About Robyn
Robyn Openshaw is the author or editor of 10 titles, including the bestselling book
The Green Smoothies Diet, the children's book,
The Adventures of Junk Food Dude, and the course
12 Steps to Whole Foods. She’s passionate about overthrowing the Standard American Diet by teaching people to eat more whole foods easily, inexpensively, and deliciously. She’s the mom of 4 competitive athletes as well as a runner, cyclist, skier, and competitive tennis player. She travels all over the world speaking to sold-out audiences and studying non-toxic cancer treatment for her next project.
My Dad is diabetic and his health complications have resulted in his inability to walk. He uses a wheelchair and my 6 yr old daughter prays for the day he is able to “play with me in the backyard again”. In recent months, his doctors have stressed the importance of maintaining a healthy weight and insisted that he lose a considerable amount of weight. I suggested that he start drinking green smoothies, but he says that the fruit would be bad for his sugar levels.
Robyn, can you please speak to this – you are always such a great source of information, education and inspiration and I would appreciate whatever advice you can offer. I would also like to know if it’s okay to add nutritional yeast to green smoothies and, if so, how much? Does it affect the taste?
Thanks for all you do!
Stacey, Atlanta GA
Stacey, make a green smoothie with lots of spinach and chard (or other mild-tasting greens like lettuces) as well as smaller amounts of stronger-flavored greens, so you have less need for fruit to “cover” taste. Then use a bunch of lemon juice and stevia—and a few slices of apple.
I would really like to know if he make smoothies with no fruit did he sweeten it with anything? Did he drink just straight green smoothies? I just can’t do that. I would like to know how did he flavor all of those raw veggies.
This is terrible information. As a parent of a child with diabetes I am appalled at you for putting this on here. My son was diagnosed as a baby, before any food was in his system – when he was just breastfed, and I was on a very restricted diet at the time, too. Type 1 diabetes is not reversed by diet, never has been. It is an autoimmune disease that causes the pancreas to be unable to create and regulate insulin. Please get your facts straight. I have been an avid fan of yours, until now. I am greatly disappointed in your decision to promote this incorrect information.
Sarah, the average baby is born with over 200 toxic chemicals found in the umbilical cord, the vast majority of them both neurotoxic and carcinogenic. I am not and did not say that Type 1 diabetes can be reversed. Dr. Gabriel Cousens worked with Dr. Tyson and others and helped him eliminate his dependence on insulin, in a documentary on that topic. He and other holistic practitioners often say that diabetes and autoimmune conditions are the EASIEST to turn around.
Clearly K. Tyson’s Islets of Langerhans was not dead, despite a Type 1 diagnosis 6 years before. Sergei Boutenko was a teenager when he began to eat a 100% raw vegan diet and quit needing insulin. As I stated, I am not claiming a “cure” is always possible, but I do think we accept pronouncements of our doctors far too often, rather than venturing out with a little faith in the body’s ability to heal, repair, rebuild.
I did not promote any facts in this video, except the experience of one man—let alone any “incorrect” information. Regarding your statement, “It is an autoimmune disease that causes the pancreas to be unable to create and regulate insulin”: there is some debate about this. You may wish to obtain the Gerson tapes and hear or read some information by practitioners with a tremendous amount of knowledge, also including Dr. Cousens, who disagree with that statement of causation. What if there were a way to help diabetics, besides insulin pumps, etc.? Would you not be interested in exploring that?
When you say you are appalled at me for putting this on my blog…..I wonder, do you think I should hide Dr. Tyson away? Should I have told him that his story is not valid? Or untrue?
That said, I told him when we made the video, “People will scream at me for this.” Type 1 Diabetes as a life sentence is a sacred cow in our culture. It certainly may be, for many or most, but Kirt Tyson, not me, says otherwise, at least for his own personal situation.
LOAD OF SHIT – That’s what.
first of all an average BG of 300 prior to a raw diet…what was he doing? Then him stating that he has to change things up when he’s ill – does that mean he has to take insulin, he definitely didn’t explain did he? Did you know that when a person with diabetes is ill their BG can increase at an alarming rate causing them to go into Diabetic Ketoacidosis and die if they do not take care of it safely? Are you promoting a treatment plan that may lead people to die just so they can say “we don’t need insulin”? What is the point in this? What is wrong with eating healthy and not denying that insulin is a hormone that all people need, some just have organs that do not create it? Would you tell a person who was born with a congenital heart defect that their problem could be cured by a raw diet?
And no I do not believe you should hide these people away their experience is valid, the word choice is not accurate though. A cure is not dependent upon diet, if he was cured his body would be able to function properly independently of catching a cold or taking a bite of an apple.
I want to add that I do NOT believe that my son’s beta cells are dead, I do however believe that there is genetic and environmental component that has made his immune system create a less than perfect situation for his pancreas to regulate and create insulin. Despite a lengthy attempt at a raw diet to help his BG become more stable that just didn’t happen for him. Instead we choose to help him lead a healthy active life utilizing insulin.
Additionally, the whole premise that type 1 diabetes and the need for insulin is a life sentence (how negative sounding) is terrible – my child will have a full life. He will be able to do all he desires, he will not have any roadblocks placed in his way nor will his treatment be limited to what he finds in an endocrinology clinic. We seek out naturopaths, registered dietitians, chiropractors and acupuncturist to help in keeping all of our family as healthy as can be.
What I am hoping is that by the time my child is old enough to google type 1 diabetes videos like this are no longer around, hopefully by then there won’t be such a negative stigma around insulin.
Hopefully by then I will be less sensitive to all the snake oil salesmen that utilize the internet to sale their “newest” fix. Hopefully.
Hi Sarah, thanks for taking the time to explain a bit more why you’re offended. I’m piecing it together why Type 1 diabetics get angry when we talk about things that may affect their insulin dependence, which I did not know before.
It sounds like you’re doing a lot of good things for your son. You’re going places with this I never went. I don’t propose treatment plans. I didn’t use the word “cure.” It was Dr. Cousens, not me, who put a test group of diabetics on raw foods and documented their improvement. I’ve never advocated for anyone not taking their insulin. I don’t sell snake oil, either—I help people transition to eating whole foods, and only if they want to (my site has tons of free information I spend at least 6 hours a week developing). Eating whole foods is as old and time-tested as time itself, which is rather different than snake oil.
Nor am I aware of any “stigma” regarding insulin use. It is necessary and life saving; I’m truly sorry to hear that you feel there is. I specifically made sure to have Dr. Tyson mention (after I’d learned his story in more detail before the interview) that he uses insulin when he is sick, only.
When your child is old enough to google, you want him to not be able to learn that anyone has become less insulin resistant? I am not sure how that stigmatizes insulin or how that will be helpful to him. Eating less sugar reduces insulin dependence, right? If there is ANY hope, at ANY age, that someone be able to rely on the body’s ability to heal, I want that for all. If diabetics eat whole foods instead of relying EXCLUSIVELY on their meds, and good things happen for their health even though they still use insulin, is that a bad thing? I have lived with a Type 1 diabetic for 3 years (she is a close friend who rents my basement apartment). She was diagnosed over 30 years ago. I have watched the significant difference in periods where she does green smoothies and eats right, versus the periods she falls off the wagon. When she isn’t doing well and loses her energy and sleeps a lot, she always tells me she knows it is because she hasn’t been attending to her nutrition.
A life sentence to use insulin means you use it for life—not the same thing as a “death sentence,” which is negative, but I apologize if you didn’t like those words in my response. Just because there are few success stories with changing Type 1 diabetes once diagnosed, and even though he can be healthy on insulin, I still hope for progress and discoveries that improve your son’s future. Isn’t that why you go to naturopaths, acupunturists, etc.—to advance your health?
Incidentally, Dr. Tyson’s BG was over 1,000 once when he was admitted to an ER after drinking Red Bull. They told him it was the highest they’d ever seen. He nearly died and promised God he would change his ways and teach others, if he could live, that night in the ER. Then he went to naturopath school. He did say he uses insulin when he gets sick. He said that his BG of 300 was due to a fast-food diet.
Robyn you just said in your comments that he didn’t reverse his type 1 diabetes…if he still needs insulin from an external source, even if just when he’s ill than he isn’t healed – he hasn’t reversed anything. He is managing his type 1 diabetes through a specific diet. Not reversed. I truly hope no parent of a newly diagnosed child comes across this website, changes their child’s diet and fails to recognize that their child isn’t healed but still needs insulin even if just when ill, growing, or stressed.
Again my trouble is in the wording, the false hope, the claim to something that isn’t there.
Kirsten, and Sarah, let me be really clear, since “reprehensible” is some very strong language. I have not, and will not, suggest that children can or should go off their insulin. I didn’t even talk about diabetic children. I wanted people in general to know that when doctors tell you something will be the case for the rest of your life, that is not always the case. Just as, with cancer, I have been objecting to the idea that you should go home and prepare to die just because a doctor told you to. I know of very few Type 1 cases who no longer need insulin (Sergei Boutenko is one), and to discontinue it can be life threatening. I do not believe in “nevers” and I believe the body has the ability to rebuild in many cases—that does not need to mean that because most diabetics will use insulin for life, that they are some kind of failure. They’re not.
There are no recommendations, no “treatment plan,” in my comments. There is no word “cure” either. No one is in danger from my allowing Dr. Tyson to tell his story on my site, and he would say that when you go from insulin dependence to no need for it except on a rare occasion when he is ill, the condition reversed, as in, backed up, less need for medication, more ability to manage naturally. Sarah, I most definitively did not say in my comments that he didn’t reverse his disease. He went from lots of insulin use, to virtually none. I chose my words carefully. No one should eliminate insulin and figure that eating differently will solve their problem. When people twist my words on this blog, I usually ignore it. But because my comments have caused you a lot of emotion and I’ve been pulled into a perhaps political and semantics fight (“managing” vs. “reversing” vs. “cure”) that I’m not interested in participating in, I stop today to clarify my words. That was not my point and there’s an effort here to trap me with words. My point is that diet makes a difference.
Kirsten, you are incorrect that “children’s bodies cannot grow properly on the dietary choices promoted by [me] or [my guest].” I have raised 4 children with precisely the diet that I promote. It’s a diet that before the industrial age, EVERYONE ate, even if many cultures had famines and an inability to provide enough food or enough variety. With diet alone, I have reversed at least 24 chronic conditions in my family, including detoxing my now 18-year old son from massive, repeated rounds of steroids in his first year of life. He’s 6’3″, all four of my kids are tall and strong and do not get sick and participate in high-level competitive athletics. And they were raised on precisely the diet you say is “a dangerous proposition.” Would it be less dangerous if I would feed him some animal carcasses and some processed food from boxes and drive-thrus?
That is the entire point of this site, to help people eat whole foods, mostly plant-based, mostly raw. Greens, vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds are the crux of the diet I teach. It is the diet that people ate for thousands of years and I am hardly the only author calling attention to the mountain of evidence that this is, in fact, the only way to raise healthy children, to get far away from the protein obsession and the processed food that characterize the Western world.
Robyn,
I too am a parent of a type I diabetic, a health care professional, and trained in various holistic health modalities. I believe in and promote healthy, whole food dietary intake in both my family, friends, and colleagues. That said, I wonder if you begin to realize the dangers of the headline used for this blog post, or the irresponsibility of promoting a reversal or elimination of type 1 diabetes and insulin dependence with diet given that this autoimmune condition is primarily diagnosed in children. Children’s bodies cannot grow properly on the dietary choices promoted by you or your guest. The cognitive functioning and neurological growth demands of a child between birth and even early 20s makes this a dangerous proposition, and I wonder too if you’ve taken time to break down for readers which body systems are able to use glycogen for energy, and how the Central Nervous System cannot use glycogen, but must have a source of glucose every 3 to 4 hours to fuel its energy needs. Have you taken the time to explore and understand where our body is able to get glucose form versus glycogen, and why promoting a raw whole food diet without the benefit of insulin or food sources of glucose for cognitive development and functioning borders on both irresponsible and reprehensible? Sure, there are some adult type 1 diabetics who can modify your approach and utilize a raw, whole food, vegan diet to achieve improved health, but that is not necessarily done without insulin, or by eliminating the need for insulin. It is done in balance with activity that reduces the body’s need for insulin due to the composition of foods eaten, and in children has disastrous affects. When you take a disease that, until recently, bore the name juvenile at the beginning of its title due to the prevalence in (young) children, and fail to understand the consequences of what you promote as a lifestyle choice that can eliminate said disease, you must also accept that you have simultaneously (perhaps unwittingly) put those children and young adults in danger. That is what makes parents of children with type 1 diabetes upset. It is clear you have not done your homework, that your familiarity with this autoimmune condition is limited to adults who have had and managed this disease for a prolonged period of time, and that you do not understand the far reaching potential consequences of the title and messaging framing that you, not Dr. Tyson, chose to apply to his story.
I would like to inquire as to how his body can function without basal insulin. There are two types of insulin needed in Type 1 diabetes: one to counteract food, the other to deal with the normal output of sugar from our liver. The liver output of sugar has nothing at all to do with what we ingest, it’s a normal bodily function and important for our body. I’m also curious how he deals with fruits? Fruits are very high in carbs and can cause blood sugar spikes. An apple requires the same amount of insulin as some candy bars! Clearly our body utilizes the candy and the apple differently and I do not claim otherwise, but when it comes to insulin, a carb is a carb is a carb. Carbs need insulin and I’d be curious to hear how fruits are handled in his diet.
I’d also like to comment on the assertion that he was in the 300s because of his fast food habits. This is absolutely false information. I won’t state that fast food is good for you, clearly it is not. But eating fast food will NOT cause your blood sugars to stay in the 300s. A small hamburger bun has about 30 carbs, same as a banana. Enough insulin deals with both. One does not have sustained highs from eating fast foods, one has sustained highs from not using insulin properly. His blood sugar was not 1000 from drinking a Red Bull, it was from drinking a Red Bull and not taking insulin! Pretty big differentiation that is not stated. A Type 1 diabetic CAN drink a Red Bull safely. Should they? Probably not, but then that’s quite true of all non diabetics as well. Facts are important, and this story lacks many. There truly are many stigmas and falsehoods related to Type 1 diabetes, and that will explain why you are seeing some emotional responses. We deal daily with false hopes, horror stores, and sensationalized cures.
I am the mother of a Type 1 diabetic as well as a health professional. I do appreciate that a raw/whole food diet is a healthy choice. However great caution should be exercised when promoting a “reversal” of Type 1 diabetes. It has not been reversed, simply managed through food in an alternate way. Good for him, but quite frankly there are many gaping holes in this story.
Jo, about fruit, I know that while participating in Dr. Cousens’ study (and filming Simply Raw), fruit consumption was severely curtailed. You said you feel that blood sugars in the 300′s can’t be caused by fast food. (You also said a Red Bull can be consumed ‘safely’—-is there anything safe about Red Bull, for diabetics or healthy people?) I am not sure if maybe Kirt told me he had more than one energy drink, when his BG was over 1,000 and he was raced to the ER….will have to ask.
I think that a high need for insulin, necessitated by high blood sugars, whether your body naturally supplies it, or whether you supply it exogenously, is a problem for the long-term.
But I will see if i can get him to come on here and answer questions. He has been called a liar, and I’ve been called a charlatan and snake-oil salesman, just by telling the brief, YouTube version of his story. (YouTube videos can only be a few minutes long to keep people’s attention. I can interview him for 20 minutes, but then 1% will watch it.) While I think some of the things being said are unfair and inappropriate, and I’ve quit accepting the comments that rant and twist/change my words, I would love for Kirt to come on the GSG blog and answer questions!
Keep on going Robyn! You’re courageous in the face of doubters and naysayers.
No one has the answer. No one has a cure. Everyone’s genetic composition is different and their unique ability to cope with this dreadful disease will be different as well. What may work for one simply will not work for all. I lost maternal grandmother in her 60′s and my only sibling just last year at 39. Both to Type 1 and it’s cruel and unforgiving complications. They were not overweight and lived their lives as healthy as they possibly could, But both were taken way too soon! I say just do what is right for you and try your best with the knowledge you have and information provided. And love life and each other!
Robyn,
I know you meant no harm by posting this. I still enjoy your blog just that we have a difference of opinion about the word “healed”. So…that said I am hoping maybe you can read a few posts from my favorite d mama blogger who consistently shared openly about what it is like to parent three (out of four boys) with diabetes. Maybe then you could get a little glimpse into why such an emotional reaction occurred. Again I appreciate your look into all things healthy, sometimes we just don’t all agree about every aspect.
http://www.ourdiabeticlife.com/
Wow. Since my daughter was diagnosed at age 8, nearly four years ago to the day, i have devoted hours and hours of time and effort raising money for JDRF, the global leader in the effort to cure, treat and prevent Type 1 diabetes. To think that they have funded over a billion dollars of research since 1971, and not stumbled upon this solution, much less any other solution, to reversing T1D is astounding. I’ll have to direct their attention to this miraculous discovery.
Before Frederick Banting discovered insulin as a therapy for T1D, many attempts were made to reverse and regulate the disease with diet. They all failed to keep people alive more than a few years. For the love of God please issue a retractment right here on your blog before someone gets hurt or dies.
http://www.rawfor30days.com – Watch the documentary, read the stories, THEN tell me Robyn posted bad information on her website. Also research & have a personal conversation with Don Tolman (www.thedontolman.com) – a former neurosurgeon, who has traveled the world learning & teaching for over 30 years on organic whole foods & health… and has brought MANY stage 4 cancer patients, heart patients, & type 1 AND 2 diabetics OUT of their grim situation. Or better yet, attend one of his seminars & learn the facts about what diabetes really is. There ARE ways to reverse the symptoms of diabetes & get healthy again. There ARE ways to get off your insulin (except possibly in times of being sick, like this guy). Maybe everyone can’t do it, but even if only SOME people can, & she’s able to share information that helps those few actually do it, then she did her job! And once it is reversed, the ONLY way to keep it reversed is to keep living the lifestyle change 100% & never ever ever go back. You guys are being completely unfair to Robyn. Do your research just a little more than you have, even IF you life with a diabetic person, because there’s more information out there than what you realize. PS: Prevention is key. This country has gone to hell in a hand basket, because we fail to eat & treat our bodies the way we should be… AND we fail to take measures to keep toxins out of our homes & bodies. AND (if you’re LDS) – we as a whole – fail to truly 100% follow the Word of Wisdom, which honestly should be followed by the ENTIRE human race. And I don’t mean no alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, drugs, etc… Those are great. But the majority of us do NOT follow MOST of the W.O.W. It’s pathetic, really. How grateful I am for finding Elder Widtsoe’s Word Of Wisdom – A Modern Interpretation book written in the 1940′s!!! Little did he know how bad things would REALLY get! Or, after reading the book… maybe he DID know, & that’s why he wrote it. Robyn, I’m grateful for you. You’re doing wonderful things & helping save lives.
Hi, Folks, and Robyn,
I just wanted to comment, because I actually AM a TYPE 1 diabetic myself, that this series is super important and interesting to me. First, because there is ALWAYS an alternative to what conventional medicine says, and secondly, because I have gone raw and am experiencing the changes myself.
Just through changing my diet, I take less than 10 units of insulin a day. This is while still eating fruit. I am awaiting certain products before I take the plunge and do the 21 day Reversing Diabetes Program at home (the diet part of Gabriel Cousens’s program, that is) , but believe me, I plan to be diabetes free.
Ignorance is bliss, right? Well, I’ve read the books, so I can actually speak about this topic with intellect. The Rainbow Green book discusses how toxins in the food we eat and in the environment cause our bodies damage. This damage impairs our immune systems, which in turn, could lead to a vast number of diseases, diabetes being only one of them. The book is a starting point for anyone who wants to be healthier.
The There is a Cure for Diabetes book is truly for any diabetic. Gabriel says that the Tree of Life’s cure rate is 33% for type 1 diabetics, and I think around 66% for type 2s. He doesn’t even claim that everyone will be cured. However, the logic in the diet makes sense. If people don’t jump on board, that is ok. Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion, even if it is ignorant. It is much harder to change than to stay the same.
I say this because taking synthetic insulin certainly can never be considered EXACTLY the same as natural insulin made by the human body. I have taken mine because I thought it’s what has been keeping me alive. But now I know that it’s been my diet that has caused me to get diabetes to begin with, and I am making appropriate changes TO DRASTICALLY LIMIT MY INSULIN USE. One MAJOR point people are missing is that more insulin=more disease, whether a person is diabetic or not. That is why diabetics have heart attacks at the rate of 1 out of 3 by the age of 50.
For me, instead of taking 30 or 40 units of insulin every day eating cooked and what would be considered healthy to many people, I now take my basal of 5 units, and meals 5 units.
By following the Rainbow Green guidelines, I am eating only low-glycemic foods for phase 1, because it gives the body a chance to heal, meaning, the immune system itself has to get better (which was the reason a person becomes diabetic to begin with). So, the diet doesn’t cure the person because it simply eliminates the carbs. There are still moderate amounts of carbs, because nuts, seeds, and plants/vegetables do have carbs that add up. The fiber content is SO HIGH that the food doesn’t require a large insulin dosage. Phase 1 is at least three months. Moderate glycemic foods are reintroduced later, but can be eaten thriving at that point.
I am a type 1 diabetic and I saw a premier of the movie that Kurt Tyson was in and met him. I know before the study he was on a very, very SAD diet, lots of fast food and that he had only been diagnosed a few months before the study. I believe either a lot of his beta cells were still alive or that he was not a true type 1 diabetic. He had actually been diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic by his doctor. Dr. Cousens diagnosed him later as a type 1. I believe his symptoms correlate to a type 1 diagnosis, but the fact that he had been on a fast food diet and that beta cells were alive, and that he had only been on insulin for a few months makes his story unusual. I, myself did raw food 100% for seven years and I was able to some what reduce my insulin , my blood sugars fluctuated way too much. I had truly hoped to heal on the diet, but after 7 years I sought other answers. I am now on a very low carb, ketogenic diet. 80% fat, 15% protein and 5% carbohydrate. I eat about 95% local, farm raised food. Ketogenic diets are now recommended for the treatment of many diseases including type 1 diabetes. I believe there is a natural cure out there. It just may be something else besides the Raw Food Diet. Thank you,
Aimee
Robyn, My daughter was diagnosed with T1D in March. I am of the mindset that I will–as I would if my girls or I were diagnosed with cancer, MS, or any other awful thing–throw everything I can find at this disease. Yes, she is using a pump for insulin. We are also trying hypnotherapy, stem cell therapy, nutrition, exercise, and whatever else I can find! Thank you for sharing.
I for one was offended by the title of your Youtube video not so much the content. His story is his story. I don’t know when you did it but I see today you changed it and took ‘reverse’ out of the title.
Aimee, this doesn’t correspond too closely to what Kurt told me, not terribly far off, but not what he told me. But Dr. Cousens believes that about 87 percent of Type 1 diabetics do still have live beta cells. Kurt himself is adamant that he is Type 1. Interesting to hear your results. “Raw and living foods diets” can fluctuate, too—the one that seems to be highly successful, of course, is very low in sugars, high in greens and sprouts, which of course would be nourishing to that little Islets of Langerhans.