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Permalink Reply by Ivan E. Cao-Berg on January 30, 2010 at 8:00pm

veggie recipes rulz! they help me a lot.

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Permalink Reply by Zoe on January 3, 2011 at 8:02am

Strange, everyone seems to be responding to a post by natalac which I don't see.

 

Anyway, here is my two cents. I'm not going to bother responding to the "you must eat fish" or "only vegetarians are healthy" comments, because I think they're judgemental. How we eat is a matter of personal choice, and can change a lot over the course of a life. I have been a vegetarian for 9 years and am happy with that choice; I also was one for a couple years in my 20s. However, I'm 62 now, so you do the math.

 

When I was diagnosed 3 years ago I decided I didn't need to change my diet because "I ate healthy" (more judgements). I did, just not for a diabetic, because I ate a lot of pasta, rice, and cereal. When I recognized this I said that my health is most important to me and if I have to go back to eating meat, or at least fish and chicken, I would. I've found I didn't need to do that, but it has been and continues to be much more work to eat as a vegetarian while reducing my carbs. I'm not low carb, but stay just under 100 a day. I am able to do this and eat nutritious and tasty foods because I live near an amazing market where I can find any ingredient I can imagine, I am semi-retired and have lots of time, and I love to cook.

 

My questions to you would be why you are eating vegetarian. If I'm interpreting your post correctly, you started doing it after your diabetes diagnosis because you thought it would help control your diabetes and you would lose weight. Congratulations on your weight loss. I don't want to minimize that achievement, but people generally are able to have an initial significant weight loss on pretty much any diet because they are reducing intake and perhaps also increasing exercise. Now you feel you are at a plateau. I agree with what bsc said so clearly: high carb is not good for diabetes, and not for weight loss either. I differ from many in that I do believe in limiting fat intake, but a carb is a carb and pastas and cereal won't help you at all. So unless I'm missing something, and you have other reasons for a vegetarian diet (and are willing to do the work to make it more diabetes friendly), I would suggest you eat what you prefer in terms of protein, and work on reducing the carbs by replacing the pasta with healthy vegies and the cereal with eggs in the morning when we are most carb sensitive.

Ok, it was more than 2 cents!

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Permalink Reply by KimKat on January 3, 2011 at 10:03am

Hi Ron,

I am a vegan. I have been a vegeterian for 20 years and 5 of those years vegan. I was DX with Type 2 this year. Meat, dairy have absolutely NOTHING to do with diabetes. Take it from me. It is genetic first off and secondly - it are those "white" high carb foods that are staple of the vegan diet that create the fat at your tummy that can trigger genetic Type 2 into action. Pasta, rice, potatoes and bread. You stopped eating meat so you are replacing it with pasta. Biggest mistake you can make. If you want to stay being vegan, you need to start eating more things like beans and veggies. Stay away from the white carbs. Serioulsy.

I am still a vegan (I am one for ethical reason and I think I am now allergic to dairy). Believe me, even though I am an advocate of the vegan diet (obviously), I do not believe meat and dairy have anything to do with diabetes. If this was true, I would have never gotten it. There are several other on here who were vegeterians/ vegan when they got diabetes too. So please don't believe that myth.

Obviously, you will lose weight yes and that is exactly what Dr. Bernards program is geared towards - people who are not already vegan or vegeterian who need to lose weight. I remember when I was first diagnosed and I heard about him and I was excited because I was already a vegan and it is a struggle to stay vegan being diabetic. So I went and look at his book at Borders. It was higher carb than I was eating already! I was not impressed with it at all. It really gave me no answers that made sense to me being that I am a Thin Type 2 and was thin was diagnosed. I thought it might shed some light on what went wrong with me but it didn't. It was quite disappointing. Needless to say I have 20 years experience so I felt more advanced cooking wise than he was!.

What 'gums up' your cells are those refined carbs. Giving up the dairy and meat may help things like high blood pressure, cholestrol - if you have it - and yes, you will lose weight (you will also lose weight on low carb - meat has no carbs btw).

For myself, my vegan diet before i was diagnosed was ALOT of those refined white carbs esp. bread. Even though I only weighed 130 (I am 5'4") at dx so I was not considered overweight - the fat I had (and still have) was in my stomach - and where did that fat come from? Not meat or dairy obviously since I didn't eat those. Those white carbs! The glucose in those things is what will "gum up your cells". You might hear the theory about their being fat on your cells too from the meat. (Not sure how I feel about that one - I think eating the wrong kinds of fat ie animal fats - are not good and there are lots of people here who will attack me for that - there are lots of veggie fats you can have that are healthier for you).

If anything, I think dairy is worse for you than meat. It creates alot of mucous buildup in your body and runs down your immune system if you have too much of it. I would avoid that more than meat if I were you.

So, in summary, going vegan isn't going to get rid of your diabetes (it won't prevent you from getting it either - just look at me) but I think because you lost that weight (esp if it was around your middle) that is what might be the cause of your better numbers. The organs don't like fat around them and that is were your pancreas is.

I lost 30 pounds in three months without trying after dx and I now I am at a steady 100 - I would like to gain but it hard on a vegan diet with restricted portions. But my numbers are great - better than they were when I ate all those white carbs. I still have some bread (low carb) but I stay away from potatoes, pasta and rice. More veggies, beans, etc.

We have vegetarian and vegan groups on here. Or if you need any other help on the diet - let me know. Btw, I am half Polish too and Polish food has a lot of potatoe and floury foods - not diabetic friendly. Italian food is another one to avoid! Not that you can't have any - but it definately has to be in moderation. They are very high carb foods.

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