The End of Diabetes

THE END OF DIABETES

The Eat to Live Plan to Prevent and Reverse Diabetes

Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

Dedication

In memory of Daniel Boller, a wonderful young man, taken by the vicious consequences of diabetes

Contents

Dedication

 

Introduction: A Letter of Hope

One: The First Step—Understanding Diabetes

Two: Don't Medicate, Eradicate

Three: Standard American Diet Versus a Nutritarian Diet

Four: Reversing Diabetes Is All About Understanding Hunger

Five: High-Protein, Low-Carb Counterattack

Six: The Phenomenal Fiber in Beans

Seven: The Truth About Fat

Eight: The Nutritarian Diet in Action

Nine: The Six Steps to Achieving Our Health Goals

Ten: For Doctors and Patients

Eleven: Frequently Asked Questions

Twelve: Menus and Recipes

Take: It From Here

Index

Recipe Index

Acknowledgments

Notes

 

About the Author

Also by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

Praise

Credits

Copyright

About the Publisher

A CAUTION TO THE READER

If you are taking any medication, do not make dietary changes without the assistance of a physician, as medication adjustment will be necessary to prevent excessive lowering of the blood sugar level (hypoglycemia). Hypoglycemia from using too much medication can be dangerous.

Because this diabetic reversal program is so effective, it is even more important to consult with a knowledgeable physician who is familiar with the medication reduction needed as a result of aggressive dietary modifications. Do not underestimate how effective this program is because without medication reductions, a serious hypoglycemic reaction could occur from taking too much medication.

Many physicians, not realizing how effective this diet style is, may be hesitant to taper medications sufficiently. Make sure you warn your physician about this and follow your blood sugar more carefully the first few weeks after beginning this plan. If you are also on medications for high blood pressure, this nutritional advice may also lower your blood pressure too much, so be sure to watch that and discuss any changes with your physician as well.

I will discuss medications in detail and offer guidance for their reduction in this book. You must realize, however, that a book cannot take the place of individualized council from the physician who knows your medical condition. It is your responsibility to work with the physician of your choice to assure your blood sugar and blood pressure readings are not too high or too low.

Note:
The cases in this book are all real, but the names have been modified for privacy purposes.

INTRODUCTION

A Letter of Hope

D
EAR
F
RIEND
,

Congratulations. You have taken the first step in freeing yourself from the life-threatening disease known as diabetes.

As you may have read or heard, nearly 26 million Americans (11.3 percent of adults) now have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention new estimates of diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetes. Nearly 80 million (35 percent of adults) qualify as having prediabetes. If the trend continues, one in three American adults could have diabetes by 2050.

Diabetes is widespread, and we can no longer take a passive approach to getting our health back. This book is designed for people who want to take aggressive action in their battle to lose a dramatic amount of weight and reverse diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. You can seize control of your health. It is in your hands. Together, we can start right now.

This program has been tested by thousands of individuals, and the extraordinary results have been documented in medical studies. It is possible to prevent and recover completely from type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes.

As a diabetic you probably have a plan to keep on top of your condition with glucose monitoring, HbA1C measurements, regular physician visits, and medication adjustments. These standard and accepted practices to maintain control of your blood glucose are seen as essential to your health. Unfortunately, this is all wrong. Your life and these treatments are focused on controlling your blood sugar instead of learning how to rid yourself of diabetes. Even with adequate glucose control, if you remain diabetic, the illness will age you prematurely and shorten your life. What's more, when you focus only on the numbers instead of removing the causes of diabetes, it could actually worsen your diabetes in the long run.

The majority of medications used to lower blood sugar place stress on your already failing pancreas. The probability of your diabetes getting worse under conventional medical care is especially likely since medications used to control blood sugar, such as sulfonylureas and insulin, also cause weight gain. The dangerous combination of pushing the pancreas to produce insulin and gaining more weight with medication actually results in the need for additional medication as you become increasingly diabetic. This common and yet failed approach shortens life span and increases the risk of heart attacks.

The number of people with type 2 diabetes is rapidly increasing, having tripled in America over the last thirty years. The main reason for this is openly recognized: America's expanding waistline. Yet physicians, dieticians, and even the American Diabetes Association (ADA) have all but given up on promoting weight loss as the primary treatment for diabetes. Medication is the accepted treatment—even though it is often the medication itself causing more weight gain, worsening symptoms, and making individuals more diabetic. This creates a vicious cycle: as a person becomes more diabetic, more medications are needed, the doses keep going up and up, and the person become more diabetic. It is a misguided approach to our health. Most diabetics would be better off if these medications were never invented because maybe then they would have been forced to change their lifestyle and eating habits. Reversing and preventing diabetes on an individual and national level does not require a prescription. It requires a change in the way we eat.

The medical community has given up on weight loss as an avenue to help diabetics mostly because traditional diets don't work. But even if you have failed on one diet after another in the past, please don't give up. The diet plan in these pages
does
work. You will see radical improvements in your health. You are the owner and operator of your body. You
can
reverse and even eliminate your diabetes with the life-saving nutritional information in this book. The nutritional plan I have used for over twenty years on more than ten thousand patients is based on a central idea:

 

Your Health Future (H) = Nutrients (N) / Calories (C)

My approach is radically different from other methods and is proven to work. I will show you how your body can heal itself when you give it the necessary tools. The fact is, your body is designed for wellness. Give it the right biochemical environment for healing and it becomes a miraculous self-healing machine. My approach is based on a scientific formula that determines life span and health. This formula, known as H=N/C, means your health is determined by the nutrient-per-calorie density of your diet. When you eat more foods that have a high-nutrient density and fewer foods with a low-nutrient density, your health will dramatically improve and your diabetes will melt away.

When you eat mostly high-nutrient foods, the body ages slower and is armed to prevent and reverse many common illnesses. The natural self-healing and self-repairing ability that is hibernating in your body wakes up and takes over, and diseases disappear. A nutrient-rich menu of green vegetables, berries, beans, mushrooms, onions, seeds, and other natural foods is the key to achieving optimal weight and health.

Contrary to popular speculation, the many diseases that plague all people and threaten our lives are not an inevitable consequence of aging. We are not the victims of poor genetics. We do not need a steady supply of pills for the rest of our lives. We have come to believe that our excess, disease-causing body fat is normal, acceptable, and too difficult to take off. Drugs are not the solution to the weight, diabetes, or other problems that seem to come with aging.

Knowledge leads to power. Learning how the foods you eat affect your health and well-being gives you the power to become healthy, live longer, and feel better every single day. People who use my program are amazed by the results. When you eat sufficient micronutrients and fiber with a high-nutrient diet, it suppresses food cravings. Amazingly, you begin to naturally crave fewer calories. This puts an end to overeating. If you are overweight, this approach will rapidly create weight loss until your body finds its natural, healthy weight. For most people, the weight loss obtained through this diet rivals that of gastric bypass surgery but without the risk.

I know you're thinking,
Will I be hungry all the time? And will the food be good?
Here's the great news: healthy food should be and can be easy to prepare and delicious. I have traveled the world and have worked with celebrated chefs to come up with recipes and meal plans that are filling, mind-blowingly delicious, and good for you. No kitchen expertise is required, as these recipes are for everyone. As you follow this diet, I promise that it will soon become the way you prefer to eat. So many of my patients who started Eat to Live have changed the way they eat forever. The food tastes good, and they feel good. The truth is that once people understand the fundamentals and amazing rewards of healthy eating, we never go back to our old habits. This approach is priceless because it is lifesaving.

 

Your health is dependent on the amount of nutrients in your diet.

I call a diet that is rich in micronutrients a
nutritarian diet.
In other words, the more
nutrient
dense
your diet, the healthier you become. It sounds so simple, and it is. When you eat a diet rich in healthy, natural foods from the earth, you give your body the nutrients it needs to heal and protect itself. Diabetes is a food-created disorder, and the right food choices can rid you of this life-shortening disease and its associated medical complications.

Of the more than ten thousand patients I have counseled, many who came to me sick, overweight, and suffering from a health crisis, most have found the solution they sought for so long. They recovered and returned to health without drugs. The number one recommendation I make for all of my patients, regardless of their condition, is to overhaul their diet. I have helped thousands of people with type 2 diabetes to reduce and eliminate their disease with nutrient-dense food. A large majority of them have become nondiabetic. The results from applying this approach have been documented. In fact, I believe that my nutritarian diet, often called Eat to Live, is the most effective program for diabetes ever studied and will continue to prove to be so as it is more widely implemented and larger research studies are performed in the future.

In a case series published in the
Open Journal of Preventive Medicine,
90 percent of participants were able to eliminate or reduce their medication by 75 percent, and the average hemoglobin A1C dropped from 8.2 to 5.8.
1
Hemoglobin A1C is a measurement of average glucose levels over a three-month period. A level lower than 6 is considered nondiabetic, or normal, and above 8 is considered poorly controlled. The participants also saw their systolic blood pressure drop from an average of 148 to 121 while medications were withdrawn. These dramatically positive results are enabling larger and more long-term studies to begin.

Of course, no dietary approach to diabetes will succeed without attention to other risk factors—the main ones being a sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and lack of sleep. The road to wellness involves making a commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Exercise is also critical. The good news is, the healthier you eat and the better you feel, the more you will want to exercise and keep your body in the best possible shape.

Yes, diabetes is a very serious disease. It can cause a host of problems such as heart disease, kidney damage, and vision loss, problems that can shorten your life and lessen the quality of your years on earth.
But it doesn't have to.
The answer is simple: eat a nutritarian diet and exercise daily. It may not always be easy, but the effort delivers life-saving results.

I urge you to take the plunge and carefully follow this program. I know firsthand that it can change the course of your health and life forever. Join us and turn the page of your health history. Let's create a new story to tell of health, vitality, and long life. It's time for a firm commitment to getting in the best shape of your life. Thousands of people have already embraced this message and are creating a health revolution. We're thrilled to have you along for this exciting and transformative journey.

—Joel Fuhrman, M.D.