Man 'Starved' Himself to Cure Diabetes

Richard Doughty, 59, said that he was shocked when a routine health check revealed he had Type 2 diabetes because he has always been a 10st 7lb healthy weight, 5ft 7in man.

Doughty insisted that he had no family history of diabetes, always ate a healthy diet, never smoked and or even had a sweet tooth.

When Doughty surfing on the net about his condition, he found that Newcastle University scientists had created a low-calorie diet, which is said to reverse diabetes in eight weeks.

The diet consisted of 600 calories from meal replacement shakes and soups and 200 calories from green vegetables, in addition to 3 litres of water a day.

Doughty said that surviving on a soup, two shakes and green veggies wasn't easy, but he stuck to the diet for 11 days and reduced his blood sugar to a healthy non-diabetic level.

He said his weight dropped off, and tests proved he had reversed the condition.

He added that his condition has remained under control for the past year and he has kept to just under 9st.

We have a couple of nurses on here and I would be very interested in their thoughts (and everyone else, of course) on this one.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/uk-man-star...6.html#JKF7n78

Re: Man 'Starved' Himself to Cure Diabetes

I don't think you need to actually starve yourself but cutting out carbohydrates and sugars will make the weight drop off and seems to stop type 2 diabetes in it's tracks.

Re: Man 'Starved' Himself to Cure Diabetes

I wouldn't mind trying that diet! I haven't got diabets but I like the thought of rapid weight loss but not a fan of salad on its own.

What do you replace bread with? I can't imagine not having toast in the morning.

Re: Man 'Starved' Himself to Cure Diabetes

I haven't exactly replaced it, I have very low carbs (one slice of wholemeal bread a day) and the rest of the time I eat protein and vegetables. So no fruit which is high in sugars either.

TBH the fruit is the hardest to give up once you get over the initial carb cravings at the start.

Re: Man 'Starved' Himself to Cure Diabetes

There is no doubt that maintaining a healthy weight and eating less carbs will control type II diabetes. Your carb intake should consist of whole grains with very little to no white processed flour. Exercise is VERY important also as it helps burn glucose as fuel. Starving oneself is never the answer. Moderation IS however. I consider any diet that omits a particular food group to be a fad diet and harmful.. We NEED carbohydrates, proteins AND fats. People that omit fat totally from their diets become malnourished in that certain vitamins need fat to bind with in order to be absorbed. Fats however, should be polyunsaturated.. Olive oils, canola oil and grapeseed oil being the best.

Losing weight also helps with aches and pains.. bad feet, and sore knees as it takes the load off them.

Re: Man 'Starved' Himself to Cure Diabetes

Well I haven't found that at all, my aches and pains are more now than before, the cushioning effect of fat around the joints is going and my knees (never a previous problem) are not every good my hip is killing me and my shoulders are worse than ever. Also I am losing weight with hardly any exercise.

Read a book a while ago about carbs/exercise and losing weight and much in there debunks the need to do loads of exercise especially on low carb diets as you need carbs to exercise effectively.

The idea saturated fats are bad for you seem to have no base in science and all fats will put on weight and all carry vital vits to areas of body but only saturated fats do this consistently well.

Much diet info is not science based look for studies on fats and arterial disease and no one has linked the two. Arterial disease is about scarring of arteries not about fat deposits.

We need to move around doing normal everyday things, and going for a walk is good for you too, but the fad for exercise is just that a fad because again no science behind it at all.

Re: Man 'Starved' Himself to Cure Diabetes

I disagree... Exercise causes our muscles to work and demand fuel.. The fuel of choice is glucose.. so more glucose is pulled into our muscle cells and eliminated from our blood stream. Also, cardio activity is good for your heart, as the heart is a muscle and needs to be exercised or it gets flabby. I am not saying to run a mile.. but walk two miles... weight bearing exercise also has the added value of stressing our bones and decreasing the risk for osteoporosis.

As for fats..(aka lipids) .. While it is true that ALL fats put on weight and have about 9 calories per gram. All fats are NOT the same, although we should limit our fat intake to only 10% of our caloric intake. Saturated fats contain high amounts of trans fats and fatty acids which carry LDL through our bloodstream.. LDL stands for low density lipids.. or the bad cholesterol. LDL has been proven to gunk up our arteries.. Particularly our coronary arteries, which become lined with PLAQUE from LDL, and become occluded.. when the occlusion becomes bad enough, we have a heart attack. The other way coronary arteries can be occluded is with platelets.. or thrombocytes.. ie.. clots.. This can be controlled by an antithrombolytic medication like warfarin. Scarring is NOT the cause of coronary artery disease. I'm not sure what book you read.. but as a Cardiac nurse, I find it bad information and advise.

Re: Man 'Starved' Himself to Cure Diabetes

No just means we are not all brain washed by our doctors and health services who despite what they like to think don't know everything. No science behind much of what you say just health services who believe all the hype they are given.

Anyway proof is in the pudding as they say, my way has knocked my type 2 on the head the way the GP suggested made me need medication to control it. Even now he is pushing medication despite mine being kept under control by diet alone. Won't believe a word they say now as it's all about profit for the pill pushers.

Re: Man 'Starved' Himself to Cure Diabetes

I have to say that I also suspect that strongly. My GPs have tried to get me to take statins and I will not take those under any circumstances but I did find something that not only will but is dealing with high cholesterol and I get no leg aches or pains and my cholesterol is rebalancing very well. Mr GP has also said they are quite safe to take (but he would prefer I took the statins - I wonder why )

Re: Man 'Starved' Himself to Cure Diabetes

Oh - good news for me then .

My diet is mainly muesli and vegetables (very little protein unless I eat some tuna) but I have now introducted some wholemeal bread as I have upped my mileage (running). But what I like to put on my veggies (sometimes a kg of ready made veggies a day) is sunflower oil along with unprocessed oat bran. These bind together, as well as the oil coating the veggies, to make the whole bowl full a very satisfying meal.

Oil I find curbs your appetite like no other. In fact during the day I will have a slice or 2 of toast more or less dipped in oil. Even though I want to lose weight I know that having such a disgusting meal, or snack, will keep me from binging for hours and hours, and also give me much needed energy.

One thing I have learned though over the years is to make sure I get enough calcium in my diet. I have found that Tesco's own calcium with vitamin D works for me. When I train 2x a day I will take 2 - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. I also take multi vits with iron and vitamin B complex.