I have been eating a raw vegan diet since last November and have had tremendous success. I’ve lost 15 lbs, I’m taking 85% less insulin, and I have a lot more energy!
Please follow my blog for recipes, experiences, etc.
This journey has inspired me so much that I’m currently looking into schools that offer holistic nutrition and health coaching. 
http://www.rawdiabetic.wordpress.com
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I’m going to take a wild stab in the dark here and guess that you are probably eating about 85% less carbs now too.
While not a cure for T1, I bet you feel amazing and your body thanks you for giving it what
it runs best on!
Sorry, I am not really a fan of your diet. I’ve come to believe that humans evolved to eat primarily a cooked paleo style diet. I wish you luck with your food explorations, we each have to find our own way.
I do believe that this works in many cases. I think our “urban” diet has many things we consider “healthy” or “not-so-bad”, but that in the end, hurt us. However, I also wish it were easier and less expensive to acquire these high quality foods.
I wish you the best in your search for better control and healing. Please keep us posted, and maybe give us some tips on how to make this affordable.
I doubt the word ‘healing’ should be used here.
A better title might be ‘Raw vegan diet great for CONTROLLING T1’…
You aren’t healed and never will be. Sorry to be so harsh.
You can’t go eat a slice of pizza, a regular coke, and polish it off with an ice cream cone and expect that your body could handle it on its own like a non-diabetic could (which WOULD mean that you are healed/cured/whatever).
Hee hee
I’m sure your diet is healthy and I’m not surprised that you need less insulin. Great for you! But I agree with Kari, we can’t talk about healing unless you can show that you have stopped the autoimmune attack that was causing your diabetes or if you body spontaneously started producing insulin.
Well done though on following a strict diet that helped you reduce your insulin! Are you able to keep your blood sugar in range?
Don’t want to start a debate or anything but the OP never used the word “healing”. She never claimed she was “healed”. She stated the diet was working for her to lose weight and need less inuslin. And this is because a raw vegan diet (sans high sugar fruit) will naturally be low in carbs because it will be mostly greens, veggies, nuts which is all stuff us diabetics should be eating anyhow (raw or cooked) so makes sense that she would lose weight and need less insulin. We should support her and not be harsh.
A raw vegan wouldn’t go out and pig out on pizza, coke and ice cream and most of them would get sick if they did. (diabetic or not) because when you are a raw vegan for an extended period of time your body can’t handle regular American "junk"food - you honestly get physically ill.
Great news on your success Jen! Glad it is working out for you!
Well, I do think using the word in the title has to count for something “Raw vegan diet healing T1.”
It seems like the underlying reason that all of these faddish diets seem to help diabetes is because they all result in a drastically reduced amount of carbs. As we know that it takes insulin to break down carbs/sugars, it is pretty obvious that a reduction in carbs is going to result in better BSLs and lower insulin requirements.
I don’t personally understand how any diet could “heal” T1. T1 is, in most cases, autoimmune related so I just don’t understand how a diet is going to change that. Again, reducing carbs will reduce insulin needs, but that’s been known since the early 1900s.
I’ve made some pretty drastic dietary changes these past couple of months after I found out I was diabetic secondary to a genetic condition I was born with (congenital hyperinsulinism). I have reduced the amount of carbs I consume from around 220 per day down to around 80 per day. Obviously, I feel TONS better. My BSLs have come down significantly and, while it’s hard, it works for me. Of course diet plays a role in all types of diabetes, but I have a really hard time when anything is sold as a “cure” for diabetes, especially T1.
Dr. Neil Barnard claims it cures type 2 so why not type 1.
Thank you bsc.
Yes, KimKat, the OP did use it in the title. That is what I referred to.
Because Type 1 is caused by an autoimmune attack on the pancreas’s beta cells. This will continue to happen regardless of what kind of food goes into your body. I could eat nothing but eggs (protein) and I’d still need insulin. It’s the immune system malfunctioning which is the direct cause of Type 1.
In Type 2 diabetics they are resistant to insulin. So even when their bodies make insulin, their bodies are at the same time resistant to using it. Thus, for Type 2’s eating lower carb (which raw vegan usually is) this means less insulin needs…meaning less insulin to be resistant against.
And it can’t cure type 2. It controls it.
There is NO CURE for either type of diabetes. Do you seriously think there’d be 26 million people in the world with diabetes if it were as simple as ‘eat these foods, don’t eat these foods’? Geeze.
85% reduction in insulin need is highly unlikely to be attributed to carbohydrate reduction alone, unless of course the carbohydrate reduction alone is responsible for Jen’s weight loss. She states she has lost 15 pounds so I would venture to guess Jen is needing less basal insulin along with less bolus.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!
bsc- I really appreciate how when you don’t necessarily agree with someone else’s chosen way to control their diabetes with diet you calmly disagree with them and concede this is something that we all have to find what works best for ourselves. Thank you for being one of the calm and level headed people on the other side of this “debate” that too often turns into a flame war. You are someone I would feel comfortable having this debate with. I have seen other folks who will not engage in the debate any longer because they are afraid of getting berated for the choices they make, which is sad.
Thanks, but I also have to be honest. I wrote a three paragraph response which was more strongly against the raw vegan diet, but I deleted it. I am quite happy to discuss diet and I have very strong opinions. But I also think everyone has a right to make their own choices even if I don’t agree with them. My daughter is a vegetarian, I once was a vegetarian so I am not exactly an enemy. And I’ve seen nasty discussions over the years, vegetarian diets, low carb vs ADA diet and T1 vs T2. That is not in the spirit of this community and I always try to remind myself of proper behavior.
Double lol hahahaha!
I have to say though I love the idea of eating lots of broccoli, seeds and cauliflower.
One thing diabetes has taught me is that the concept of ‘healthy’ food is very very subjective and one person’s ‘healthy’ food could be another’s poison.
But I don’t think anybody could have anything bad to say about broccoli and cauliflower. Though I do draw the line at raw. I have only recently become converted to cauliflower as I now cannot eat rice, but I can only bring myself to eat it if it has been microwaved to death.
MossDog,
Of course weight loss is going to play a role here, and jen also said that she has more energy now, so we can probably take that to indicate that she is more now active too, which would increase her insulin sensitivity.
I just don’t like people nonsensical statements like ‘Raw vegan diet healing T1’, especially when they are using it to promote their own blog without giving any useful information. This forum should be used as a place to provide information and discuss things, not to give a little by line and tell you to visit their advertised website for further information.