So, I've been meaning to blog about this one for awhile, but haven't gotten around to it.  We (or I anyway) have made some major dietary changes this year and had to make some tough nutritional decisions, including giving up my life-long vegetarianism. 

A while back I was thinking about going vegan and a friend insisted that I read Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon/Mary Enig.  It's about following a traditional diet (what people have been eating for thousands of years), based on the findings of Weston A Price and his foundation.  I didn't really like the book.  Mostly because of it's emphasis on meat as an important element in the human diet.  I especially didn't like Sally Fallon.  But, I kept thinking about it and thought it really made sense to eat the way that human kind has always eaten. I read the info on vegetarianism on the WAPF site and found that they do believe you can be a healthy vegetarian, but only with a lot of high-quality dairy/eggs. 

I decided I might like to follow some of their diet and starting soaking grains/nuts, eating more fermented things, brewing kombucha, making kefir/yogurt, etc.   I didn't even think about giving up vegetarianism.  I still believe it can be a healthy way to live and may be the only way to continue feeding mankind on our shrinking planet but I do think some of the WAPF recommendations are important for optimal health.

Then, after about a year of being complacent about the diabetes, I went to an ND.  I hated my experience w/ my last doc so much that I let things slide health-wise.  As expected, the diabetes had kind of gotten out of control.  My liver is in bad shape, my kidneys don't look good and my blood pressure is high.  Thankfully my ND was very supportive of a "natural" approach to blood sugar control.  She suggested several supplements (chromium, magnesium, alpha gtf, fenugreek, cinnamon, goats rue for those that are interested) and said that diet/exercise changes were a must.  She suggested I consider The Diabetes Diet by Richard Bernstein.

I read the book quickly and was surprised by how restrictive it was.  It's not about weight loss--it's about blood sugar control.  Basically low-carb/high protein.  No grains, fruits, starchy vegetables, sugar.  Lots of protein.  Clearly, it wouldn't work for a vegetarian.  Even if I eat loads of soy (which I don't believe to be healthy), cheese and nuts there is no way I can get enough protein without going over the carb restrictions.  Looks something like this:

BFS: 5g carbs/30 g protein
Lunch:  12g carbs/ 48 g protein
Dinner:  12g carb/48 g protein

I wasn't thrilled about it, but was desperate to get the diabetes under control so  I decided to give it a try.  I ate chicken in my teens/early 20's so that seemed like an obvious place to start. I'm still not good at cooking it, but I'm sure I'll improve.  The first week or 2 I literally cried at the table when I saw the chicken and wasn't able to eat anything.  Vegetarianism has always been a part of my identity and it was hard to let that go.  I haven't attempted any other meat yet, but I'm thinking maybe some beef broth...

Hopefully some day the diabetes will be under good enough control that I can go back to veggies-only, but I'm not holding my breath.  Plus, I'm a little concerned that it wasn't really all that healthy for me.  Clearly carbs are toxic to my body and I just keep telling myself that I'm allergic. I also had some test results that indicated a nutrient-deficiency from the vegetarian diet, so maybe it's all for the better.

Unfortunately, the way this typically works is that the pancreas kind of poops out after awhile so even with good control I'll probably still need to up the meds every few years and will eventually need insulin.  Maybe mine will hold out until they come up with some better treatment options.  Until then I'll be loading up on the protein.