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Doctor to promote findings on vegan diet reversing diabetes

2008-11-15 06:27:00
Author: BizWire

“If I were president, I would make our first priority the health of our children, because the health of our children is actually the worst it’s ever been. We act like a fat kid is cute. Well, a fat kid is going to get diabetes and it’s going to shorten their life. Kids today are going to live a shorter life than their parents and that is a tragedy.”

Those words, though not president yet, help to show that Dr. Neal Barnard is concerned with the well being of those with diabetes. The Fargo native, who now lives in Washington, D.C., is coming to Detroit Lakes Tuesday at the Holmes Theatre to speak on his Reverse Diabetes tour.

“Diabetes is an epidemic,” he said.

Growing up in Fargo, Barnard’s father was a specialist in diabetes, so he was introduced to the disease early on. Diabetes has grown exponentially since.

“So many people think of it as a genetic thing, but our genes are not changing. What’s changing is our diet,” he said Thursday afternoon from New Mexico, where he was in town to give a lecture to doctors.

Because of that diet getting worse, diabetes is getting worse and worse as well. To focus on diabetes, Barnard decided to research and study the disease throughout the world, not just the United States. He came up with a solution.

Type 2 diabetes, or adult onset diabetes, is where the epidemic is, he said. Too much sugar is the problem, and people may start to follow a diet with no sugar or foods that turn to sugar, but “the problem with that approach is it’s not very effective. You don’t see people throwing away their medications because of this fabulous diet they’re on.”

So Barnard has come up with his own diet, the vegan diet. That means no meat, no dairy, basically no animal products.

In research for his book, Barnard took a look at other countries with more plant-based diets and saw that there aren’t nearly the numbers when it comes to diabetes as in the States.

“We started thinking there was something about this plant-based diet,” he said. “When you’re on a meaty diet, it contains so much fat that the fat gets into the muscle cells of the body and the muscles are the main users of sugar.”

So Barnard and his team tested people on vegan diets. People could eat as much as they want, but no animals products. Not only did diabetes complications diminish, people also lost weight, blood pressures came down and more benefits were recorded.

“I think we have set a standard of what diabetes diets should be like.”

The diet, he said, is much easier to follow than one might think. A usual diabetes diet counts carbohydrate grams. The diet become tedious, and patients aren’t happy with watching and counting everything. This diet is different. Patients can each as much as they like, but of the right foods.

“You do have to learn some new tastes, there’s no question about that, but when you do, you can eat as much as you want, you’re never hungry, you can eat any time of day you like, as many times of day as you like, so people find it very, very simple.”

Barnard’s book, “Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes,” gives several recipes and cooking examples for those switching to the vegan diet.

Barnard said he promotes a two-step program for making the diet work. First step is shopping.

“You don’t need 30 different dinners, eat four or five that you like,” he advised. Have to have pizza or don’t cook, go ahead and buy the frozen pizza, just get the vegan ones some stores carry now. Getting veggie hot dogs is another alternative.

The next step is what Barnard refers to a ‘test drive.” For three weeks, breakfast, lunch and dinner, make the change to vegan.

“It’s like quitting smoking for three weeks. People will say ‘I can do that,’ but I’m not making any long-term commitments. You don’t have to. During that time, two things happen — you feel better and your tastes change.”

Barnard will speak on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Historic Holmes Theatre. It is free and open to the public. Besides promoting his book and the vegan diet, Barnard will take questions and give weight loss tips as well.

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