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Type 1 Diabetes: Is It a Life Sentence? Part 1 of 2


Robyn Openshaw - Apr 01, 2012 - This Post May Contain Affiliate Links


Never do I get more angry and defensive messages than when I write about Type 1 diabetes. (That’s okay—I’m going to talk about it anyway.)

Diabetes costs the U.S. $174 billion per year, more than all our recent wars combined. It’s worth talking about and exploring what can be done!

If I allow a person to tell his story of being no longer insulin dependent, I get accused of “giving people false hope.” I am not suggesting that people abandon their insulin and Metformin, etc. without being under the competent care of a good practitioner. What I am suggesting here is that the body has a profound ability to heal and regenerate. And that there are many diabetics who, with the assistance of an excellent holistic physician, reduce or eliminate insulin dependence. (They virtually always reverse other health conditions that come along with diabetes, as well, as they eat a mostly raw plant-based diet.)

The idea may be tragically erroneous that if the Islet of Langerhans in the pancreas appears to be nonfunctional, a diabetic should sit back, eat whatever he wants, and pump away.  The entire insulin transaction is more complex—involving the brain (according to Dr. Anna Maria Clement), the liver, and the pancreas—and possibly more regenerative, than many doctors imagine who focus exclusively on prescribing insulin, related drugs, and pumps.

While I was recently at Hippocrates Institute, I met Brian Lotkin of Florida, a Type 1 diabetic who ostensibly has no pancreas function, who was taking no supplementary insulin after 3 weeks on the raw vegan diet. He said:

“I am aghast. This whole experience has been an experience in 1 + 1 = 3. I was taking 30-40 units of insulin a day, and now I am taking 8, all background  insulin  to break down fats from what my liver puts into my bloodstream.” [Basal insulin manages the glucose made in the liver whether one eats or not, as opposed to bolus insulin, taken to manage whatever is eaten.]

Brian said to me, “I am taking 10 percent of the insulin I have been taking. My whole life has been counting carbs. Now I am eating 80-90 percent carbs! They are complex carbs.”

Dr. Gabriel Cousens says, “The diet that works the best is high-fiber, high carb, low protein, low fat diet.” Ahh, but all diabetics obsess over carbohydrates as if they are the devil. There is an enormous difference between the carbs in Hostess cupcakes, and the carbs in vegetables. Too few people understand this.

The diet at Hippocrates that Brian had been eating for 3 weeks is juices, wheatgrass, sprouts, lots of leafy greens and vegetables. All plant based, all raw. Hippocrates serves cucumber and celery juice, and so does Tree of Life, which we’ll talk about tomorrow. (Compounds in those two vegetables have special properties helpful to diabetics.)

Dr. Mary Jo Ruggieri, a PhD from Ohio State who was staying at Hippocrates, said to me, “Sunflower sprouts have more useable protein than any substance on Earth.”

This turns conventional, dumbed-down, mainstream media nutrition information on its head. No one at Hippocrates is eating “perfect proteins” (beef, chicken, etc.) and still getting the best protein available, through green foods? Every M.D. doc I know, every personal trainer, even most nutritionists, think that “protein” means primarily animal flesh.

Getting less protein, but very high-quality protein like that found in sunflower sprouts, is ideal.

You really must check out this story of a Type 1 diabetic, posted on the GSG facebook fanpage recently.

The story told here is by the father of one participant in Dr. Cousens’ diabetes reversal program at Tree of Life. After a month in his care, eating a raw vegan diet, all 15 diabetics were off insulin and Metformin. (Two of them were Type 1 diabetics.) More on this tomorrow.

Posted in: Health Concerns

6 thoughts on “Type 1 Diabetes: Is It a Life Sentence? Part 1 of 2”

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  1. Thanks for sharing Robyn! My husband; his dad; brother and step-sister all have type 1 and my brother was diagnosed at age 3. I have to have hope that we can reverse this… even if they HAD a cure for diabetes, would they announce it?? After all the money they’re making on insulin; strips; medications, etc?? We’ve got to take control sometimes and take our own steps to improve our health instead of being a slave to insulin shots and 10 pokes a day! I have hope that it is possible, and we are on our way to find out…. why not try? Would it hurt a type 1 diabetic to eat a mostly plant based raw diet?? NO!

  2. Robyn,

    Last spring one of my son’s friends came over to play and then go swimming with us. A few months earlier this boy had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. Before we went out to the pool he had to check his blood sugar and he said that he needed to eat some carbs. I asked him if he would like a slice of (100% whole wheat bread – 5 ingredients) and he said, “No. When I am playing soccer my mom will give me a Twinkie halfway through the game for my carbs.” I told him I was fresh out of Twinkies (I didn’t buy those for my kids even before I started following your 12 Steps) but I had an orange or a piece of bread that he was welcome to. He chose the orange. What are these doctors teaching 5 and 6 year old kids who have Type 1??? It’s frightening. Truly frightening.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Karen, what have YOU been taught about Type 1 diabetes? If the boy checked his BG and said he needed carbs, it was most likely because his sugar was low. In that case, he required FAST ACTING carbs. Whole wheat bread is not a fast acting carb, due to the fiber content. The rule of thumb for carb counters eating fiber is to subtract the fiber from the total carbs. When you are counting carbs, you must calculate something called net or effective carbs for each meal. These are the carbs that have an impact on your blood sugar, and fiber is not one of them.

    The orange was a better choice, but depending on the size, possibly contained more carbs than were necessary. I highly doubt the child’s physician advised a Twinkie, but parents of T1D’s are instructed that if the BG falls below 70 to administer 15g of fast acting carbs. In our house, we use 4oz of fruit juice, typically. For that mother, perhaps on the soccer field, a Twinkie is a faster, more convenient choice. Not a choice I’d advocate, but her choice nonetheless, because no parent wants to see their child fall unconscious or have seizures due to low blood sugar.

    On another note, only in very rare instances, is Metformin used in the treatment course of a T1D. Metformin, Glucophage, etc. are for the treatment of Type 2. Type 1 Diabetics require insulin through injections or pump. They don’t have the option of taking a pill.

  4. Thanks for sharing Robyn! My husband; his dad; brother and step-sister all have type 1 and my brother was diagnosed at age 3. I have to have hope that we can reverse this… even if they HAD a cure for diabetes, would they announce it?? After all the money they’re making on insulin; strips; medications, etc?? We’ve got to take control sometimes and take our own steps to improve our health instead of being a slave to insulin shots and 10 pokes a day! I have hope that it is possible, and we are on our way to find out…. why not try? Would it hurt a type 1 diabetic to eat a mostly plant based raw diet?? NO!

  5. Hi, Robin, and type 1s.
    I have been a type 1 for 21 years. I have ordered a special homeopathic remedy and plan to take myself off of insulin within the next 2-3 weeks. I’ve been a raw vegan for a while, now doing some detox especially for diabetes. I have reduced my insulin requirements every time I make a change toward raw/vegan, and it’s not unique–it can be duplicated. While it is true that a type 1 diabetic CAN be cured by eating this way, it is because of the repair to the immune system, which allows it. But if the immune system does not respond, some type 1s may not get a cure. But, many type 1s will get the cure, so it can’t hurt to try!

    Type 2 is much more likely to be cured easily with a raw, vegan diet.

    My website is specifically about what you are speaking of–how diabetics are misled into taking more insulin and RXs to cover the barely nutritional food they are also being advised to eat. And, I’ll be documenting my progress. If you like my site, please allow others to see it. Thanks for your healthy approach to something most people just don’t want to admit (because then, they’d have to change their diet!)

  6. JG says:

    As a mother of a type 1 diabetic, who is experiencing NORMAL blood sugar numbers with zero insulin after 7.5 years of diabetes by eating raw greens and nuts, I am dying to pick another parents brain who has gone this less traveled journey with their type 1 child. Please connect me somehow! I’m mostly trying to figure out what we can be eating. At this point it’s spinach/kale, cucumber, broccoli, avocado, raw nuts. Trying to give the pancreas and immune system time to rest, recharge, regenerate. Have found videos on internet but no way to contact these people. Thanks for spreading the word Robyn!!

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