Eating to Live: February 6, 2023

I last posted to this blog August 8, 2020. Two and a half years have passed. 

 I would like to say that I quit blogging with good reason but it is hard to decipher what reasons are good and what are not in the midst of a pandemic. Battle fatigue takes all forms. Perhaps the change in my work schedule, methodology, the excitement about the arrival of Sophia on June 11, the loss of friends to Covid, the remodel and move in to our new house, the start of construction on our Colorado cabin, who really knows?  

Bottomline, I went from 95 percent compliance/conformity with Dr.Fuhrman’s plan to 30 percent. My A1C went up to 7.1, arthritis flared. My doctor put me on Orencia and I was one of the folx who had a rare side effect and the anterior frontal lobe of my lung collapsed. I went off Orencia and recovered but felt like my energy really shifted away from health. I had to do my best at work and at home (message in my head), there were so many things out of my control and I had little energy for much else, including thinking about reversing diabetes. So, I’ve been coasting downhill. 

Then, two weeks ago my sister called from the hospital. She was admitted in a crisis, blood sugar and A1C off the chart. She had a below the knee amputation of her leg which was gangrenous following a small cut on her foot. I rerouted my work trip to New York to be with her during the surgery. While she was in the procedure and for two days after during times she was napping, I went outside and wept. For her, for our family, for the sadness and preventability of it all. I thought about her grandchildren and how much she loves them and wants to see them grow up, just as I want to see Sophia grow up. A bit of context…

My dad was diabetic. Diagnosed at 55 back when there weren’t as many options as today. He had cardiovascular disease, Peripheral Vascular Disease. He had two strokes and lost most of his sight. He thought insulin was a Godsend. He could eat Oreo cookies with abandon and shoot up. My brother was diabetic but died of HIV so we don’t know what would have/could have been. My dad’s first cousin was a brittle diabetic. She was an alcoholic and three pack a day smoker. One of my paternal uncles was the same. Now my sister and I are diabetic. My hunch is that most people would look at what I eat and how much and wonder how I can be a diabetic  being overweight is the primary reason complicated by stress, travel and heredity  I knew all of this when I started Dr. Fuhrman’s plan several years ago  I chose to regress  

On Dr. Furhman’s Eat to Live plan, I was no longer diabetic in 2020. Why on earth would I abandon it?  There are no kind words for myself and since negativity only adds stress, I will forego it. Instead I have picked up Furhman’s book again, reread it cover to cover, cleared out anything white and brown in the pantry and gone to the Farmer’s Market. I actually love going and am so glad it is back. 

I reread several studies that are so profound. They illustrate the dangers of giving insulin to adult type two diabetics yet physicians feel they have no choice  They are in a bind. They know that medicating to manage blood sugar levels creates problems, not just by stressing the heart, but also the kidneys, leading to devastating complications,  such as kidney failure and blindness. More than half of amputees due to complications of diabetes will have another amputation. 

Doctors want to prescribe aggressive insulin therapy to decrease patient’s blood sugar but it is a tricky exercise. In fact, studies that follow patients who are too carefully monitor their glucose levels, adjusting their medications precisely to maintain the most favorable levels, show that these people have increased mortality. Most physicians would likely agree that weight reduction through high micronutrient (majority green veggie) eating is the way to reverse diabetes, but they don’t know much about it, but most especially how to motivate their patients to change and the majority doubt their patients will do it. My physician told me this based on her experience people who take Metformin almost always advance to insulin yet it has been the most frequently prescribed drug of first choice for Type 2 diabetics  

There is a reason that doctors have fundamentally given up trying to get people to eat for life. So many of us are noncompliant, just give up when we’re too stressed, too tired, or feel we don’t have the resources. Eating is entertainment and fast, processed food full of salt and sugar is on every street corner. Even the so called “healthy” meals at most drive through exceed the sodium and fat content suitable for anyone trying to manage blood glucose levels much less reverse diabetes. 

Type two diabetes occurs in 10 to 15% of people over 65 and occurs most often in people who are overweight and who do not exercise sufficiently. If they also smoke, the percentage of individuals who will ultimately experience an amputation is through the roof. Type two diabetes almost never occurs in people who eat healthy, exercise regularly and have a low body fat percent. The disease hardly existed in prior centuries when food was not so abundant or when high calorie, low nutrient food was not available in the United States. Being overweight is the norm and almost all adults eventually take prescribed medications for their heart, diabetes, cholesterol, blood pressure. In fact 51% of those over the age of 65 take five or more prescriptions per day.  Dr. Fuhrman has observed that losing body fat in conjunction with maintaining high levels of micro nutrients in the bodies tissues will reduce the need for medications and in most cases reverse diabetes. In reviews of Fuhrman’s approach, you will find the majority of people who go off of it say it is simply too difficult to follow. I’m was one of those. 

And I’m changing my mind yet again and going to push forward. The goal is to reverse diabetes to the point of becoming non-diabetic again meaning that my glucose levels run below 100 without medications and I get my A1C below 5.8. 

I now have clear evidence that once I’ve been diabetic the tendency to become diabetic again remains. The ADA diet does not work for me  

Most ADA recommended meals are inherently poor in fiber, macro nutrients and resistant starch. They fuel an obsession with food because the dieter is never satisfied. The continual struggle with diet and trying to maintain small portion sizes of foods that do not biologically fill you up rarely works. Researchers frequently noted the difficulties involved in the ADA plan particularly the requirements to dramatically restrict portion sizes that most individual simply cannot comply with long term. Diabetic patients are instructed to snack to prevent the low blood sugar results which further leads to the impossibility of dropping excess body fat. 

When I was on the Fuhrman plan, I lost 18 pounds. Since starting back on the Fuhrman plan January 1, I’ve lost 9 pounds. My goal is to become non-diabetic. I want to be diabetes free for life. Following Fuhrman’s plan your food pyramid base is vegetables, 30 to 70% of your calories per day half raw and half cooked. Your next is fruits, 15 to 25% of calories, beans and legumes 20 to 30% of your calories, the next level is raw nuts and seeds 10 to 20% of your calories. Twice weekly or less you can have fish, fat, free dairy, obviously poached or broiled once weekly or less. You can have poultry, eggs and any oils and rarely if ever beef or sweets.  

This regimen is a long haul from the traditional West Texas fare with which I was raised. 90 percent of the food I want to eat is not available anywhere on the island where we reside. That’s ok. We cook. We have access to organic foods at the grocery store. We have the Farmer’s Market. Fuhrman’s plan looks like this for us. 

1cup of beans per day

Greens equal to the size of my head, majority raw

Mushrooms or mushroom powder

Unsalted Seeds (1/4 cup)

Unsalted Nuts (2 Tablespoons)

1/2 Onion (or more)

1/2 cup Berries

3 additional fruits

Whole grains (wild or black rice)  

I make a super green drink in the AM, including a TBSP of super green powder, 1/3 bag of spinach or Kale, low/no carb green protein powder (1scoop), Dose for Cholesterol and Liver  

We have beans, salad or steamed greens or sautéed veggies for lunch or dinner. Add an occasional poached fish. 

Simple, clean, healthy, hopeful  ❤️