Hi everyone,
I recently viewed the 30 Days Raw clip on YouTube where some people with diabetes were able to go off of insulin medication after 30 days raw. Does anyone know what kind of raw food diet helped these people accomplish this?

I've never seen the clip but people are able to go off insulin on the raw diet for two reasons (that I know of, and there is no specific food which helps):

The first is weight loss (obviously) if that was indeed the cause.

The second reason would be the lack of cows milk in the raw diet. The reason cows milk causes diabetes is that a protein in the milk, Bovine Serum Albumin, is very similar to the cells in the pancreas which produce insulin. In some people, the Bovine Serum Albumin is viewed by the body's immune system as a foreign substance and the immune systyem produces antibodies to fight the Bovine Serum Albumin. Unfortunately since the cells in the pancreas are so similar, they are also attacked by the antibodies and destroyed and the body cannot produce enough insulin and becomes diabetic. The cells will heal when the person stops ingesting all dairy and the body stops producing those antibodies.

This video is about Type 2 Diabetics. Type 2 Diabetics usually start off with oral medication and then when that eventually stops working they are put on insulin. But, in their case and unlike with Type 1 Diabetics, their body did not attack their pancreas. It is because their pancreas just wears out from making so much insulin for an insulin resistant body and from being prodded to make more insulin by the oral medication.

This is great that the raw food diet helped them in 30 days, but there have been many other diets that have helped Type 2 Diabetics to heal themselves also. Type 2 Diabetes is a lifestyle disease, so it makes sense that diet and exercise can heal it. The RICE diet, McDougall diet, and there are even some high protein diets that have helped many people with Type 2 diabetes totally normalize their blood sugar.

I have Type 1 Diabetes and even Victoria Boutenko admits that raw food alone didn't cure her son of his Type 1 Diabetes. One thing in their favor was that he never started taking any insulin. She said sunshine and jogging helped also.

But the raw diet does help me feel much better and reduce the amount of insulin I need to take. Just the viewpoint of a Type 1 Diabetic. :-)

Here's a good article explaining how overnutrition leads to Type-2 Diabetes:

Type-2 Diabetes – the Expected Adaptation to Overnutrition

Good article, Bryan! Here's an excerpt I liked:

"Multiple studies dating as far back as the 1920s have shown the benefits of a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet in the treatment of type-2 diabetes. For example, studies from the University of Kentucky Medical School reported as many as two-thirds of diabetics were able to discontinue insulin and almost all stopped oral agents. A recent thorough review of the use of a vegetarian diet in the treatment of type-2 diabetes was published in the September 2003 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In this review article Dr. David Jenkins reported on research showing improvements in blood sugars in diabetics with 39% stopping insulin and 71% stopping diabetic pills after three weeks of therapy. Relief of diabetic neuropathy pains, reduced lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides), and weight loss have also been reported with a low-fat, pure-vegetarian diet. Another recent research paper has reported similar findings with a low-fat vegetarian diet. Many of these people with type-2 diabetes are cured of their disease within three weeks, and most will be cured of their diabetes over time as they adhere to a low-fat, high carbohydrate diet, exercise, and lose all of their excess body fat."

He does mention that Type 1 diabetics cannot stop their insulin:

"(Insulin cannot be stopped in type-1 diabetes, but the dosage is often reduced.)"

Also, this points out has Type 2 Diabetes is a lifestyle disease and can be cured with lifestyle changes:

"“The diet recommended by the American Diabetic Association virtually guarantees all diabetics will remain diabetic,” claimed the pioneer nutritionist, Nathan Pritikin, 30 years ago. His experiences from treating thousands of people with this disease convinced him that type-2 diabetes is largely curable by following a healthy diet and moderate exercise."

See the discussion above about the Raw for 30 Days video. It is cool and it helped people with Type 2 Diabetes, but just to let you know, there have been many diets that help with Type 2 Diabetes - the RICE diet, the McDougall Diet and exercise. But the raw diet does have other advantages on top of preventing Type 2 Diabetes. If you go for it, keep us posted!

karen,

during the raw summit, victoria stated that she thinks that her son may have had type II diabetes, not type I, which is strange since he supposedly had it so young, but that is what she said.

Interesting, fresh, thanks for telling me that. In her book she said the doctors diagnosed it as Type 1 and wanted him on insulin right away. I guess there is no way to know for sure now. Kind of gives me less hope to reverse mine, but I will keep trying and if nothing else the raw diet sure helps me to manage it better.

Did you enjoy the raw summit?

the summit had a lot of interesting characters with quite a lot of diverse thoughts shared, mostly real good stuff.
aside from my issues with wolfe that i rant about...

Here's the blog of a young man with Type 1 Diabetes who has greatly decreased his amount of insulin in months by following a high fruit/low fat raw diet. It is really inspirational!

[robertbarbaro.zaadz.com]

Sarah
[goingbananasblog.com]

Yes, he is inspiring, Sparkler, thanks!

[www.thenhf.com]

vacc linked to type I diabetes

Interesting, but mine is more likely caused by an Epstein-Barr virus and I developed it in my late 40s.