.
I was a type 2 that was on insulin for a year. After the year I was able to stop insulin. I was ok for two years after that but then I wound up on metformin and have been on it at various doses for the past three years.
The one thing that I have learned about using diet and excercise is that it takes a big commitment to be able to sustain for a long period of time and if you are not too careful you can burn out and return to old habits. I fell into a comfort zone trap and started to eat junk again and slow down on excercise because of work. That is when things started to creep back up again. So it is possible but you have to treat yourself as a diabetic even when numbers have been good for a long period of time. I have gone from 2000 mg of metformin a day to 750. It is better on the stomach but it has taken a lot of work again. It ment skipping work lunches where people go to eat unhealthy food, sometimes I seem unsociable but I just dont want the temptation in the face. Excercising when people around me are relaxing. At Thanksgiving i was on my treadmill for an hour while everyone else was eating pie. So its those type of little things that you commit to. I still eating bananas but only a fourth and only when i excercise.
take care
Raw foods are wonderful. I would need my own personal raw food chef. I prepared only raw foods for 2 1/2 years and it takes a lot of time. Hopefully, I will soon get encouraged to start soon. Right now I’m in rebellion. I studied about raw foods for 2 1/2 years and don’t know of a raw foodist I did not study. My Vita-Mix, food dehydrater’s, food processor’s are getting lonely. One thing is conclusive for a type 2, you do not want to have sugary fruits. The non sugary fruits are avocado, bellpepper, cucumber, tomatoes, lemon, limes, and I can’t remember what else now. There are not many non sugary fruits. This is my brain on diabetes, I’m tired and sleep deprived, sorry. Smoothies are wonderful and can be packed full of nutrition. Feel free to contact me.
There are type 1’s that can use a small dose of long acting and limit carbs or use certain carbs. When a person has type 1 and their pancreas does not produce any insulin they must take insulin to live, no if 's, and’s, or but’s about it.
You speak in a fairly complimentary manner about this regime. I try to have an open mind, but I have to provide some caution suggesting that a T1 can eat as suggested by Cousens and get off insulin. Yes, Elliot Joslin was able to have T1s live for 4 years or more before insulin, and his method is similar to Cousens, it is called “starvation.” But I am not clear at all that this is healthy. If you look closely at Cousens, he makes alarm bells go off in my head. He has been denied a license to practice medicine in AZ, he had his license taken away in CA, and he remains censured in NY.
Should you undertake a raw diet, understand that you if you eat raw foods, need to take special care to get enough food and nutrients. You really should grind or juice much of your food, otherwise you could spend upwards of 4-6 hours a day just chewing. Daisycolors has good suggestions. The book “Catching Fire” will provide you some clear discussion on exactly why finely processed food and cooking in particular modify foods and make them more bioavailable and nutritious. And remember, just as with any vegan or restrictive diet you need to carefully monitor you intake, if you find that you are becoming markedly deficient in key nutrients or starving, you need to make adjustments.
There is nothing wrong with this sort of thing, raw food, fasting, meditation. But my feeling is it should be done for a week, and then you should go back to a diet that can sustain a healthy body.
I started out on this raw food journey in January. I met a wonderful friend on this forum who encouraged me to read the “80-10-10 Diet” by Doug Graham. She has been on this diet for two years, has lost a significant amount of weight, has normal blood sugars now, and doesn’t take any prescription medication or insulin. There is a lot of fruit on this diet. At first I was scared, being a diabetic for 5 years now, I never ate fruit! But I took a leap of faith and started eating a lot of fruit. It’s either fruit or fat, nobody can live on just veggies, you’d starve to death! Dough Graham says that fat coats your cells, and causes diabetes. There seem to be 2 camps in the raw food movement, the high fat (lots of nuts, seeds, coconut butter, etc) and the low fat (lots of fruit and veggies, green smoothies). I have opted to do the low fat.
My blood sugar is gradually going down. It has been about 7weeks. I struggle with the very low fat idea, I was on Atkins/Bernstein for years, and was so used to feeling very full all the time! Now if I mess up and eat a lot of nuts, or oil on my salad, I feel very tired and sluggish, and my blood sugar spikes like crazy.
I would encourage everyone to read “80-10-10”, or “Raw Secrets” (an ebook) by Frederic Patenaude. Dr. Graham briefly talks in his book about how this diet cures diabetes.
I believe that the body can heal itself. I am giving this a shot. A couple of times I have taken a bite of cooked food, and was up all night! I have been able to stop taking most of my prescription medicine (7!) including antidepressants, high blood pressure meds and sleeping pills. I also stopped taking Metformin and Glyburide. My blood sugar is, at this point, higher than I would like, but my numbers are going down weekly.
Also, I walk very fast 2-3 miles most days. This helps a lot.
Thanks for the info. Do you use any types of fruit? I can see where high fat will make one sluggish.
Hi there
I use whatever’s on sale. I buy bananas at the regular store, because I hear that even though they have pesticides, their skin is so thick it doesn’t get into the fruit. But I buy everything else at the health food store and farmers market.
I do a lot of green smoothies. They take about 3 minutes to make!
I’ll be interested in how this will work out for you over the long term. At least Graham and Patenaude don’t give me the ‘willies.’
I hear you. I bought Gabriel Cousen’s book, read a little bit, and brought it back to the bookstore for a refund.
There was so much contradictory information in it, it just made no sense to me. Like he says that fat should only be 10-15% of your diet, then later says to eat a handful of nuts (bringing your fat total to more like 30-40%).
Also all of these people with their high fat raw recipes drive me crazy. Graham and Patenaude, as well as Roger Haeske, are the only people that make sense to me also.
I am not saying that Gabriel Cousens is the only way to go but the green smoothies are a way to bring down your blood sugar in the beginning. Once you are to normal levels than you are supposed gradually add more things to your diet and you can have nuts and seeds and avocaodes and the like but you should watch to see what bring up your blood sugar etc. Although high sugary fruits are supposed to be on the watch for a while - not saying you can never have them again. When I was on raw foods before, I ate alot of fruit but hardly anything green - and I never felt good - I think that was my problems. I ate fat and cacao and I plan to eat them again some day. I am not overweight so I don’t need to lose weight (unfortunatley I think I AM losing weight this week - well, I guess I could stand to lose a few pounds)
I am mostly intrigued by Cousens theories on diabetes and he explains the way it works and the different ways that it can come about - it isn’t just diet, not exercising - stress and other things can come into play too. Right now I am doing green smoothies for a week, I felt good earlier in the week but not so good to today - could be detox though. I have a long way to go. I am only doing this for a week and going to a solid food raw diet.
Anyhow, I believe there are different ways that work for different people - everyones body is different. I don’t believe that Cousens is superior to the other raw foodists - I just think it is impressive all the research and work that he has done on this disease specifally which devistates so many people lives. He has helped many people so something must be working right. I just found out about mine and it is devistating.
That is great that is working for you Susan. Can you now eat bananas without you sugar going up?
Yes, I am only doing the green smoothies only for a week and than going back to other solid raw foods.
I do think it’s worth pointing out that type 1’s will never be able to go off of insulin entirely. Eating healthy, exercise, stress management, and a host of other factors will play into insulin sensitivity and total insulin requirements, but type 1’s will still have to have a basal amount of insulin at all times.
At the current time, we have no known medical method for the body to repair its pancreas once the beta cells have been attacked by the immune system. Certain steps can be taken to prolong the life of the pancreas if caught early on in type 1 diabetes, but nothing can reverse the damage.
Yes, I can eat bananas without my sugar going up, as well as mangoes, pineapple and melon! It’s just when I eat fats that my blood sugar really spikes.
I do agree with you 100% that everyone is different. I think that processed food caused my diabetes. I used to eat a lot of granola bars, Atkins bars, as well as a lot of other processed food. It all has high fructose corn syrup in it, plus a million other chemicals.
I am watching the movie “Food Inc” (I downloaded it using Netflix - so cool!) and it is really scary. I don’t know how anyone could eat meat ever again after watching that!
I am going to expeirment with my raw foods to see what will spike my levels. I am new at all this. I will getting my first glucose meter today. They showed me how to use it but I am still nervous! They pricked my finger yesterday and it is still a bit sore! Am I going to have all sore fingers all the time?
Yes, everyone is different! Actually I remember reading that Doug Graham before he did his 80-10-10 did try other raw diets and they didn’t work for him. Other people try the 80-10-10 (811 for an abbrev) and they didn’t do good on it. So I believe all the raw “paths” have something to offer. I reallly believe that the 80-10-10 is probably the way humans were evolved to eat - I mean, it so simple - just pick your fruits from off the tree and there you go. 
I must admit I would rather live that way but I will have to see how it it goes - maybe I will be able to eat the fruit after all but never eat white flour ever again - my favorite being sourdough bread drool! (Funny but now I am sort of afraid of it now which is probably good because than I will never be tempted to eat it! )
I believe that too much white flour products caused my diabetes. I have been veg for 15 and vegan for 5 but not always healthy. Although, for the last 10 years I have avoided chemical in my food and things like the high frutose corn syrup. That stuff is just scary!
And not enough exercise in the past year and too much stress and worry and now, here I am. I never thought as a vegan that this would happend to me so it is hard to adjust too.
I think the Atkins diet has caused many people some problems or so I have heard. I don’t know all the details on it but I know the purpose of it is to force the body into a certain state - which is not a natural state - to lose a bunch of weight fast. You probably know more about it than me.
I have seen Food Inc! It is good! Actually as far as “movies that make you not want to eat meat go” - that was pretty tame! If you are talking about the animal cruelty bit or the unsantiary condidions - though both are horrible. If you watch the movie “Earthlings”, you may start crying if you are an animal lover like me. I actually became a veg by accident learning about water pollution and waste 20 years ago - it takes some obscene amount of gallons of water to make one little pound of ground beef which was ridiuclous. But I ulimately became a veg when learning about the animal treatment - but would not have found out about that if I wasn’t learning about the water issue! Funny how we find out about things.
There is another movie called “The Future of Food” which is kind of along the lines of “Food Inc” that you might like “Fast Food Nation” is another one. It is great that we have things like Netflix and Youtube and forums to get our info from - when I first started as a veg 20 years ago, there wasn’t any of that. Only books and the books were few and far between! It was definatley a slow learning process!