CA Hi everyone from Canada

[EllieW]

Good morning everyone. Or whatever it is wherever you are! I just registered but have been lurking for about 3 weeks. I find the topics very interesting and it's lovely to be around like-minded people. I'm married, retired, have 2 daughters, 3 grandchildren and 3 great grands. I have a Pomeranian dog named Richie and a tabby cat named Fonzy.
I've been vegetarian a number of times in my adult life for long periods of time. Because I don't like meat. LOL I went vegan about 5 years ago for a summer but was missing cheese and bacon. I then went Keto for the last 4 years. Not a wise move for someone that doesn't like meat! But I had been diagnosed with diabetes with an A1C of 12 about 10 years ago. After about a year I had a gastric bypass and that reversed the diabetes. But I still have to be careful. Thus the keto diet. It kept my blood sugar low but I just hated all of the meat. I don't like the taste, I don't like handling raw meat, it's the first food almost daily that gets stuck from having the gastric bypass and for the last couple of years all I see is a face on my plate. I don't think pork, beef, I think pig, cow.
I've been reading books about keto vegan and thought I'd maybe transition but just decided to go low fat vegan about 3 weeks ago. Transitioned for about a week and a half to use up some stuff and I've been pure vegan for the last week and a half. Loving the food and not missing cheese and bacon at all.
My A1C is higher though which makes me panicky. It's hovering in the 7's. I'm trying to be patient and hope it goes down again. I've read the research and it says low-fat vegan is a better way to control the blood sugar. Fingers crossed they're right as I don't want to go back to meat eating.
That's about it for me!
See you around the forum!
Hugs, Ellie

 

[shyvas]

Hola &

 

[EllieW]

Thanks for the welcome!

 

[Veganite]

Welcome from BC!

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[EllieW]

Thanks! A fellow Canadian!

 

[Veganite]

Thanks! A fellow Canadian!

Yes, there's a few of us here

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[feather]

Welcome! Two of the whole food plant based professionals wrote books, on reversing diabetes, Barnard (Program for reversing Diabetes) and Brenda Davis (Defeating Diabetes). There may be more.
You've been eating vegan for 3 weeks, how do you feel?

 

[Emma JC]

welcome Ellie

.... from just the other side of the 'big smoke'

Please follow @feather 's advice and research Dr Neal Barnard's books and information on the website and any other person/place that advocates for low fat for diabetes. I explained it somewhere just the other day. For Type II diabetes, it is not the sugar in the diet that causes the issue, it is the sugar in the blood and it is in the blood because the fat in our cells blocks the ability of insulin to do its work, which is to take the sugar and change it into glucose for us to use for energy. That is not a medical explanation and I likely have some of the words wrong so please please do more research as it could save your life and certainly improve the quality of it.

If you google - youtube dr neal barnard diabetes - you will find all kinds of great videos pop up.

This article on Dr Greger's site is from 2016 and explains what I tried to say...

Fat Is the Cause of Type 2 Diabetes | NutritionFacts.org

Studies dating back nearly a century noted a striking finding: If you take young, healthy people and split them up into two groups—half on a fat-rich diet

nutritionfacts.org

I look forward to your contributions to the forum and to following along with your journey.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[EllieW]

Welcome! Two of the whole food plant based professionals wrote books, on reversing diabetes, Barnard (Program for reversing Diabetes) and Brenda Davis (Defeating Diabetes). There may be more.
You've been eating vegan for 3 weeks, how do you feel?

I have the Neal Barnard book and just got Mastering Diabetes last night when I saw it mentioned here. I've read some of the other Barnard books but haven't read the diabetes one yet. Basically low-fat vegan is what they all seem to recommend so that's the way I'm going. I figure my cells are full of fat and not letting the insulin in from being Keto so long so I'm trying to not panic and give it some more time.
Thanks for the welcome and the advice!
Hugs, Ellie

 

[EllieW]

welcome Ellie

.... from just the other side of the 'big smoke'

Please follow @feather 's advice and research Dr Neal Barnard's books and information on the website and any other person/place that advocates for low fat for diabetes. I explained it somewhere just the other day. For Type II diabetes, it is not the sugar in the diet that causes the issue, it is the sugar in the blood and it is in the blood because the fat in our cells blocks the ability of insulin to do its work, which is to take the sugar and change it into glucose for us to use for energy. That is not a medical explanation and I likely have some of the words wrong so please please do more research as it could save your life and certainly improve the quality of it.

If you google - youtube dr neal barnard diabetes - you will find all kinds of great videos pop up.

This article on Dr Greger's site is from 2016 and explains what I tried to say...

Fat Is the Cause of Type 2 Diabetes | NutritionFacts.org

Studies dating back nearly a century noted a striking finding: If you take young, healthy people and split them up into two groups—half on a fat-rich diet

nutritionfacts.org

I look forward to your contributions to the forum and to following along with your journey.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

Thanks for the welcome and the advice! I do have Dr Barnard's book, all of his books I think, fascinating reading. And that's where I got the info to go low-fat vegan. I just got Mastering Diabetes last night and though I haven't read it yet, it seems to recommend low-fat vegan as well so that's the path I'm taking.
Hugs, Ellie

 

[EllieW]

Welcome! Two of the whole food plant based professionals wrote books, on reversing diabetes, Barnard (Program for reversing Diabetes) and Brenda Davis (Defeating Diabetes). There may be more.
You've been eating vegan for 3 weeks, how do you feel?

I forgot to answer your question. I feel great! I have fibromyalgia and also have these awful gastric attacks that seem to be connected to my IBS or so the doctor thinks. I haven't had a gastric attack since starting the vegan diet so hopefully they may be a thing of the past. Fingers crossed!
I love vegan food and don't miss a blessed thing about meat or having to handle it. Hubby is not vegan but I've got him started on some changes and the meat I cook for him is kind of disguised so no raw meat handling for me. He eats mostly vegetarian but has chicken strips once a week, grilled chicken strips in his salad and bacon. He announced I'M NOT GOING VEGAN OR WHATEVER YOU CALL IT. LOL He does like the Beyond Beef burgers though and I made his spaghetti sauce with ground Beyond Beef and he was happy with that. So he's kind of headed there too. If I could just find plant-based bacon that looked and tasted like pig bacon so that he couldn't tell the difference!

 

[feather]

Ellie I'm so glad you are feeling better! I also had gastric problems with diarrhea for 3 months straight, happened to me twice, but that was in the past once I went wfpb'ed. I was probably headed down the road to diabetes, and IBS, and high blood pressure forever, aches and pains....until I changed my foods. It helped so much. I felt better too.

There have and are programs. I know they ran one in Europe, fasting, under doctors, reversed diabetes program. McDougall also runs one, or did. True North is currently open and accepting new patients for inpatient, fasting and refeeding for reversing diabetes, usually within a month. Other health issues are also tackled in these programs, if you have the funds for something like that. True North is in california, I think McDougall may be in california too, I don't remember. If you are in a rush to get your A1C down, that would be the way to go if you can.

I eat closer to Dr. Esselstyn's program for heart disease because my husband had a heart attack, and we are both on board now. It's been two years, and we are eating more McDougall and general wfpb'ed. All these programs and doctors plans are extremely similar with only small parts zero'ed in on for certain health conditions. For diabetes, low fat, very low fat, high carb (whole plants), moves that fat out of the muscles and cells, into the blood stream, so it can be processed properly, and bring down the A1C.

The great part is, when your taste buds (regrow in 11 days) catch up to your lifestyle, it's delicious and fun, and just as creative in cooking as before!

 

[EllieW]

Thanks for the info. I'm in Canada and not inclined to go traveling in the near future, because of, you know, the pandemic. LOL But I plan on staying the course and keep trying. According to all I read, it should work, and I prefer to eat this way anyway. I may miss the fats a bit but I don't miss the meat and dairy at all.
My gastric problem, besides the normal problems with IBS, is a huge pain right under the breast bone that comes on very fast, feels for a second like intense hunger, and quickly spreads around my ribs to my spine, hold me like a huge vise and honestly, it's put me to the floor many times. I break out in a cold sweat and clutch that area and go down. I turn white with it. I still remember having an attack at work many years ago and went down right by the photocopier with all of my coworkers standing around and staring at me. Humiliating! It has the doctor stumped and he said if I was a drinker he would have though pancreatitis. But I don't drink. He had me on acid pills for a long time that didn't help. They went away for a bit after the gastric bypass and also when I first gave up dairy. When they came back the dr wanted to put me on acid pills again but my gastroenterologist said it's not acid, with the bypass there's very little stomach acid. So at the point the dr guessed at my IBS. So still kind of not diagnosed and if it goes away, I don't care what it was. LOL

 

[feather]

Ellie, why didn't he check out your gall bladder for gall stones? Maybe that's not the right area....I don't know for sure. Someone else might know more about gall bladder symptoms.

 

[EllieW]

Gall bladder is gone, it was removed a long time ago. Maybe 30 years or more. For the same reason. They thought it was my gall bladder. That same night, laying in the hospital, I had a bad attack and they came running with the crash cart, thinking it was a heart attack. I questioned my dr afterwards and asked if it was gallstones, why did I get that attack? He said it was obviously something else. Plus they didn't find any gallstones when they operated. These were the days just before laparoscopic was used, it was just starting at that time. I asked my surgeon to do it that way and he said no, it was untested. So I got the big cut diagonally across the stomach. Now imagine all those stitches and sitting straight up in bed when that attack hit. I don't know what hurt more! LOL

 

[Lou]

Welcome.
here is something else for your ToDo list.

How Not to Die from Diabetes | NutritionFacts.org

We’ve known since the 1930s that type 2 diabetes can be prevented, arrested, and even reversed with a plant-based diet. Within five years of following the

nutritionfacts.org

 

[EllieW]

Hi. Thanks for the welcome.
I have his How Not To Die and How Not to Diet books, very good reading. I didn't see another one. But will read that article you linked to. Thanks!
I've been reading the forum for a few weeks and always enjoy your posts.
Hugs, Ellie

 

[Emma JC]

plant-based bacon.... the person on youtube who has the most videos of different bacons is Sauce Stache - the challenge with his videos is that he uses a fair amount of oil and also random products that most of us don't have - I do think that some of his recipes could be altered slightly to leave out the oils - one of the simplest bacon subs is made using rice paper, of all things, I have done it and it works quite well - Edgy Veg has a video about it as do many others, I did not use oil when I made it, I don't think (it was a long time ago)

it is good that your honey is coming around slowly...

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[EllieW]

Good morning Emma. Thanks for the info. I did bookmark Sauce Stache's site but haven't looked through it yet. I will do that first chance I get.
I was thinking more of a bacon that he wouldn't realize it wasn't real bacon until he ate it, told me he liked it and then I would tell him. LOL Kind of hard to buy substitutes these days as I never leave the house at the moment and he does all the shopping, so if I request a substitute, he's the one that has to buy it. No fooling done there! I have a problem wearing masks, a childhood phobia, so I can't go shopping till the mask mandate is lifted. And in Ontario, it's not lifted yet.
Hugs, Ellie

 

[Emma JC]

Good morning Emma. Thanks for the info. I did bookmark Sauce Stache's site but haven't looked through it yet. I will do that first chance I get.
I was thinking more of a bacon that he wouldn't realize it wasn't real bacon until he ate it, told me he liked it and then I would tell him. LOL Kind of hard to buy substitutes these days as I never leave the house at the moment and he does all the shopping, so if I request a substitute, he's the one that has to buy it. No fooling done there! I have a problem wearing masks, a childhood phobia, so I can't go shopping till the mask mandate is lifted. And in Ontario, it's not lifted yet.
Hugs, Ellie

as opposed to trying to fool him, maybe make it a fun project that you could work on together - if you show him some of the videos and ask him if he is willing to be a guinea pig, it might make him more of a participant?

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com