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I'm Austin
I found out I had Type 2 Diabetes in early 2019 (10.3 A1C and 346 BG) with 1450 triglycerides and high cholesterol.
I spent the next few months researching diabetes and using my body as a test subject, experimenting with foods and finding out what works and what doesn't. To the shock of my doctors, I was able to get my A1C down to 5.0 through strict diet and exercise (and incidentally, got my triglycerides and cholesterol to healthy levels in the process). Many people have asked me how I was able to do it, so I decided to create this site as a resource to help other diabetics. Hope it helps. |
Diet
The first thing you need to know, is that most information that you'll find about diabetes is plain wrong. The books, articles, and likely even your doctor's advice when it comes to diet will be wrong. No, you can't eat 45-60 grams of carbs per meal. No, you can't eat the occasional doughnut. No, you can't have a cheat meal if you've been good all week. Yes, diet and exercise can potentially put your condition in remission.
The reason for this misinformation is because of food charts. The charts that are used to determine what is a healthy human diet are voted on by committees, with lots of money changing hands. These charts don't accurately represent actual healthy eating, for example they claim humans need carbs in order to be healthy. You don't, and as a diabetic they are the enemy and need to be actively avoided (more on this later). Unfortunately, these charts are used in the training of those in the medical community, meaning your doctor, your dietician, and the guy writing the next diabetes best seller are all basing their advice on the flawed premise that you need to eat carbs (I was lucky that my doctor was a diabetic himself, and had debunked common medical advice in his own search to get healthier).
Further complicating things, most people are not willing to give up the foods they love in order to be healthier, and would rather just take a pill (or injection) that artificially lowers their BG levels so they can keep eating what they want (and it's easy to find people willing to pander to this crowd, who tell diabetics that it's ok to keep eating those carbs). This creates a serious problem though, a revolving door of aggravating your illness with an unhealthy diet while creating a dependency on drugs that have potentially dangerous side-affects; constantly spiking your BG to dangerous levels and then shoving it back down with no regard to how damaging this is on the body. It's an unwise decision to trade momentary pleasure for life-threatening consequences. A better option is to control as much of your condition as possible with diet and exercise.
The Keto diet is your friend (which essentially is eliminating carbs from your diet). Why? Because Type 2 Diabetes means that your body doesn't handle sugar well. Most people can wash excess sugar out of their blood before it becomes a problem, diabetics can't. It gets all gunky in there, causing heart attacks, strokes, vision loss, nerve damage, ect. So your goal is to limit your sugar. All food turns to sugar during the digestion process, and that sugar is what gives your body energy. But if you eat refined sugar, it will get into your blood stream too much too quickly and cause a spike (anytime your BG is over 140, you're damaging organs, so lets not do that). Carbs turn to sugar in your body almost instantly too, which is why you spike after eating say bread or potatoes or rice. If you eliminate carbs and sugar from your diet, you are left with protein and fat as energy sources. Your body can fuel itself just fine on these, but it takes much longer to digest, ergo the sugar is released to your body slowly over a length of time, so you don't spike after eating. That's exactly what we want. See my lists below on what foods are safe and which to avoid.
The reason for this misinformation is because of food charts. The charts that are used to determine what is a healthy human diet are voted on by committees, with lots of money changing hands. These charts don't accurately represent actual healthy eating, for example they claim humans need carbs in order to be healthy. You don't, and as a diabetic they are the enemy and need to be actively avoided (more on this later). Unfortunately, these charts are used in the training of those in the medical community, meaning your doctor, your dietician, and the guy writing the next diabetes best seller are all basing their advice on the flawed premise that you need to eat carbs (I was lucky that my doctor was a diabetic himself, and had debunked common medical advice in his own search to get healthier).
Further complicating things, most people are not willing to give up the foods they love in order to be healthier, and would rather just take a pill (or injection) that artificially lowers their BG levels so they can keep eating what they want (and it's easy to find people willing to pander to this crowd, who tell diabetics that it's ok to keep eating those carbs). This creates a serious problem though, a revolving door of aggravating your illness with an unhealthy diet while creating a dependency on drugs that have potentially dangerous side-affects; constantly spiking your BG to dangerous levels and then shoving it back down with no regard to how damaging this is on the body. It's an unwise decision to trade momentary pleasure for life-threatening consequences. A better option is to control as much of your condition as possible with diet and exercise.
The Keto diet is your friend (which essentially is eliminating carbs from your diet). Why? Because Type 2 Diabetes means that your body doesn't handle sugar well. Most people can wash excess sugar out of their blood before it becomes a problem, diabetics can't. It gets all gunky in there, causing heart attacks, strokes, vision loss, nerve damage, ect. So your goal is to limit your sugar. All food turns to sugar during the digestion process, and that sugar is what gives your body energy. But if you eat refined sugar, it will get into your blood stream too much too quickly and cause a spike (anytime your BG is over 140, you're damaging organs, so lets not do that). Carbs turn to sugar in your body almost instantly too, which is why you spike after eating say bread or potatoes or rice. If you eliminate carbs and sugar from your diet, you are left with protein and fat as energy sources. Your body can fuel itself just fine on these, but it takes much longer to digest, ergo the sugar is released to your body slowly over a length of time, so you don't spike after eating. That's exactly what we want. See my lists below on what foods are safe and which to avoid.
What To Avoid
Never, ever eat these.
- Sugar
- Bread
- Grains
- Rice
- Potatoes
- Corn
- Jams, Jellies, or Syrups
- Fruit Juices
What Might Be Ok In Moderation
You may or may not be ok with these, nothing to do but try it out and test your BG after.
- Fruit (berries and watermelon are especially low sugar)
- Milk (milk contains lactose, a type of sugar, so go very easy on it; I can only drink about 1/4 cup at a time)
- Nuts
- Carrots
- Beans
- Dark Chocolate (Low-Sugar versions only)
- No-Sugar-Added Ice Cream
Bulk of Your Diet
You can basically eat as much as you want from this list.
- Meat
- Green Veggies (just not starchy ones, like peas)
- Eggs
- Most Non-Sweetened Dairy Products (Cheese, Butter, Sour Cream, ect.)
- Avocados
- Water, Tea, or Black Coffee
Exercise
When it comes to eating, you need to learn to think about food as fuel. And you only want to fuel up just enough to get you to your next meal. Avoid excess, because the less you eat, the less your BG will rise. This means counting calories (you can find free calculators online that will give you a healthy calorie goal for your age/gender/bmi). The other side of the equation though is exercise.
If you eat something and your blood sugar starts spiking, in most instances a brisk 30 min walk (or a few mins running) will be enough to get your levels down into the safe zone again (whenever my BG goes over 140, I jump on the treadmill). Exercise burns off the sugar in your blood as it's first source of energy, so it's an important tool in keeping BG levels in check. Keep in mind:
So no matter how you cut it, exercise is extremely valuable for diabetics. So get a gym membership and start pushing yourself. Get to where you exercise a little every day. Do cardio and lift weights. If you're overweight, work on getting your bmi down to a healthy level. Walk as often as you can, especially after meals. Just do it. Your body will thank you.
If you eat something and your blood sugar starts spiking, in most instances a brisk 30 min walk (or a few mins running) will be enough to get your levels down into the safe zone again (whenever my BG goes over 140, I jump on the treadmill). Exercise burns off the sugar in your blood as it's first source of energy, so it's an important tool in keeping BG levels in check. Keep in mind:
- More exercise leads to a lower A1C (because exercise burns sugar).
- A lower bmi means the insulin your body makes naturally will work more effectively (so the less body fat you have, the easier it will be to keep BG low).
- More muscle mass means more calories are burned in a resting state (so bulking up will help you burn sugar even when you're not exercising).
- Cardio exercise strengthens your heart (heart attacks are the leading cause of death for people who die due to diabetes complications).
So no matter how you cut it, exercise is extremely valuable for diabetics. So get a gym membership and start pushing yourself. Get to where you exercise a little every day. Do cardio and lift weights. If you're overweight, work on getting your bmi down to a healthy level. Walk as often as you can, especially after meals. Just do it. Your body will thank you.
More To Consider
- Take a multivitamin. Limited, strict diets can lead to vitamin deficiencies.
- Test often until you know exactly how your body reacts to different foods. Test after you eat anything you haven't tried before.
- Fiber slows down digestion, so the more fiber in your diet the more carbs your body can handle without spiking (I do ok with beans for instance, which are high carb but also high fiber).
- Almond Flour can be used as a healthy flour substitute in recipes (in moderation of course).
- Coconut Oil naturally lowers BG a bit, so it's a good idea to cook with it.
- Cinnamon also seems to naturally lower BG.
- Be wary of products marketed to diabetics. Many sugar substitutes used to make "sugar free" or "low carb" snacks will spike BG just as fast as sugar.
- Stress can raise BG, so avoid it.
- Don't sit still for too long, get up and stretch your legs a bit every hour or two.
- Good night sleep helps.
