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From:	dialup diabetic (slip-12-65-54-184.mis.prserv.net)
Subject:	Fuhrman - the low glycemic vegan choice
Date:	July 27, 2006 at 9:41 pm PST

I am very glad you guys have had success on the McDougall diet, but after reading up on the McDougall diet, I decided it is too much high glycemic load carb for this diabetic. If you are looking for a diet that is:
- STRICTLY vegan (at least for the first six weeks)
- low glycemic index (I learned about that on this board!)
- lets you gorge if you so desire, yet lose weight
- lets you eat nuts and seeds
- based on the latest research
- has 90% track record of CURING diabetes

then go with Eat to Live by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. I learned about etl on this web site, on this discussion board!

Grains send my sugar up so much -- I have to eat my oatmeal raw, soaked in water, to prevent my sugar from soaring. Barley, supposedly benign for the diabetic, I have to restrict to 1/4 cup. Before I got 'educated' and received my meter, I ate potatoes for dinner and nearly passed out the next day -- the nurse at work diagnosed HIGH SUGAR and told me potatoes were worse than eating table sugar. Now that I know about the glycemic index, this all makes sense.

I have been doing Metformin since I was diagnosed; Fuhrman since early June. I got fresh lab results in the mail today. The 'before' readings were the last week of May when I was diagnosed.

- cholesterol: was 275 now 144!
- triglyceride: was 139 now 86!
- fasting glucose: was 339 now 110
- ac1 was 15.9 (yes, that's one five point nine) now 8.3

Other interesting results:
- post prandial glucose formerly could not be measured (the machine at the screening only went up to 500), now rarely above 100 on my home meter. Based on that, my CDE said I should talk to the doctor about lowering my dose of Metformin. However, my meter may be reading a bit low (read 96 when the lab measured 110).
-- jean size - I wore size 16 the day I was diagnosed, and now I'm in a size 14 --and it's loose; people I didn't think knew me walk up to me to tell me I have lost weight!
- BMI was 24 now 22! The 24 is the screener's estimate since they had no scale at the screening. The 22 is estimated by the fancy scale at work.

My home readings were so consistently low, both pre and post prandial, even when I 'overate' fruit or beans, I got cocky and decided I just might be cured and could eat Chinese. I tried this experiment: I got a chinese takeaway, ate the nonrice part, and measured my sugar two hours later. While eating, I was alarmed to realize the sauce for the home style tofu almost certainly had sugar in it! It also had cooked carrots which are a starchy vegetable. But two hours later, my sugar was up only 10 points and still below 100. So I said well HELL I'll have some of the rice too! I ate maybe 1/3 cup - big mistake. This AM my glucose was 127 -- over 100 for first time in two weeks. This is why I had to say my sugar is now 'rarely' over 100. And my meter may be reading a bit low. Due to overconfidence I flawed the experiment, but I do know I am STILL diabetic and I do still need the drug!

I'm a little disappointed I am still so clearly needing the drug, but Dr. Fuhrman never said you could cure diabetes in less than two months. The cholesterol result is spectacular to this layman, and I lost the weight without going hungry.

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