As a nutritionist with a PhD focused on diabetes nutrition, over the past decade, I’ve had the honor of supporting thousands of people to treat their Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes naturally.
What you need to know is that medications are not the answer to treating diabetes effectively. Sure, they may help for a time. But, with the right diet and nutrition, you may be able to lower blood sugar and A1c, lose weight, and even reduce or stop medications—this is shown in studies!
Let’s talk about why and how it works. You can review the results of the randomized controlled trial of the web-based T2Diet Program intervention here.
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Understanding Type 2 Diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance, a condition in which the body’s cells do not respond effectively to insulin, leading to elevated blood sugar levels.
Insulin is a hormone that regulates the uptake of glucose from the blood into the cells. When insulin resistance occurs, glucose accumulates in the bloodstream instead of being used as energy by the cells.
This can create a vicious cycle where most people with Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes have high blood sugar and high insulin (hyperinsulinemia). This cascade can lead to all sorts of issues that worsen your health, so the primary goal is to lower your blood sugar and lower your insulin so that your overall metabolism comes back into balance.
There is one primary nutrient that stimulates high blood sugar and high insulin: carbohydrates. Therefore, in order to improve your diabetes, you need to reduce carbohydrate intake, and focus on eating high quality, nutrient-dense foods.
The Power of the T2Diet Program
Based on a decade of evidence and practice, I developed the 16-week T2Diet Program. It’s an online program that includes nutritional lessons, recipes and more.
In the clinical trial of the program, 40 participants received standard diabetes care alongside the T2Diet program and 47 received only the standard of care. The majority of participants in both groups had improved health after 16 weeks, but those who had the added support of the program saw even more impressive effects.
The 40 participants who were assigned to use the program lowered their HbA1c levels by almost 1%. Some people lowered their HbA1c levels by 3%, which is much more than medications can achieve in this short timeframe. People lost weight—an average of 9.6 lbs.
Most importantly, there was a decrease in the need for medications. In fact, 87% of people taking the program reduced medications, that’s in just 16 weeks!
Those who received only the standard of care without the T2Diet program saw minimal health improvements with only a 0.26% HbA1c reduction and 1.7 pound weight loss, and they actually ended up increasing their use of medications.
The program isn’t magic, so let’s look closer at some of the primary nutrition principles you can put into practice right away.
Key Nutrition Principles for Treating Diabetes Naturally
Let’s break down the focal points of the T2Diet program, emphasizing the primary food changes that participants made to achieve improved health.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the primary nutrient that stimulates high blood sugar and high insulin.
The T2Diet Study’s core intervention, and the method I’ve been teaching people for over a decade, is to focus on a lower-carbohydrate eating plan, with only 10 to 26% of total energy intake from carbohydrates. More specifically, it’s important to eat no more than 100g of carbohydrates per day. Staying between 50 and 80g of carbohydrates a day is ideal.
Carbohydrates cover a wide range of foods including:
- Sugar (white or brown sugar, honey, molasses, rice syrup, etc.)
- Starches (pasta, potatoes, rice, bread, noodles, flour, cereals, etc.)
- Beans and legumes (chickpeas, lentils, soy beans, black beans, etc.)
- Fruit (berries, peaches, apricots, plums, mandarin, etc.)
- Vegetables (alfalfa, artichoke, arugula bell pepper cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant green beans, mushrooms, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, zucchini, etc.).
Vegetables are the best type of carbohydrate to eat, followed by small portions of fruit, beans, and legumes. According to the American Diabetes Association, “non-starchy vegetables like lettuce, cucumbers, broccoli, tomatoes, and green beans have a lot of fiber and very little carbohydrate, which results in a smaller impact on your blood glucose.”
As for the types of carbohydrates to avoid or minimize, that’s sugar and starches. Both sugar and starches are very high in carbohydrates, so they easily push your blood sugar and insulin up. Remember, you want to get those down so focus on vegetables and small portions of fruit, beans, and legumes, which do have carbs and small amounts of sugar. However, due to the high amounts of fiber, nutrients, and low carbohydrate amounts, they are healthier choices for your condition.
If you can avoid sugars and starches, staying within the 50 to 100g day of overall carbs as found in healthier vegetables, fruits, and beans, you will see your diabetes health completely change.
Quality Nutrient-Dense Foods
The other thing is to focus on eating quality, nutrient-dense foods, as much as possible.
Our body is designed to eat natural, whole foods, not man-made, processed, and packaged foods laden with sugar, refined flours, additives, and preservatives.
Think of the types of foods your great grandmother might have eaten—it wasn’t cheerios, sugar-laden breakfast biscuits, fast food, or microwave dinners!
Protein
To complement the good carbohydrates in your diet—vegetables, fruits, beans, and legumes, include plenty of protein in your daily diet. Proteins are basically chemical “building blocks” in your body, made up of amino acids. Your body takes the protein you consume and uses the amino acids to build and repair muscle and bone. These proteins can also make hormones and enzymes, and can additionally be used as an energy source.
Proteins are found in foods such as meats (beef, chicken, pork, turkey, lamb, game), fish and seafood, eggs, dairy products, tofu, tempeh, nuts, and seeds.
Fat
To round everything out, do not fear fat. There are many myths and misunderstandings surrounding fat in our diets. However, fat is an essential nutrient.
Fats are in all of our cell membranes aiding fat soluble substances like vitamins, hormones, and nutrients to easily transport in and out of cells. We also need fat for many important functions in the body, including for the production and formation of bile acids, hormones, vitamin D, and for optimal brain function. In addition, fat is good for blood sugar regulation, too.
To function optimally, the body does need all types of fats, including saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. The most important thing is to consume good quality fats found in nutrient dense whole foods, rather than low quality oils found in processed foods or used for deep fried foods.
So, in addition to enjoying vegetables, fruits, beans, legumes and protein-rich foods, you can enjoy fat found naturally in meats, fish and seafood, and dairy products; and include beneficial fat sources rich in monounsaturated fat, like virgin olive oil, avocado, olives, nuts, and seeds.Navigating the Grocery Store for a Healthy Diet
Without a doubt, navigating the grocery store can seem tough because you may be “used to” shopping for certain items, and you may be “used to” eating a certain way.
The good news is, no matter how young or old, you can change your eating habits. And really, navigating the grocery store is not as tough as you think. Here’s a tip: when shopping, stick to the fresh food section.
Next time you enter the store, notice all the fresh food is often set up on the outside edges of the store. And all the aisles, filled with processed and packaged food, are all lined up in the middle—to catch you in “the maze!”
So, stick to the outer edges of the store where all the fresh food is. Then, get to know where other essential items are—like olive oil or spices, and ignore everything else.
Make a shopping list before you leave home. And if you don’t need something, don’t be tempted by that impulse buy!
Get Started Now
Your diet and nutrition is the key to treating Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes naturally, and it is much more effective than medication. All it takes is for you to get started now.
Use the tips above, or if you need help getting started with your eating plan, grab a copy of my recommended food list here.
Better yet, register for the T2Diet Program—it’ll help you lower your blood sugar and A1c, weight and medications.
