Printer friendly page

 Reverse Diabetes Diet Plan 

This is the same as a healthy diet plan

A plant based whole food diet uses only vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, peas, lentils mushrooms, seeds and raw nuts: It is suggested to use 1 dessertspoon of flax seeds, freshly ground daily plus with 1 or more dessertspoon of raw nuts such as walnuts or almonds. No added oil as (it is present in many processed foods). This means absolutely no fried or roasted food that has the addition of vegetable or seed oil.  To ram the point home if you are looking at the ingredients on a label you should not  be purchasing it  as whole foods are not packaged like that: eg fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, mushrooms. If you don't know how to cook and prepare food you better learn otherwise your health is out of control. Take back control !

It is the damage in the production and cooking of seed and vegetable oils including , margarine that is the major enemy of your health and a major precipitator of diabetes, cardio vascular and heart disease, stroke, obesity and diabetes and  is also implicated in the promotion of cancer.

This does not apply to coconut and olive oils.  For gentle frying coconut oil is the most resistive to damage by heat.  Olive and especially coconut oil tend to reduce insulin resistance,  and improve general well-being and are valuable aids in the prevention and reversal of diabetes  and  disease along with a whole food plant based diet. They can actually promote weight loss in the overweight and raise weight in the underweight. Essential reading: Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife  and The 7 Wonders of Olive Oil by Alice Alech 

Eliminating all the animal based foods and processed foods  makes for a whole food plant based diet. That type of diet provides more nutrients than a regular western animal protein based diet and promotes health and recovery to a high degree. This is shown extensively with clinical studies and you are encouraged to look in detail at the listed videos and read books by the pioneers in whole food plant based diets. In addition to such a high quality vegetarian diet the recommended supplements are a source of Vitamin B12 and vitamin D when one is not getting regular sun on the skin e.g around 4000 IU daily in the northern autumn and spring and 8,000IU daily in the winter.

The whole food plant based diet does contain enough protein and carbohydrates. Due to the absence of animal products higher volumes of plant foods are eaten with no restriction on what is desired, so it is a satisfying diet and will contain more healing nutrients than the typical diet containing animal products. It is also a reliable weight loss diet for the overweight. As mentioned previously the addition of coconut oil or extra virgin cold pressed olive oil adds benefit to a whole food plant based diet. This is not recommended by persons such as Dr Gregor, Dr Mcdougal and others as they have not studied the effects of these and made the assumption that all fats have basically the same effect on physiology. To clear all doubt and confusion read the books detailed above by Fife and Alice Alech and make your own judgement.

Some  whole food plant based diet practitioners recommend the addition of supplements that contain a source of the fats DHA and EPA.  I agree with this as as the production of these  from the diet is individual and open to debate. These are essential for  proper functioning of the brain and nervous system. A healthy source of DHA and EPA to provide around 1000 milligrams daily i.e 1 gram.  The best source for multiple health benefits and very complete nutrient density is marine phytoplankton, but higher benefits may occur with the addition of a quality fish oil to obtain a higher dose of DHA/EPA ie to obtain any where near 1g daily.

Should you avoid salt?

Definitely not! as many studies show that for the average adult the ideal amount of salt daily is in the range of 8 to 15 grams ie 2 or 3 x 5 ml teaspoons daily (3 x 3 ml teaspoons a day approximately)

Salt should be unrefined to provide a broad spectrum of minerals. Having insufficient salt will increase the stress on the body and tends to yield higher levels of the diabetes, cardio vascular problems and more. The reduction in blood pressure when some people restrict salt is very minimal, in fact it often rises with salt restriction. With unrefined salt, if the blood pressure is excessive it often drops with the addition of unrefined salt.

For population studies and thorough discussion of the salt issue watch the video The Salt Fix. The book, The Salt Fix by Dr James DiNicolantonio is highly recommended.

If you are not consuming sufficient fruits and vegetables it is likely that insufficient potassium is being consumed daily. It is the potassium to sodium balance that is one of the factors in blood pressure as well as the amount of processed foods and animal products being consumed. These issues are soon resolved on the whole food plant based diet. If you are concerned about your high blood pressure (a few decades ago it was considered normal to have a blood pressure systolic reading of 100 + age, although not the most healthy, it was not a cause for drug intervention) and hesitant about increasing your salt intake then use a blood pressure monitor and take your B.P. at a similar time each day in a similar relaxed seated state, there will be variations, and possibly a few days of adjustment when increasing ones salt.

It is important to note that a whole food plant based diet uses only whole grains, and no processed foods at all. An example of the sort of mistake a novice to this kind of diet could make is to purchase a vegetable pie. This would contain pastry made from white wheat flour and large amounts of cooked fats and oils. Nothing processed just real food as it comes from the field, ground or trees.

The above diet is a universal diet to improve health for all conditions and persons. Options to suit your health journey include variations on the amount of cooked to raw food. The use of food blenders and juicers is recommended to achieve greater flexibility and nutrient density of the diet. Check out whole food plant based diet online to learn more.

Leaders in the subject include Dr. John McDougall, Neal Barnard, Joel Fuhrman, Dr Michael Greger. For those that are attracted to a mainly raw food diet cantered around fruit and green leaves, Dr Dough Graham. It is common to think a high fruit or even a high  whole food carb diet would cause blood sugar issues. The amazing fact is, by keeping  damaged Polyunsaturated fats out of the diet and eliminating animal products, blood sugar rapidly reduces after eating due to no insulin resistance. That is why high carb/fruit eaters do not get fat or suffer from the health problems induced by insulin resistance such as diabetes, cardio vascular problems and most chronic disease.

Cooked food offers advantages over raw food and visa versa. Cooking should involve only steaming, low or high pressure, boiling (retaining all the liquid) and oven cooking (preferably within a container with lid to keep moist and avoid any browning) If frying keep the heat low to avoid browning and use only coconut oil. Cooked food has the advantage that beans, peas, lentils, grains, mushrooms and vegetables can be broken down to aid digestion and increase the amount of plant foods that can be consumed often with minimal loss of nutrients. Greens can be blended for raw smoothies/soups and also cooked to provide sufficient amount of these highly beneficial foods. Fruits should be consumed raw. Making smoothies with fruits often using grapefruit as the main liquid source is of great benefit; especially useful to enable the consumption of a fair amount of fruit if the teeth are not good and can be used as a complete meal.

As much as whole food carbs (starches) as appetite dictates is the main way forward on a whole food plant based diet. These include root vegetables whole grains such as rice, oats, Millet, buckwheat etc, legumes (lentils, beans, peas) Try to include a little mushroom, some onion and lots of greens to supplement the starches that form the bulk of the calories of the diet.

Consuming freshly juiced raw celery about 500 ml daily on an empty stomach is very beneficial, at least for a few months and will accelerate the health improvements from a whole food plant based diet. It is possible to be able to drink 500 ml daily for a few months. So take it as long as you can, until you feel you no longer need it daily, but possibly every other day or one or twice a week.

Video link included below.