Reverse Type 2 Diabetes: NHS Expert DR DAVID and Chef KATIE

How-Did-I-Control-My-Diabetes

London: Food is one of life’s greatest joys and if you want to go low-carb long term and keep your type 2 diabetes in check, it is important to find foods you enjoy. That’s where this series, with chef Katie Caldesi’s recipes, comes in delicious low-carb dishes to help you make the change in lifestyle. It’s a change that could transform your health. My type 2 diabetes patients who have signed up to low carb have so far lost, on average, 9kg.

And our greatest weight-loss success, Anna Eastwood, lost nearly 9st in just over a year! Imagine the difference that has been made in her life. When I first started offering a low-carb approach to type 2, many of the patients who signed up were particularly interested in avoiding lifelong medication for diabetes and its side effects.

How Did I Control My Diabetes

diabetes treatment

Walnuts Benefits for Diabetes

Natural Treatment for DIABETES

So far, half of them have been able to come off their type 2 medication completely. Others have also reduced the dosage of their blood pressure and cholesterol pills, or come off them entirely (under medical supervision, of course). These findings were reported in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health last year.

Contrary to what some critics say — that people can’t stick to low carb in the long term — my patients have made it a lifestyle choice and to date, the average length of time they have been low carb is two years.

I think that’s because low carb can be filling as well as appetizing, and you can also enjoy the good things, such as olive oil, avocados, cream, full-fat Greek yogurt, and butter. Even champagne can be on the menu, on occasion!

When they first switch to a low-carb lifestyle, patients have been surprised that it’s not about denial. Of course, no single diet will suit everyone — and that’s true of low carb, too — but in my practice, we find it can be adapted to different personal tastes — and budgets (more on this in the Mail tomorrow).

But sometimes people do ‘fall off the wagon’ — it is human nature to try hard at the start, then drift back to your old habits. As my psychologist wife Jen explains on the back page of this pullout, various factors make sugar and starchy carbs addictive to us.

This is why moderation in these things is so difficult. And this is also why a birthday celebration or Christmas can soon result in weight gain — and blood sugar levels rising again; it’s what Jen and I call ‘carb creep’.

Perhaps it just starts with a couple of biscuits or a piece of cake: before long it is easy to find yourself eating just as much sugar and starchy carbs as before.

Unfortunately, many clinicians faced with this ‘failure’ conclude that the low-carb diet has failed, and put the type 2 diabetes patient on lifelong drugs when all that needs to be done is to ask the patient where sugar or carbs might be creeping back into their diet. via daily mail

How Did I Control My Diabetes