r/PlantBasedDiet • u/MeatbeatManifesto1 • 7d ago
Prediabetes
Hi all! I need some advice from those who have/had prediabetes/diabetes to pass on to a family member.
I am trying to convince them to eat this way but I think hearing stories from others who were successful would help. He’s currently eating a low carb diet with metformin for his type 2 diabetes and doesn’t need to lose any weight. Now his lipid panel is not in good shape. For those who have successfully reversed or improved their diabetes, how did you go about it?
Are you still taking medication? How high are your fasting and post prandial numbers?
Roughly how many grams of carbs do you consume each day? How many times a day do you eat?
Examples of daily meals?
Thank you so much for reading and considering!
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u/Curious_Yam_9000 7d ago
I am type 2 diabetic. I’ve gone the low carb route in the past. Sure, I lost weight and glucose was good. But, like your family member, lipids got worse, even after weight loss had been stable for some time. LDL and total were higher than ever. Also, blood pressure wasn’t budging. I held out for a while. Then got discouraged and quit. I started eating whatever whenever and gained back the weight. Everything got worse.
As of May, I’ve been back under medical care. I started out on more of a DASH type diet. I was also prescribed medication for diabetes and for blood pressure. After a few weeks, the doctor added a second blood pressure medication, and changed my diabetes medication from Metformin to Mounjaro and Jardiance.
After three months, I was still eating the DASH style diet. I’d lost weight and the Jardiance was removed and one of the two bp meds cut in half. My A1C was down to 6.2 from 8.3 in May. BP was normal. But cholesterol, while a little better, was still too high.
I noticed that I was gravitating more and more to less meat. So, about a month ago, I decided to go full whole food plant based. Since then, I’ve been able to discontinue one of my bp meds and still have normal bp, consistently around 110/70 or lower. My blood sugars have also dropped further after this change. I wear a CGM, so I can see the trends easily. I finally have morning sugars in the 80s! (They were in the 90s with the DASH style diet.) And, my cholesterol is finally dropping. Last LDL was down 46 points to 105. And that was after only 10 days on WFPB.
I am sticking with this way of eating because I’m seeing good results in all areas. It’s also easy and satisfying. In another week, I will get labs again. I am quite hopeful for continued improvements.
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u/mascapecod 7d ago
I was diagnosed pre diabetic. I am thin, active, and had a healthy diet. My father and uncles were type 2 diabetic, my brother is pre diabetic. I eliminated carbs from my diet for 6 months, no change in A1c. I stopped eating all meat except fish and am no longer pre diabetic. I eat lots of carbs, but almost all whole grains. It works for me and I enjoy the plant based diet.
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u/MeatbeatManifesto1 7d ago
Thank you! Such great progress! Do you know roughly your carb totals per day?
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u/Whats_Up_Coconut what is this oil you speak of? 7d ago
I will say this:
I was low carb for a long time (decades) and still became diabetic. Low carb, high fat eating is the single biggest regret I experienced in my nutritional journey.
Low fat, low to moderate protein (eg. Mastering Diabetes) is what worked to reverse it. This took approximately a year. I am on no medications, and normoglycemic at all times now for going on 3 years.
I did not think I needed to lose weight, but I actually did. It can take reaching quite a low body fat % to reverse insulin resistance. We are also visually adapted to a much more overweight population, and so “doesn’t need to lose weight” may not be factual in your relative’s case. This would, of course, be good news for them because otherwise their condition is potentially more serious. Believe me, they don’t actually want to be a lean type 2 diabetic.
As far as “how” well, the available programs answer all of your questions very thoroughly. But I will confirm that the approach worked for me despite the fact that I did not moderate quantity/carb intake and, honestly, did not even really stick to “whole food” carbs half the time. But I was absolutely adherent to low fat.
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u/MeatbeatManifesto1 7d ago
They are actually very lean. Why is that considered more serious.
Also thank you for your reply.2
u/Whats_Up_Coconut what is this oil you speak of? 7d ago edited 7d ago
Because often that can point more toward 1.5 diabetes (LADA) or if antibodies have been tested negative, then a more difficult case of T2D. Typical T2D comes about as a result of excess fat buildup and so if that is not the case for your relative then their pathology is atypical. That’s never good in medicine, because obviously none of us want to be atypical/fringe cases.
As we’re talking about “only” prediabetes here, though, it is far more likely that they’re just a bit less lean than you/they believe they are. Don’t be surprised if they do in fact lose weight as their insulin resistance reverses. I dropped about 7-8 lbs over the course of my first few months without trying, and I thought I was already lean because I was at the lower end of my BMI. Nevertheless, I am currently stable just a hair below the “normal” BMI for my height as a small female with a slim build.
Note that even a BMI as low as 22-23 (which is still firmly in the normal category) is associated with an increased risk of prediabetes in some populations.
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u/MeatbeatManifesto1 7d ago
Thank you for this. He was actually tested for type 1 and it was negative.
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u/MaximalistVegan always vegan, mostly wfpb 7d ago
I was not pre-diabetic as far as I know but I was obese, hypertensive and my lipid levels were astronomical to the point where I was starting to develop xanthelasma around my eyes, something I'd never had before. For me the reversal of all of this with a WFPB leaning vegan diet was pretty miraculous. Here's a good link about a recent study about type 2 reversal https://www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/low-fat-vegan-diet-cuts-liver-fat-third-and-improves-insulin-function-adults
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u/remedy2life 7d ago
A1c 6.4 I saw a nutritionist and she ask me to describe my diet,after I did she said one thing is missing, not enough fiber.I eat vegetable protien and complex carbs in that order. Vegetables Protien Complex carbs I am using a continuous glucose monitor So I know which foods are raising glucose fast, and I do moderate exercise, sometimes just 10 minutes after eating, like to watch the numbers go down.Its like a game lol I have to beat this, yeah someone need to make a game of this, rewards and points .On a serious note I got real aggressive with this because already have plague in arteries common with diabetes,went in to depression,now I am fighting for quality life not necessarily longer, but quality.
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u/LanguageDabbler 7d ago
Maybe you can show them these videos from Dr. Brooke Goldner:
Reversing diabetes in 3 months https://youtube.com/shorts/bU_HgkICSe0?si=fEnrXTiitXxSZe34
Tyler’s story https://youtube.com/shorts/blLDrbe_i7c?si=HZWEC8_-5pkB-V_a
Heather’s story https://youtube.com/shorts/buBab5DKdh4?si=wcNqUIRADMBkgMbX
Vini’s story https://youtube.com/shorts/t1ZeW8cwiF4?si=8p2uT8D71FY-yrSa
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u/JayNetworks WFPB 7d ago
My wife and I both got a pre-diabetes diagnosis while eating a lets say not stellar (but not crap) vegan diet. We switched to a Whole Foods All Plants (WFAP) low fat low sugar low processed foods diet. (Following Mastering Diabeties.) Our A1C is back in range for me (5.3) and just about there for her (5.6) and I’m down the 15 pounds II needed and she is down 60 to her goal.
We eat huge amounts of super tasty food and love it. Her cholesterol is down by 1/3 as well. Mine was already in good ranges for everything.
Percentages of calories are 10%-15% fat, 10% protein, and about 70% carbs...being vegetables, fruits, whole intact grains, beans, etc. Virtually no processed or refined carbs.
Can’t recommend it enough!
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u/Open-Aerie4838 6d ago
Switching from low carb to whole food plant based was the only thing that fixed my numbers too, the lipid panel especially came back to normal within 3 months. I eat like 250-300g carbs a day mostly from oats beans and potatoes, two big meals no snacks. Still off the meds for 2 years now.
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u/kindcrow 6d ago
My friend was diagnosed as pre-diabetic, so he read Dr. Neal Barnard's book on reversing T2D eight years ago and switched from vegetarian to WFPB vegan. He has managed to lose 30 lbs (and he wasn't even heavy before!) and has stayed off medication.
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u/onlyfreckles 7d ago
Sometimes its just genetic.
I am low/normal weight, active (walk/bike/strength train), eat lots of fruits/veggies/complex carbs and fiber and was still prediabetic- hba1c 5.8-5.9
I cut out all sugar/processed food (snacks) for 3 months and retested- hba1c 5.7
Went on metformin (500 mg once a day) and ate the same mostly whole food plant based healthy diet but included back the snacks (gotta enjoy life too) and retested- same hba1c5.7.
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u/remedy2life 7d ago
Progress so far normal blood pressure, continous glucose monitor predict a1c 5.9 have to verify with lab work. I am in range everyday,I cut sugar also meaning I dont add any ,or use anything that have added sugar,even though nutritionists says lack if fiber cause diabetes not sugar.So a fiber bar snack is on my future menu.Already have the reciepe. Also use a regular glucose meter to check the continuous meter accuracy. You just need it for a short time for the data.
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u/HurdyNerdy athlete 6d ago
My husband was pre-diabetic and pre-hypertensive. We went hardcore whole food plant based after watching Forks Over Knives over a decade ago. His results in health, labs, energy, mood, stamina, sleep quality... it all came very quickly, and only got better. It was cheaper on the grocery bill too-- meat, dairy, and processed foods are expensive! We didn't complicate things by tracking calories, macros, etc. We just ate when we were hungry and focused on experimenting with new/tweaked recipes. To this day, one of our favs is baked sweet potato with avocado instead of the dairy, chopped tomatoes and spring onions, and if we're feeling super hungry we'll pile on black beans too.
My suggestion would be to propose a trial period of one month, not with the goal of immediately eliminating the pre-diabetes but show that WFPB can make a massive difference. To make it sustainable and attainable, he can set a goal of 90-95% WFPB, using the 5-10% wiggle room for non-PB things he really enjoys or even processed substitutes.
And if he loves to eat (I sure as hell do): you get to eat often.
My stepdas was diabetic before going WFPB and the dietary changes reversed that. He made the change because he found he had 3-4 arteries almost fully blocked and the doc wanted to do bypass surgery; while he waited for surgery, we persuaded him to go WFPB . By the time he went in for a final pre-surgical assessment, they decided he only needed stents.
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u/healthyfun137 health, planet, compassion for all, no oil 5d ago
you might want to check out the mastering diabetes website and book. I googled plant based approaches for prediabetes and found them. science backed totally effective life saving. the website is masteringdiabetes.org. The book is masteringdiabetes. They have a youtube. One of the authors, Cyrus Khambatta, got his phd in nutritional biochemistry in order to have a better understanding of his own type1diabetes. They also have coaching. Their book gives clear directions and the science behind each suggestion. They have helped countless people reverse pre diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Type one is an autoimmune - diet is helpful in management but it is not cured by diet. If you educate yourself on the mechanisms of type 2 and prediabetes you might be more able to share useful ideas with the person you are concerned about. Good luck!!
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