Thanks!

Thanks

This works, but it takes effort and time

I think I need to do a book specifically on this topic.

Also, the people who have adopted this way of eating UNIVERSALLY report vastly improved blood sugar control. Not trying to be mean, but please take some time to fully educate yourself about this site and what resources are here.

I know the importance of diet and exercise to maintain normal blood sugar levels and reduce the risk of complications. I am glad to see my fellow diabetics leading healthy lifestyles. But please do not foster false hope that you have the magic cure to diabetes. Please consider our feelings before you make such claims.

Do YOU< as a type 1, have any advice to offer. Should we put the eggs and nuts back in (she is severely allergic to peanuts and I suspect that allergy may make her intolerant to soy as well, as a legume)…?

Erika, Tucson (daugther aged 10, diagnosed Type 1 last year)

Erika-
What I’d do.
1-I’d go straight paleo. Remove the soy, rice etc. Minimal to no fruit…if she is celiac she will have a hell of a time with fructose. Carbs are from well cooked yams, sweet potatoes and squash. Well cooked being easily mashed with a fork, baking or pressure cooking works great for this. Keep eggs, nuts and common allergens out for a while (month or longer). Use grassfed meat if you can get it. Coconut is great if it’s well tolerated.

I’m going to drop this in on the front page so folks can see this more prominently. If you give this ashot please do keep in touch and let me know how it goes.

How about for the teens with Type1? I have started to adopt Zone and Paleo guidelines in my eating. But how do you adequately feed a 15 year old O-Line guard who is a carbo-holic? I have had great results with my body comp by using the principles, but this kid is already super lean, but needs to gain weight.

The thing that is so frustrating is how screwed up all of the nutritional resources are for diabetics. It is as if they are conspiring to keep the disease going. Could money be the motivation (duh, no need to guess there!).

I would like to start to integrate what I can so that when my boy is older and on his own, I have at least instilled these correct principles into his brain.

Advice?

Anne-
Fish oil is critical for normalizing insulin sensitivity (10-15g/day). Carbs post WO is likely a smart idea. I think I will do an e-book or small specialty book on this once the main book is done as there is obviously a need here. What are his post exercise numbers? are they sky high? Low? Important stuff to know before we make a plan.

For most type 1 diabetics, enough of the pancreas has been destroyed so that they must take insulin regardless of diet and exercise, and of course this can’t be reversed. At the very minimum, people usually require 2 or 3 units of insulin a day; I take 6.

The American Diabetes Association won’t even admit that low carbing can help blood sugar control.

Sam-
What we are seeing in these folks is recovery of otherwise damaged pancreatic tissue. Unfortunately it does not work this way for everyone, nut there is no doubt it helps with blood sugar maintenance. The American Diabetic Association is absolutely criminal. They recommend both a diet and a medication protocol that worsens an already tough situation.

Robb, as always – spot on.

Get that FAQ done! Hang in there!!

In rats, type 1 diabetes progresses more rapidly when gluten is incorporated into their diet, early in life. (1,2)

Also, and quoting Schmid and colleagues: “Diabetes onset was delayed and diabetes incidence was significantly reduced in female mice that received the wheat and barley protein-free diet throughout life”. (3)

In humans, exposure to gluten before 3 months of age increases the risk for Type 1 Diabetes. (4)

And a gluten-free diet in subjects with high risk for type 1 diabetes led to significant improvements in their insulin response during a glucose tolerance test. (5)

Moreover, there is a very interesting report in the medical literature, where an adolescent, who had abnormal blood glucose and insulin levels and was tested positive for islet cell auto-antibodies and celiac disease (diagnosed through small bowel biopsy), after following a gluten-free diet for 6 months, became islet cell autoantibody negative and presented normal glycemia and insulinemia. (6)

Finally, multiple studies also implicate bovine milk in Type 1 Diabetes (7) and a higher intake of Omega 3 fatty acids (and also vitamin D) (8,9)may reduce the risk for this terrible disease.

To sum up, my first line approach for Type 1 Diabetes would be a very low glycemic load Paleo type diet along with regular exercise (including Weight Training, which is sometimes sadly neglected)

References:

1) Hoorfar J, Buschard K, Dagnaes-Hansen F. Prophylactic nutritional modification of the incidence of diabetes in autoimmune non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice. Br J Nutr. 1993 Mar;69(2):597-607.

2) Scott FW. Food-induced type 1 diabetes in the BB rat. Diabetes Metab Rev 1996;12:341–59.

3) Schmid S, Koczwara K, Schwinghammer S, Lampasona V, Ziegler AG, Bonifacio E. Delayed exposure to wheat and barley proteins reduces diabetes incidence in non-obese diabetic mice. Clin Immunol. 2004 Apr;111(1):108-18.~

4) Ziegler A-G, Schmid S, Huber D, Hummel M, Bonifacio E. Early infant feeding and risk of developing type 1 diabetes-associated autoantibodies. JAMA 2003;290:1721–8.

5) Pastore M-R, Bazzigaluppi E, Belloni C, Arcovio C, Bonifacio E, Bosi E. Six months of gluten-free diet do not influence antibody titers, but improve insulin secretion in subjects at high risk for type 1 diabetes. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2003;88:162–5.

6) Banin P, Perretta R, Ravaioli E, De Sanctis V. Regression of autoimmunity and abnormal glucose homeostasis in an adolescent boy with silent coeliac disease. Acta Paediatr 2002;91:1141–3.

7) Knip M, Veijola R, Virtanen SM, Hyöty H, Vaarala O, Akerblom HK. Environmental triggers and determinants of type 1 diabetes. Diabetes. 2005 Dec;54 Suppl 2:S125-36.
Norris JM, Yin X, Lamb MM, Barriga K, Seifert J, Hoffman M, Orton HD, Barón AE, Clare-Salzler M, Chase HP, Szabo NJ, Erlich H, Eisenbarth GS, Rewers M. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid intake and islet autoimmunity in children at increased risk for type 1 diabetes. JAMA. 2007 Sep 26;298(12):1420-8.

9) Hyppönen E, Läärä E, Reunanen A, Järvelin MR, Virtanen SM. Intake of vitamin D and risk of type 1 diabetes: a birth-cohort study. Lancet. 2001 Nov 3;358(9292):1500-3.

Miguel-
Thanks for the awesome info and the refrences…I need to get to Portugal so I can meet Pedro in person!

thanks Cris! Just need to get that FAQ done and I think that will both help people and streamline my efforts.

Do you think I should cut out ALL dairy?

Patrick-
All you can do is tinker. Your choices sound pretty solid to me however but it’s never a bad thing to switch things up.

Unfortunately one would have to tackle more than the AMA..try adding the ADA, AHA and the millions of ‘outdated’ physicians who promulgate unproven dietary recommendations.

As a physician who promotes dietary ‘cleanliness’ ala paleo/Zone principals, I receive frequent sideways stares from colleagues, despite the fact that my post-surgical diabetics are enjoying much improved glucose control at least while under my direct dietary control.

DocMo

Doc!
Good to know we have at least 1 doctor on the paleo/zone band-wagon!

First post here, thanks so much for what you do. Truly inspiring.

You’ve really got me thinking about food quality with regard to weight-loss.

I subsribed to http://www.formulazone.com, which makes it incredibly easy for a family with really young kiddos to create zone-meals quickly.

HOWEVER, if you take a moment to look around there, you will be amazed at how the people submitting highly zone-specific meals (technically) work so hard to create zone foods that taste just like they used to eat.

IOW, sure, they’re balanced, but there are all sorts of grains all through this site. This led to several weeks of eating supposedly zone meals with no change in body-comp. Very frustrating.

So, for now we’ve scrapped the weigh/measure method for a more loosely defined paleo diet. As a result we’ve started seeing progress again.

(Question: can you make 3 book suggestions for an aspiring (read: weak) crossfitter who rarely gets enough sleep b/c of toddlers? I need to continue to make better food choices, but also need my diet to not consume whatever daylight remains after work!)

Thanks!
Scott

Scott-
thanks for the validation on this…the composition DOES matter. Many put forward this notion that beer, peanuts and jerky will sub-in for blocks the same as salmon, broccoli and olive oil. As much as I love beer and jerky, it just ain’t so! Many people never stay with the program unless they remove most of the grains, and in the case of this very blog post, there are a host of medical conditions that WILL NOT improve without the removal of grains, particularly the gluten containing varieties, from the line-up.

Shannon-
I’m stunned. I wanted to go into medicine to help people and I realized that for me at least, that was not a good fit. I really feel like I’m able to help folks affect some positive change via this blog, the nutrition certs, CrossFit Journal and when finally done, my book. Thanks to both you and your husband for sharing this experience and just giving this approach a shot. I often feel like the “crazy guy in the warehouse”…it’s nice to know the work I do matters.

Thanks for this post. My fiance is Type I and I have been trying to help her make better food choices (it helps when I’m the chef).

Just to ask, but is your advice for Type I individuals to do paleo the same as someone w/o diabetes? Are there any out of the ordinary things you have run into concerning Type I and paleo? thanks.

Peter-
I’d check out dr. bernstein’s book. It recommends a nearly ketogenic diet for a type 1 diabetic. If I were type 1 this si the way i’d go. You have to work at finding the right dosage of insulin while the individual transitions to a fat based metabolism.