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Radical diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, new study shows

theguardian.com

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Re: Radical diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, new study shows

#61

Post by imjk »

esalazar wrote: post #40
randlet wrote: post #3

> he diet was a formula of 825–853 calories per day for 3 to 5 months, followed by the stepped reintroduction of food over two to eight weeks. That is going to be a brutal 3-5 months. Worth it in the end though. Also, c'mon, a range of 825-853 calories? Nobody is counting calories that accurately and it would have been better to say "roughly 850 kCal per day".

You can get quite a lot of food in 850 calories. Vegetables are pretty low cal. Below is a plan I just created that is less than 850 calories Total Cals - 836 Breakfast: 2 eggs - 156 calories Lunch: 2 cups of spinach - 14 calories 1 cup of bell peppers - 39 calories 200 grams chicken breast - 226 calories Snack: 1 banana - 105 calories Dinner: 200 grams chicken breast - 226 calories 1 cup of broccoli - 31 calories 1…

That's very similar to a standard lunch for me.

Re: Radical diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, new study shows

#62

Post by [deleted] »

throwaway0255 wrote: post #57
daeken wrote: post #12

I went on a medically-supervised, very low calorie and low carb (keto) diet after being diagnosed with diabetes. A few months and about 50lbs in, I had no signs of insulin resistance whatsoever, my A1C was down to completely normal values, and I was able to discontinue my medication entirely. That diagnosis, as hard as it was to hear, was one of the absolute best things to ever happen to me.

Same. Pre-diabetic and all kinds of other health issues started creeping up (obesity, GERD, really bad heartburn, sleep apnea, etc). Most doctors would've just had me take medications, wear a mask that would breathe for me while I slept, and put my bed at an angle so I could sleep through the heartburn/reflux. Started calorie restricting and eliminated grains and sugar from my diet almost entirely, and all pre-diabet…

[deleted]

Re: Radical diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, new study shows

#63

Post by pascalxus »

throwaway0255 wrote: post #57
daeken wrote: post #12

I went on a medically-supervised, very low calorie and low carb (keto) diet after being diagnosed with diabetes. A few months and about 50lbs in, I had no signs of insulin resistance whatsoever, my A1C was down to completely normal values, and I was able to discontinue my medication entirely. That diagnosis, as hard as it was to hear, was one of the absolute best things to ever happen to me.

Same. Pre-diabetic and all kinds of other health issues started creeping up (obesity, GERD, really bad heartburn, sleep apnea, etc). Most doctors would've just had me take medications, wear a mask that would breathe for me while I slept, and put my bed at an angle so I could sleep through the heartburn/reflux. Started calorie restricting and eliminated grains and sugar from my diet almost entirely, and all pre-diabet…

Great Work! that's awesome you could change your diet to a healthy one. These days there's such a huge stigma against eating healthily and responsibly, especially from friends and family.

Re: Radical diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, new study shows

#64

Post by gergnz »

throwaway0255 wrote: post #57
daeken wrote: post #12

I went on a medically-supervised, very low calorie and low carb (keto) diet after being diagnosed with diabetes. A few months and about 50lbs in, I had no signs of insulin resistance whatsoever, my A1C was down to completely normal values, and I was able to discontinue my medication entirely. That diagnosis, as hard as it was to hear, was one of the absolute best things to ever happen to me.

Same. Pre-diabetic and all kinds of other health issues started creeping up (obesity, GERD, really bad heartburn, sleep apnea, etc). Most doctors would've just had me take medications, wear a mask that would breathe for me while I slept, and put my bed at an angle so I could sleep through the heartburn/reflux. Started calorie restricting and eliminated grains and sugar from my diet almost entirely, and all pre-diabet…

While I wasn't overweight or obese I had definitely gained 10+KG a few years back, and was bordering on overweight (according to BMI, which is just one indicator, not the only one, and again, take it with a grain of salt and in moderation). For a while I completely stopped drinking alcohol, soft drink, wheat and refined sugar. Basically meat, vegies, fish, whole fruit (not juice). Lost all the extra weight within a few months, and enjoyed great energy. Being 100% honest, I now find that soda is very sweet, and I now no longer drink alcohol at all. I have re-introduced some wheat and refined sugar, but keep it to a very minimum and try and combine it with other ingredients. (e.g. banana avocado cacao mousse). Never going back to drinking all that soda and buying everything as a sandwich.

Re: Radical diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, new study shows

#65

Post by jzawodn »

dpratt71 wrote: post #28

This reminds me that we had a cat that developed diabetes. Besides the usual treatment, we changed the cat's diet "radically". Eventually the cat no longer required insulin shots, i.e. it was "cured". I remarked to my wife at the time that maybe the reason T2 diabetes is considered incurable is that it's all but impossible to get humans to radically change their diet.

That's pretty much it.

Re: Radical diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, new study shows

#66

Post by entee »

aviv wrote: post #7

Type 2 diabetes is a solved problem, but pharmaceutical companies have yet to find a way to make money from a water fast, so no one tells people about it.

As someone who has worked tangentially to drug discovery and who has many friends who work as scientists in pharma, I promise you this is outright false. No scientist or even evil business/lawyer person for pharma is out to suppress known cures for disease in order to make a buck.

This entirely leaves aside the notion that diabetes (abbreviating as DM2 for diabetes mellitus type 2) is a solved problem. If you can maintain a low calorie diet or a water fast, then yes you will improve and may not benefit from medication. The number of people who can do that sustainably is rather small, as evidenced by the number of people who get the disease in the first place. It's not like it's a mystery that excess caloric intake and weight gain are the major risk factors for DM2.

It's also not a mystery to the patient, they know they should probably cut back a little, but it turns out that diets are extremely difficult to maintain long term. See:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-...

So for those people who have difficulty maintaining drastic weight loss for whatever reason, I think it's ok to have a pharmaceutical industry that tries to find alternatives. If an individual patient can do without the drugs, that's great too. In the end, lives will be saved with both approaches, they are not in conflict.

Re: Radical diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, new study shows

#67

Post by joelrunyon »

This is less about the diet and more about the weight loss.

Type 2 diabetes is basically overloading your body so your pancreas doesn't work effectively. Removing those stressors and improving insulin sensitivity allows your body to work normally.

You can achieve similar results from any diet that someone would stick to and lose a similar amount of weight.

Re: Radical diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, new study shows

#68

Post by pascalxus »

sp332 wrote: post #5
randlet wrote: post #3

> he diet was a formula of 825–853 calories per day for 3 to 5 months, followed by the stepped reintroduction of food over two to eight weeks. That is going to be a brutal 3-5 months. Worth it in the end though. Also, c'mon, a range of 825-853 calories? Nobody is counting calories that accurately and it would have been better to say "roughly 850 kCal per day".

It's tough not only to cut back the calories, but to pack needed nutrients into the few calories remaining. Over several months you could accidentally end up with a severe deficiency of something.

Spinach can help a huge amount in that because it has soo many nutrients.

Here's my fasting plan: 1 Meal/day 100 cals - 1 lb of Spinach 60 cals of tuna (1/2 a small can) 1/2 lb of cauliflower

That total comes out to about 200 cals and meets aboout 100% of 1/2 of all the micronutrients and roughly 50 to 100% of all the other micronutrients. The Tuna (Selenium,b3,b12,b6) nicely complements the Spinach (high in A,C,E,K,Iron, Magnesium). And you get a relatively high amount of protein and fiber (normalized for cals)

Also, you can use something like Crono-meter to measure all your nutrients.

And btw, just because someone is eating 2000+ cals doesn't mean they're getting all their nutrients. Most of the foods people eat are so devoid of any nutrition, they minus well not even count.

Re: Radical diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, new study shows

#69

Post by metamet »

danharaj wrote: post #41
metamet wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the problem is solved. People just don't want to take enough ownership over their health to actually do it.

Fasts are so hard on the body and mind that it's not at all difficult to imagine situations in which people can't afford to do it. I wouldn't be able to do my job if I did an 850kcal fast for 3 months.

Well, fasts aren't the only solution here. Changing your and adjusting your carb intake in order to offset insulin requirements can gradually get things back on track.

Doing intermittent fasting isn't even that taxing once you adjust. I have been doing it for around 4 years and I work as a developer. My most productive hours are still in the morning, and I don't even eat until noon-1pm on most days.

But to your point, yes, a drastic implementation of a clinical approach can be impractical. Fortunately there're a lot of ways to fix type 2 with diet which aren't as taxing.

So the problem is solved. It's just that most people would rather take insulin than change their diet.

Re: Radical diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, new study shows

#70

Post by JBlue42 »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #17
BlytheSchuma wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soylent.

Too much sugar (check the label). More like Ketochow (protein shake, vitamins, heavy whipping cream). Each of my servings is ~500 calories. Shed three pounds per week eating it 3 meals a day, no exercise. I miss the pancake batter taste of Soylent, don’t miss being fat.

How bad is the taste?
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