You must have a stable foundation for everything, especially for your health. Doctors typically focus on treating the symptoms of diabetes with medications and don’t normally focus on prevention. The reality is that diabetes often leads to blindness, peripheral vascular disease, and amputations. It also involves eating disorders, fatigue, mood disorders, sleep disorders, erectile dysfunction, etc.
The recommended diets for diabetics are very confusing. There isn’t enough clarity about what a “low-carb diet” is and there isn’t enough emphasis on how a diet rich in complex carbohydrates is beneficial. Rather than restricting carbs, people should be educated on replacing simple carbohydrates with complex carbohydrates which is easy on a whole food, plant-based diet.
Many Benefits of a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet for This Population
Doctors don’t know all the things that cause type 1 diabetes, but they do know that genetics play a role. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder primarily caused by the destruction of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. This usually means that patients are prescribed life-long insulin injections or have an insulin pump to treat it.
Over time, high glucose levels and cholesterol in your blood can harm the nerves, cells, and small blood vessels in your eyes, kidneys, and heart. These abnormal blood levels in diabetic patients can cause arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and atherosclerosis leading to heart attacks and strokes. Other complications include loss of blood flow, infections, and loss of limbs.
Though it is often very hard to find dietary support for people with Type 1 diabetes, a whole food, plant-based diet is extremely beneficial for this population. A healthy diet can mean less insulin, more stable blood sugar levels, and preservation of eyesight, organs, and limbs.
A fiber-rich, plant-based diet includes replacing simple sugar sources with complex sources which will lower glycemic indexes.
Diabetes Type 1 – Benefits of a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet
- Reduced insulin medication needs. Studies show insulin requirements can decrease by about 35% in only four days, and by as much as 45% over a six-month period.
- More predictable and easier to manage. When people with insulin-dependent diabetes follow a low-fat, low-sugar, plant-based diet, blood glucose levels often decrease and stabilize—without the need to strictly “limit carbs.” This way of eating also helps eliminate the constant feeling of starvation many experience.
- Lower risk of kidney disease. Even when blood glucose appears managed on an animal-based diet, the higher protein load and fluctuating glucose levels frequently contribute to kidney damage. The kidneys must work harder to process excess protein, and diabetes remains the leading cause of chronic kidney disease, which can progress to dialysis and kidney failure.
- Eat more while still losing weight. Fat contains 9 calories per gram, while complex plant foods contain about 4 calories per gram. By replacing high-fat foods with whole plant foods, you can eat more than double the volume of food, avoid feeling deprived, and still lose weight.
- Reduced risk of diabetic neuropathies. A whole food, plant-based diet improves blood flow by lowering blood viscosity and reducing fat and cholesterol blockages. This supports better cell function and helps prevent neuropathic pain, numbness, and amputations.
- Increased energy and well-being. Many people with diabetes report higher energy, improved mood, better digestion, and better sleep quality after adopting a whole food, plant-based diet.
Diabetes Type 2 – Extra Caution When Making Dietary Changes
Insulin resistance is the cause of type 2 diabetes, the most common type of diabetes, and the drug most commonly used to treat it is metformin. Decades of studies show that in groups of healthy subjects placed on high-fat diets versus high-carbohydrate diets, the high-fat diet group would develop double the blood sugar levels.
Despite this fact, there was a widespread belief for a long time that increased consumption of sugar and carbs was causing diabetes due to the elevation of sugar in the blood. However, in 2006, exhaustive studies conducted by Japanese scientists showed that diabetes is caused by insulin blockage by intramyocellular lipids (fat in the muscle cells).
Insulin normally acts as a key to open a cell for allowing sugar to enter and be used to produce energy, but this fat layer blocks that process, and sugar levels elevate in the blood instead.
The type of fat that causes this is found mostly in saturated fat from meat, dairy, and eggs. The unsaturated fat found in whole plant food like almonds, nuts, and avocados helps to reverse the problem. Many people don’t realize that type 2 diabetes can actually be reversed in a matter of days to a couple of weeks. Patients typically are unwilling or think they cannot change their diet and lifestyle to reach this goal.
Those who overcome these barriers and decide they want to pursue a plant-based diet should have their blood sugar levels closely monitored while doing so.
Committing to a Plant-Based Diet
“The difference between the patients who succeed in improving their blood sugars and the patients who don’t often comes down to a willingness to commit and make changes,” said Schwartz.
“There’s always an excuse if you let yourself make one for choosing junky processed food over real food. I’ve had a stressful day. I was hungry and the cafeteria was closed. I was at a party. I didn’t say no to cake because I might offend someone. It’s too expensive to eat healthily.”
If you can afford cigarettes, Netflix, or fast food, you can afford healthier food.
“You learn how to eat from how you were raised, but you can change those habits, too. Take more ownership over the fact that you do have control over what you put in your mouth,” said Schwartz.