Hello Beautiful!

It looks like you're new to The Community. If you'd like to get involved, click one of these buttons!

In this Discussion

I'm New and Diabetic and Interested in other peoples' experiences

Hi. I am new to this forum and new to raw food. For a while I have been intrigued by 'raw for 30 days' and as my digestive problems seem to be linked to a lack of enzymes I felt this would be a good route to try for a while.

I would be interested in responses from anyone else who is (or was!) diabetic and how the diet has helped them, and also anyone whose digestive problems have improved or even gone since going raw. How quickly did you see a response?

Comments

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    Not too knowledgeable about the diabetes but I do know that if you eat a lot of fruit on a raw diet, stay low on any other raw food during detox, and you're digestive problems will go away. Taking a probiotic really helps. If you are coming off of cooked food I suggest you take a probiotic. Eating nuts, seeds, and grains does not match with detox just as a side note. You will also benefit from a lot of liquids (juices are powerful) and some tasty smoothies. Once you clean out and adjust you can slowly introduce nuts and seeds into your diet if you want to. Eat a lot of greens too. I have read that you can cure diabetes with raw food; don't have much experience with that but there is a book called "there is a cure for diabetes" that might help. good luck with raw food and you'll start feeling great soon :)

  • ZoeZoe Raw Newbie

    i just watc hed that film, it's great isn't it. They have a great deal on at the moment with loads of free stuff when you buy a film

     

  • I have been following the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for several months which has helped a bit and one of the things recommended on that is home-made long-fermented yogurt that not only gives it a higher amount of 'friendly' bacteria but also means that most, if not all of the lactose is digested (I am lactose-intolerant) and the casein is changed into a more easily tolerated form.

    I have been adding that to my green smoothies which is good.

    My digestion collapsed last January and I have been trying to get it to work better ever since. Certainly I am sure that eating much more fruit and veg would be very beneficial - for the first time in ages I am going to bed without the gas and bloating and the throbbing/pounding effect, probably from my struggling digestion that has plagued me for several years, so that is a good sign.

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    You can also take an enzyme supplement to help as well, called "Mega-Zyme" by Enzymatic Therapy. It is a potent blend of enzymes that improve digestion. You might benefit from this until your digestion is more stable.

  • PamPam

    I'm not diabetic, but I am borderline (on the highest end of borderline). I have been on and off raw for the past 5 or 6 years. What I have found is that when I am NOT raw, I consistently sit on the border no matter what I do -- i.e. relatively good diet for SAD, exercise daily. When I am raw, my sugar levels "inexplicably" drop to normal. My doctor, of course, has no explanation for this and he pooh-poohs it when I mention it.

    One thing you might want to look into is chia seeds. They slow glucose absorption so I think they would be good to consume with sweet fruits. Also, they are said to help with digestive issues. I have digestive problems, too, and they were NOT helped by raw. I am going to be including chia seeds myself as soon as I'm back to solid foods. (I'm in a fast-breaking mode right now.) However, interesting to note that I never took chia seeds before and consumed 2 or 3 bananas and other sweet fruits each day with no issues.

    Anyway, google chia seeds and diabetes and you'll find some interesting stuff. Good luck!

  • steviostevio Raw Newbie

    I no longer consider myself diabetic thanks to a high raw lifestyle. It helped within days get my bloodsugar into the normal range, and I was off of the byetta and glucophage within 6 weeks. My blood always checks out normal now, even if I slip and have cooked pie and ice cream with a big meal. There is a thread documenting my progress here:

    http://goneraw.com/node/18712

  • Hi Stevio, thanks for that - I enjoyed reading your experience. it is encouraging to see how others are benefitting.

    I also was on Byetta for 3 months. I had been on Metformin for about 3 or 4 years, then in 2003 I was put on to insulin. July last year my doctor suggested Byetta. I decided after doing a bit of research to give it a go and although I lost weight, it did nothing for my blood sugar which was around 12 on the hbA1c and had been for a long time. It also gave me terrible stomach problems. In the end I was in so much pain the doc took me off it. I have since discovered that it should not be given to diabetics who are on insulin (sack the Doc!). It works for those who produce enough of their own insulin but not for those who don't.

    My stomach didn't recover after stopping the Byetta and just got worse until in January my digestion completely collapsed. I thought I might be Celiac so went gluten and dairy-free and low-carb as my stomach can't digest them properly, and that brought my Blood Pressure down enough for me to be able to stop the Ace Inhibitor - I didn't bother to ask a Doc when I did it - one of them had already told me to keep it going but I didn't like the dizziness every time I stood up! It has levelled out around 110/70.

    I try to keep the insulin as low as poss - usually around 10-14 units twice a day with a Metformin and a Vitabase Blood Sugar capsule (which, after stopping the Byetta brought my BS right down to around normal with an hbA1c of 7.3, and which I had never been able to achieve, even with the Metformin and insulin at my previous level of 20-25 units twice a day. It has crept up slightly since then as I haven't controlled it as well as I would like since going gluten-free and being on the SCD so I am hoping that the raw way will sort that out.

    I have only started the raw food just under a week ago - mainly raw smoothies - I am probably 60 - 70% raw at present but already I have been sleeping better as my digestion is more settled and I don't have the gas and bloating that went away after stopping gluten but then came back again. I firmly believe that a lot of our health issues are to do with bacteria and gut dysbiosis and if we can cut out foods that feed the bad guys and concentrate on foods that feed the good guys we may be able to get the gut back into some semblance of rebalance.

    What level of raw are you now? Has the weight-loss continued?

  • I have been raw for almost a year and am an ex diabetic as long as I stay raw. I started eating all raw limiting my fruits to 2 a day in the morning and the rest veggies, nuts, and seeds. If you go raw you will need the nuts and seeds. At first I also ate a cup of cooked beans at dinner because I thought I needed it but I now know I did not. After 5 months my doctor verified that I no longer had diabetes, high blood pressure and had lost 40 pounds. Good luck but please do not try the 80/10/10 diet as for many it is not good and for diabetics it is a disaster.

  • Thanks Rose for that encouragement.

    I realised a long time ago that the reason some vegetarians are not healthy is because their diet relies mainly on carbohydrates, and not always good ones at that. Personally, looking back I can see that I have always had a problem with carbs. I started off as a dumpy teenager, lost it a bit in my late teens then piled it all back on with my first pregnancy and never lost it since.

    Low-carb is definitely better for me and I need enough protein or I get a headache so I doubt that I would ever be able to go fully raw. At the moment I supplement protein with either cooked chicken or fish or raw salmon. I don't seem to cope with the heavier meats.

    As I have never been able to cope with some fruits I tend to limit to bananas, certain apples, a few blueberries, grapes and an occasional pear. I get allergic reactions to the prunus family - peaches, nectarines, mangoes, plums, etc. That may be to do with leaky gut and if so then I have had that for a long time - my first allergic reaction to a peach was when I was in my 20's. I couldn't even cut them up for the children.

    I do wonder about salicylates too - aspirin mucked my stomach up and I do wonder whether it reacts more severely to salicylates because of it. As most fruit and veg contains them it could be why my stomach got so bad when I did the Alkalyzing Diet 2 years ago. Mind you I have since realised I am gluten intolerant and the green drink contains wheat-grass so perhaps it was that, or maybe I just simply over-alkalized myself!

    Having the good fruit and veg was probably all I needed and the green drink and Alkalyzing Drops may just have been a 'bridge too far'! Still, I will see how I go with the raw 60% at the moment - I can always up the ante if things go ok with it.

  • SuasoriaSuasoria Raw Newbie

    Alibee, congrats.

    If you haven't seen the documentary (now called 'Simply Raw,' no longer 'Raw for 30 Days') then SEE it. If you can't get the DVD, they're doing screenings all over. Dr. Gabriel Cousens also has a book on his work with diabetic patients - it's a bit technical, but probably not so technical for someone like you who's been managing diabetes for a while!

    Kirt Tyson, who stars in the film, can be contacted through his MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/kirttyson. Once Kirt went through the program to reverse diabetes he chose to go to naturopathic medical school to help others, and he's written and said lot about his experience.

    I can say that the participants in the film started noticing changes after about four days. However, there is no meat in this program, nor in Dr. Neal Barnard's program (cooked vegan) where he achieved similar results with diabetics who were non-insulin dependent (unlike the raw program, which was people who took insulin). This is another promising development for people who can't do 100% raw. I'm sorry I can't recall the name of Barnard's book.

    With everything now becoming known about diet and diabetes, if I had diabetes and was concerned about protein, I would certainly not get it from meats, but from plant-based sources.

  • steviostevio Raw Newbie

    AliBee,

    I would say I am about 90-95% raw right now, and the weight loss continues. However, the last week had me closing on a new house, moving, and hosting thanksgiving for a family of meat eaters, so I was probably closer to 30% for the last week. I felt terrible the day after thanks giving, and the detox and withdrawal from the cooked food is being felt today. My family has left town, and there are no more horrible foods in the house, and plenty of greens and fruits, so things should be back on track.

    As for your fruit allergies, I can relate to that as well. I became allergic to the prunus family in early puberty. No longer being able to eat plums was heart breaking for me. Slowly over time I became allergic to even more fruits and veggies. It turned out that I could eat them fine if they were cooked, but I had problems with them when eaten raw. Tomatoes, peppers, and celery were the next ones to enter, and then later watermelon, apple and pears joined the list. Most nuts (even roasted) were a problem.

    As a result of this, going raw seemed to be an expensive venture for me, as I thought it was going to require a lot of berries, and none of the more affordable fruits that I was allergic to.

    After getting my blender, and experimenting with the smoothies, I found that blending my fruits provided the same allergy relief as cooking them. At first, eating a raw apple was something that resulted in a reaction, but blending it was fine. Now that I have been eating high raw for a few months, I can just eat an apple or plum again without negative consequences. I can't eat 6 apples, or 6 plums (unless blended), but I can have 1 or 2 at a sitting.

    I have nothing to support this, but wonder if it wasn't a digestive issue brought on by my years of poor eating. Cooking, though nutrient destroying, does make food easier to digest, as does blending. I'll probably never know for sure, I am just glad I no longer have to avoid those fruits.

  • Raw_OrleansRaw_Orleans Raw Newbie

    AllBee, I can tell that a raw diet really agrees with you... You are looking So Young... I Guess your Hair will Never Come Back Though... Maybe you should try some Rogaine...

  • Raw_OrleansRaw_Orleans Raw Newbie

    One person who really knew what he was talking about was Hippocrates, who said "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food".

    http://www.naturalnews.com/024958.html

    www.FlourideAlert.Org

  • He also said "All disease begins in the gut". He was a very wise man - shame that in the 21st century the Medical Profession have mislaid that piece of very profound advice and just end up treating the symptoms instead of looking at the root causes!

    Everything is controlled by bacteria. Kill the good guys with antibiotics and other prescription drugs and you let the bad guys in. Even Alexander Fleming when he created Penicillin advised against unrestrained use of the things - did anyone take any notice??

    Only just now are they finally beginning to twig that we need to be 'Pro-biotic' instead of 'Anti'. Too late - most of the damage is already done. The only people I know who are really well are ones who have managed to escape the darn things.

  • How strange Stevio that you could consume those fruits when blended without problems!

    I hadn't had many apples over the years as I used to get allergic reactions to them, along with peaches/nectarines, but a year or so ago I decided to try an apple fast. I ate pretty much nothing but apples for 4 or 5 days then the next morning after having another apple - bang! Another allergic reaction! Granted the apple was a type I had not had before so whether it was the apple, something it was sprayed with, or just one apple too many, I really don't know, but up to that point I had consumed at least 20 apples over the preceding days and it hadn't happened before.

    Two days later I was having a drink of water with lemon and ACV and had another episode, yet I had had the same drink earlier in the day. It is so weird. I wonder if the reason you can tolerate them now is because your body's acid/alkaline balance has changed since you have been eating raw? If the SAD regime makes our bodies too acidic then perhaps they can't cope with the post-digestive alkalinity of the fruit.

    Anyway, I am having an apple in my smoothie every morning and it seems fine so far. I am sticking to the varieties I am fairly confident I am ok with.

    It is good too that you can now eat a lot of the fruits that you couldn't before. That's a very positive thing and may well indicate that your body is much more balanced. Thanks again for the encouragement.

  • RawKidChefRawKidChef Raw Newbie

    That quote has to be the wisest in the world! :)

  • suekosueko Raw Superstar

    Hi AliBee

    I was a type 2 diabetic on insulin, byetta and glucophage, all of which made me so sick I decided there had to be something better. I have been raw for about a year and a half. I started out initially, as Dr. Cousen's recommends, with a green vegetable juice fast. I followed that for 92 days with the help of David Rainoshek's website juicefeasting.com and lost 40 pounds,my blood sugars were normal within 9 days and have been ever since. Stress will raise them somewhat and I do have to keep exercising as well. I have lost a total of 100 pounds and am no longer on any medication. I would also advise to stay away from the 80/10/10 diet, it is for athletes, and deadly for diabetics. I personally cannot eat fruit very often. I eat a piece of fruit about once a week and it is a real treat. I concentrate on getting as much greens as I can in the way of salads, soups and I will make a chia seed cinnamon smoothie and add some spinach to that but no green smoothies because it is simply too much fruit. I still include a lot of green juice in my diet and try to stay very hydrated (chronic dehydration is a real problem for diabetics).

    Welcome to the raw food world. Done correctly (for you) it can save your life. It has saved mine (did I mention that my energy soared, my digestion problems are completely gone, I am sleeping so much better and I no longer suffer from a lifelong chronic depression?)HTH

  • Am reading all this with great interest, as I am a Newbie here, and a type 2 Diabetic on Metformin. Found this place on a search for raw food recipes... like other people in here, I watched the Raw for 30 Days video and it kept coming back to mind.

    I know nothing about raw food, or this 80/10/10 that was mentioned several times. Guess I have a lot of research to do, but I feel better knowing that I'm not alone in all this.

  • suekosueko Raw Superstar

    Harmony - If you have type 2 diabetes, then the 80/10/10 is not a good choice. It is meant more for athletes and has so much carbohydrate and sugar that it raises most people's blood sugar. Look into the Dr. Gabriel Cousens books. He is the diabetes expert in the raw food world. At the end of the day, though, you will need to decide what is the best for you.

  • the59soundthe59sound Raw Newbie

    "Good luck but please do not try the 80/10/10 diet as for many it is not good and for diabetics it is a disaster." What the fuck?

  • I read somewhere that people have cured both type 1 and 2 with 80/10/10. Doug Graham blames too much fat which causes blood sugar problems. The following blog is from a type 1who is trying to cure himself with 80/10/10. I haven't gone through the whole thing, so I'm not sure if he was successful or not:

    http://robertbarbaro.gaia.com/blog/2007/3

  • Hi AliBee

    I have celiac disease and I have problem with animal protein, I can't digest them. So, be care with them. I'm have both hives and diahrrea with my celiac disease. I'm also allergic to the natural gluten in corn and soy. Soy is very hard on our system with celiac disease.

    If you do have celiac disease don't us vanilla either, has lots of gluten in it. Watch out for natural and immation flavorings, they also have gluten.

    Since being on raw now for 1 month, I have had no problems. My skin is clear and my energy is climbing ever day.

    It's funny because when I first found out I had celiac disease, the doctor put me on a raw diet for 1 month. But I didn't stay, I felt good on the raw then but didn't realize it was from the food. I have been a veggie eater on and off, not much of a meat eat except for chicken, now most chicken you buy has gluten add or corn so I can't eat it any more without a reaction.

    The most important thing I can say is look for hidden gluten, it has many different names. Corn has more, haha go figure. The other thing that is important, never eat cheese, even raw goat cheese. What they put in the milk to make the cheese has gluten in it. If it doesn't say gluten free don't use it.

    I know people will disagree with me but please stay away from wheat grass, I was drinking it and the 3 day it sent me to the hospital. I had hives and diahrrea, it's not good for people with celiac disease or gluten allergies. It will cause you problems down the end. Not everything that in raw is good for gluten free people, like flax seed, you can't find any that are gluten free because of the machines that they are packaged in. Be very careful.

    Take care

    God Bless

  • I'm new here and have diabetes and take insulin 2 time a day I went raw w/beer about 3 years ago and cut my shots down in half this time I went on the juice feast for 20 days and didn't cure anything but I'm not giving up I'm 100% raw and loving it. I see here (again) that I'm eating way to many fruits. oh and I don't drink any thing but green's water and herb tea. I am staying busy making food's every day finds me making flax crackers and avocado dip. I will start to eat way less fruit today because my sugar levels are a bit to high for sure. the thing I found out was that a spoon full of pickle juice helped my digestive problems soothed me right down olive juice and vinegar helped also but the pickle juice tasted best to me.

    any wanted to say hi both my wife and I are now raw nice to have someone stick by your side we both have been loosing weight too.

Sign In or Register to comment.