Statistically speaking, you probably have a friend or family member who is a type two diabetic. Many of them will die up to 15 years before they would if they didn't have the disease.

I just lost a great uncle to diabetes who was far too young to die.

Oh, I mentioned that he could reverse it with diet a time or two and suggested he read a few books, but I never gave it the concentrated push that it would have taken to get him on a better path.

If you're like me and you know a few type two diabetics, please tell them that they don't need to die, or inject themselves with insulin for the rest of their lives. They can break free by simply changing their diet. They're not going to get this information from their doctors, so it's up to their loved ons.

It's so ridiculously easy to escape the disease, and such a shame that 300,000 people die of it a year in the US alone..

I wrote this article to help you start this conversation. Send them the link by email or through facebook. Twitter it. Do whatever you have to, but spread the word.

Don't shove it down their throats, but show them how much you want them to live.

Please pass on this article: [www.raw-food-health.net]

I am sorry that you lost your great uncle to the disease. I have also lost relatives to the disease.

You cannot place guilt on yourself for not pushing harder. We cannot control people. He made his own choices -- the choice to eat the way that he ate, the choice not to learn about diabetes recovery on his own, the choice to take medicines rather than changes his habits, etc.

All of my immediate family has Type II diabetes and many relatives. My father died from it, my uncle died from it, my brother had half a foot amputated because of it, my mother cannot walk because of it, and the list goes on and on. And while my diet is by no means perfect, and I certainly fall off the health wagon a lot, I feel blessed that the disease has not taken hold of me. What makes me so different than the others? I drink tons and tons of water and take walks outdoors daily.

Really, that is it. I do have hypoglycemic tendancies and I listen to my body very closely and adjust my diet accordingly. And I drink tons of water to stay hydrated -- I can't explain it but I intuitively 'know' that the water is one of the key ingredients to dodging diabetes.

I know fat people with Type II and I know skinny people with Type II (although the skinnies tend to get fat once they start the meds). I know fat people that were diagnosed with Type II who changed their diet 180 degrees, got skinny, eat healthy and are still on meds. I don't know anyone that has been able to stop meds.

I know fat people with horrible diets that are not diabetic. I know skinny people with horrible diets that are not diabetic.

I know people who take meds and do fine with a little pill a couple times a day, I know people who take meds and the disease continues to get worse and develop kidney disease.

IMO, diabetes is an unpredictable illness. As are the people who have it. Some will do everything they can to learn about it and to control it through diet and exercise, while others will make no changes in their lives whatsoever.

I don't really feel guilty, but do feel a bit of regret. It wouldn't have taken so much time to spend more time with him and explain some things in a deeper way.

Of course some people will change and others do not, doesn't change the fact that everyone can make a difference by at least putting the effort in.

And while I respect your idea that some people cannot get off type two, I would caution that the ways most people address type two (ADA diet, especially) are not really healthy or low fat, and are not set up to let people get off diabetes.

When low fat vegan diets are employed, such as with exercise as I cite in my article, the results are quite impressive.

After a mere 26 days, 21 of 23 patients on oral medications and 13 of 17 patients on insulin were able to get off of their medications.

Twenty six days is nothing. I'm sure the results would have been even better had the period been longer, and if it had been coupled with other health-supporting practices like sun exposure, more sleep, and mental work.

It IS sad that millions of people die of diseases that are very reversible by diet and exercise.Even if they know all the facts.
But its also sad that sometimes there are two other things that people want more...and thats to eat whatever tastes good,and to just sit on the sofa watching tv.

Vinny

Andrew,

Sorry about your great uncle; it is such a lamentable thing that there is an actual dietary solution out there, but that people aren't using it. And, as Vinny implies, it may be less a matter of not knowing and more a matter of being concerned about creature comforts and not wishing to radically alter one's lifestyle. No, not even to save one's own life. Thanks for posting this.

Exactly.
Not to sound harsh with what I said.
I would love to eat whatever,and lay on my sofa day after day,but I have the diabetic thing going on too,and I am now going out into 25 degrees to do my daily walk and will come home to a container of fresh veggie juice.
I just wish more folks were blessed with that kind of appreciation of health.
Vinny

My grandmother was recently diagnosed with diabetes. She's 83. She ended up in the ER because she was just weak and couldn't walk and everyone assumed the worst and that she was going to die. All the tests and scans and turns out she was just starting diabetes. I predicted this years rago just by seeing how she eats and what her kids fed her.

So now that she's "diabetic", her diet is just as retarded. "no sugar added" versions of the high carb crap she ate before. No more sugar poured on her food, now it's a few packets of splenda. All they care about are the numbers that come up on her blood sugar monitor.

I don't really care though. I just feel like I'm watching a train wreck.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/04/2011 05:17AM by BackAgain.

banana who,

One of the main reasons the elderly develop or present with symptoms of diabetes is because of chronic dehydration. When I learned this I was shocked, but, then, my quasi-diabetic grandmother died of renal failure, much like diabetics do, because she perpetually thirsted and didn't think to drink water, no matter what anyone said.

I know two people with diabetes - but they both love their illnesses - it's who they are - they do not want to get better - what would they have to moan about then. I've mentioned a different eating idea to them both but neither wanted to hear it. I'm not going to spend anymore time on it - it's up to them - you can't force people to listen or change.

I tell you,taste buds rule pretty much all of the time.
Its unfortunate.
But maybe they will see the light.

Vinny