Defeating Diabetes with a Whole Food Plant-Based Diet
The previous blog post was about Conquering Kidney Disease with the Power of Plants. This week we will focus on another one of the Top 10 Killers of Americans—Type 2 Diabetes. According to the United States National Center for Health Statistics, about 30 million adults in the US have diabetes. This number is equivalent to about 12% of all adults within the country. Each year about 80,000 people, in the US, die as a result of diabetes. [1]
Illustration, from diabetesdaily.com, showing a WFPB diet for preventing and curing diabetes
Diabetes is a group of diseases that affect how your body uses blood sugar (glucose). Blood glucose levels rise and stay higher than the normal range in diabetes patients. This causes a variety of chronic complications eventually leading to an early death. [2] The Mayo Clinic states that some signs and symptoms of diabetes are “Increased thirst, frequent urination, extreme hunger, unexplained weight loss, fatigue, irritability, blurred vision, and frequent infections.” [3]
The Clinic also explains that diabetes can lead to possible complications such as “Cardiovascular disease, nerve damage (neuropathy), kidney damage (nephropathy), eye damage (retinopathy), foot damage, skin conditions, hearing impairment, Alzheimer's disease, and depression.” [3]
There is no need to worry though, as Type 2 Diabetes may be both prevented and treated with a whole food plant-based (WFPB) diet. The Mayo Clinic claims, “Healthy lifestyle choices remain essential.” [3] A great way to help prevent diabetes is to try and eliminate the risk factors and causes of diabetes, many of which come from animal foods.
Table 1. The column on the left is the patient number, the middle column is the insulin units per day on a Standard American Diet, and the right column is the insulin units per day after following a WFPB diet for a few weeks. As shown by the data, the need for insulin decreases, or in many cases goes to zero just by following a FPB diet. [4]
A peer-reviewed journal article published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition conducted an experiment with diabetic men to find if a plant-based diet would help. However, the diets were designed to be weight-maintaining so weight-loss could not be attributed as a factor. The researchers found that overall insulin requirements were cut by about 60% as shown in Table 1. Remarkably, half of the diabetics were also able to stop taking insulin altogether. It should also be noted that these changes occurred after just 16 days on a whole food plant-based diet! [4]
These patients had diabetes for as long as 20 years and were injected 20 units of insulin per day. After following a plant-based diet for just a couple of weeks, they were off all insulin. Some patients were even able to get off their insulin in just 13 days, which is less than even two weeks. For example, patient #15 was injecting 32 units of insulin on a Standard American Diet. Then, just 18 days later, the patient was taking no insulin. The patient had lower blood sugars on 32 units less insulin than before, just by eating a whole food plant-based diet. [4]
Figure 1. This graph shows the effects of high, moderate, and low animal-protein diets on time till Death from Diabetes. The top long-dashed line shows the data for the low protein diet group. The middle short-dashed line shows the data for the moderate protein diet group. The bottom solid line shows the data for the high protein diet group. Clearly, the low-protein diet group lives longer than the high-protein diet group.
Another study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, looked at the effects of eating plant-based proteins compared with animal-based proteins. The study found that among subjects with no diabetes at baseline, those eating lots of animal-based proteins had a 73-fold increase in diabetes risk. Those in the moderate animal-protein category had an almost 23-fold increase in the risk of diabetes mortality compared to those eating only plant-proteins. This data is shown in Figure 1. [5]
Once again, we can come to the conclusion that a whole food plant-based diet will help greatly prevent Type 2 Diabetes and even reverse it in numerous cases. The more your total calories come from plants, the less the risk for Type 2 Diabetes as well as overall mortality.
As Dr. Gregor’s many videos on the topic of Type 2 Diabetes clearly show, it is the elimination of animal foods and the inclusion of plant-based whole foods that prevent and cure Type 2 Diabetes. [6] It is a very hopeful scientific discovery for the millions of Type 2 diabetics around the world. It is also a very low expense prevention and cure that is accessible wherever plant food is, meaning everywhere! Let us get the word out faster, sooner, and to a wider group of those suffering!
Sources:
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/diabetes.htm
[2] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-not-to-die-from-diabetes/
[3] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/symptoms-causes/syc-20371444
[4] https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article-abstract/32/11/2312/4692116?redirectedFrom=fulltext