Discussion Board

A comment someone made to me when I told her I had changed my WOE to vegan upset me. I know it shouldn't because I read The Starch Solution and believe this is a good way to eat and be healthy. But it keeps nagging at me, so I'm asking for your thoughts.

This person said that she tried McDougalling some years ago and wound up with Type 2 diabetes from eating a lot of pasta. Although she said she felt much better on a vegan diet, she can't eat a lot of starch now and gets her protein from meat. I found her comments confusing. Does pasta have anything at all to do with diabetes?

If she ate so much pasta that she became very fat and at the same time was sedentary she may have developed diabetes from being fat. It is fats and oils that cause insulin resistance until the pancreas cannot produce enough insulin to lower blood sugars. Experiments done in the early part of the last century using sugar as a large percentage of the diet did not produce diabetics but fats did.

If your friend was using fatty sauces on her pasta and eating meatballs and sausage with the pasta then, having gained weight, she might have become diabetic. Just like people say potatoes are fattening but forget the butter and sour cream on top.

Didi

From Neal Barnard at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine:

Dietary Approaches to Diabetes
Food can be powerful in preventing and reversing diabetes. However, dietary approaches have changed as we have learned more about the disease.

The traditional approach to diabetes focuses on limiting refined sugars and foods that release sugars during digestion— starches, breads, fruits, pasta, etc. With carbohydrates reduced, the diet may contain an unhealthful amount of fat and protein. So diabetes experts have taken care to limit fats— especially saturated fats that can raise cholesterol levels—and to limit protein for people with impaired kidney function.

The new approach focuses more attention on fat. Fat is a problem for people with diabetes. The more fat there is in the diet, the harder time insulin has in getting glucose into the cells.2 Conversely, minimizing fat intake and reducing body fat help insulin do its job much better. Newer treatment programs drastically reduce meats, high-fat dairy products, and oils. At the same time, they increase grains, legumes, fruits, and vegetables. One study found that 21 of 23 patients on oral medications and 13 of 17 patients on insulin were able to get off of their medications after 26 days on a near-vegetarian diet and exercise program.3 During two- and three-year follow- ups, most people with diabetes treated with this regimen have retained their gains.4 The dietary changes are simple, but profound, and they work. Low-fat, vegetarian diets are ideal for people with diabetes.

A 2006 study, conducted by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine with the George Washington University and the University of Toronto, looked at the health benefits of a low-fat, unrefined, vegan diet (excluding all animal products) in people with type 2 diabetes.5 Portions of vegetables, grains, fruits, and legumes were unlimited. The vegan diet group was compared with a group following a diet based on American Diabetes Association (ADA) guidelines. The results of this 22-week study were astounding:

■Forty-three percent of the vegan group and 26 percent of the ADA group reduced their diabetes medications. Among those whose medications remained constant, the vegan group lowered hemoglobin A1C, an index of long-term blood glucose control, by 1.2 points, three times the change in the ADA group.
■The vegan group lost an average of about 13 pounds, compared with only about 9 pounds in the ADA group.
■Among those participants who didn’t change their lipid-lowering medications, the vegan group also had more substantial decreases in their total and LDL cholesterol levels compared to the ADA group.
This study illustrates that a plant-based diet can dramatically improve the health of people with diabetes. It also showed that people found this way of eating highly acceptable and easy to follow.

Kate

Thanks for the comments and great information. I knew there had to be a logical explanation. I was completely ignorant about diabetes and what causes it. I remember when my aunt was diagnosed she was put on a very strict diet. She was allowed very little fat, lost weight, and got the disease under control. Although she never had shots, she did take a medication for it. Yes, it makes sense that fat plays a big role in diabetes. Thanks for taking the time to give me all this great info!

I could give you a list of the foods that gave my husband diabetes type 2, but it would be too long to write here, it would probably start with butter, cream, cheese, steaks, olive oil, junk food, etc etc. Pasta would only be included because of the fattening toppings we used to put on it! Now we eat whole wheat pasta with healthy low-fat sauces, and it's part of keeping our weight at a perfect level.

Nordgirl, I thought of you when I was visiting my brother in Arizona. I made a big container of tabboulleh using bulgur wheat, red pepper, onion, tomatoes, garbanzo beans, parsley and mint and lemon juice. I used no oil although the recipe calls for it. My blood sugar did not go above 140 post prandially. I do not know if everyone will experience lower after meal blood sugars with bulgar wheat.

Didi

Dolores

Yep, bulgar wheat and chickpeas, two superstars in the McDougall low blood sugar universe