Individual suporters of our consensus statement

All of the N=1 private individuals  helping establish this website  have been on a health  journey.  For all of us  some kind of chronic condition led us to question our fundamental beliefs about food and health.

Many of us are old enough to remember 1977.  In 1977 saturated fat  became the food that was killing us. 

We recall our parents switching from whole foods to  processed low fat foods.  From whole milk to processed skimmed milk.  We stopped frying our foods in lard or dripping and switched to processed vegetable oils.   

We added in large quantities  of  vegetables and cereals and starchy foods, processed  cereals, rice and pasta.  We reduced our red meat and we ate chicken instead,  fat removed.

Despite all these changes, over the years we all developed chronic conditions . Some of us also got fatter.  Some of us became infertile.   We developed all manner of issues, we gradually increased the number of drugs we were taking  and at some point we finally visited our doctor and could no longer ignore the horrifying truth that we would die, faster than we should, from something horrible.

Recently a group of us met up.  All of us were jubilant  because all of us  had transformed how they felt,  reversed diabetes,  got rid of innumerable other conditions.  All of us know that whatever lies in store for us , we will face it with more hope than we had.   All of us, independently , went searching for our answers .

We consulted our doctors, our dieticians , our nutritionists, our nurses  and we all read avidly.  We didn't know each other at all, but through the power of the internet and social media, we alll stumbled our way towards  realising that hyperinsulinaemia was at the heart of our problems.   We all understood that the way to deal with that was to adopt a lower carb higher natural fat diet, and through that reduce the level of inflammation and disfunctioning metabolism in our bodies.

We had a dinner that evening.  A dozen people sat round  restaurant table, full of renewed enthusiasm for life.  All of us made similar basic food choices.

Our  pre dinner snack olives and salted nuts. Our starter fatty fish, eggs or offals, Most of us eat meat,  mainly  red meat  some with and some without vegetables.  There are no vegans amongst us.   

We  had the restaurant prepare a diabetes freindly desert -  Hot dark chololate whipped into double cream poured over a portion of raspberries with double cream and nuts.    

We happily washed that down with a glass of red wine and some cold water.   We walked to our restaurant a distance that many of our party would not have been able to cover for many years.

For many of our party,  we took  our health journey unaided by our  official health professionals, sometimes in direct opposition to their notions of  "healthy eating" .

Even today many of our health professionals look on  in bemusement  as our health markers reverted  back to healthy levels that some of us have never seen. Just like those published by Virta Health

More importantly we all have a renewed zest for life.  Numbers on medical sheets tell one story. But for us the bigger story is the sense that we got our lives back.

We have reduced our brain fog, our retinopathy, our dry coughs, our carpel tunnel syndromes, our migraines .  and innumerable other conditions

We will never again listen to someone telling us to eat a low fat, low saturated, low salt, low red meat diet.  None of us will pay any attention too five star health ratings applied to processed foods.   Why should we?  it was  killing us before.

This website draws together the expertise we  found and pays tribute to all those who helped us find our way.    

We suspect and hope  that our story will resonate with many  across the world.

I am a T2 diabetic. I was diagnosed type 2 in December 2017 at the age of 55.  
Being diagnosed diabetic has for me has been a life saver, a blessing in  disguise. Strange thing to say but here is why I feel this way.

I am now in the best shape I have ever been in my life. I understand my  body and its needs, and found out exactly how to regain and maintain my  health.  The sad part for me is that throughout my adult life I thought I was  eating the right way, following The Eatwell Guide and low fat advice.  Starting in the morning with a bowl of cereal with low fat milk, a slice of  wholemeal toast and a glass of fresh orange juice. I had a sandwich at  lunchtime or if I was having a working lunch a couple of bananas. Pasta,  rice or jacket potato would be part of most dinners. Surely that must  mean I was eating healthily. I would like to take this opportunity to  share what I subsequently found out.
 

For this I will need to go back to my diagnosis. I had gone to the GP  thinking something was seriously wrong. Heartburn that was constant and  hadn’t subsided in 6 weeks or more. Sudden and severe IBS and I  mentioned a dry mouth. Bloods were taken and an ultrasound scan  requested. The blood results came back and I was booked in with the  Diabetic nurse who confirmed that my HBA1c was 62mmol/l (anything over  47mmol/l is diabetic) so I was well into the diabetic range. My scan had  showed a fatty liver which was another sign. The nurse also told me  that I needed to go on medication to try to lower it. I should also try  to lose weight and exercise. She also gave me the devastating news that  my diabetes would be progressive. No hope was given, just some leaflets  and a booklet with information on diabetes in my 30 minute appointment  and an offer to go on a day course called DESMOND. She did draw me a  diagram of how sugar works in your body when you have diabetes.  Basically the excess sugar sticks to red blood cells and builds up in  the blood. Too much sugar in the blood damages blood vessels and can  lead to serious problems in any part of your body. I already knew much  of this as I saw my mum suffer with her own diabetes. She ended up  registered blind, she had a stroke, kidney problems, sores on her legs  that wouldn’t heal, the community nurse was out most days to her to  dress the wounds, high blood pressure, and more. Even though she was on  insulin injections her blood sugars were uncontrolled and she often had  hypos and felt very unwell.

I was devastated at my own diagnosis and thoughts of a similar journey for me and my poor family. I had read articles about people being able to reverse their diabetes. I  knew bariatric surgery could reverse it as a close member of my family  had done it this way herself. 10 years on still no diabetes. I declined  medication and asked for a 2 month reprieve to see if I could help  myself. I really didn’t want to go on tablets as I have an aversion to  them. My daughter had taken Minocin for acne and ended up with drug  induced lupus and my mum was herself offered Thalidomide when pregnant  with me but thankfully refused.

I asked if I was to be given a blood glucose monitor but was told that  monitoring can make you obsessive. They only give them out to Type 1s  and diabetics who are on medication that can cause hypoglycaemia.

So I went home and went straight on Google and input 2 words ‘reversing  diabetes’ It took me to Diabetes.co.uk and The Low Carb Program. I  didn’t have a clue what a carb was but soon found out that carbs turn to  sugar! It made sense to lower carbs as a diabetic because basically we  are allergic to sugar. In fact every diabetic forum I went on in my  search for knowledge confirmed the same thing. Type 2 diabetes was in  fact reversible, and the best way to do that was to go low carb. This  meant ignoring all the advice in the NHS booklet I had been given.  Advice that encouraged me to eat cereal, fruit juice, bread, pasta, rice  and basically lots of starchy carbs and lower my fat intake. The low  carb way of eating encouraged eating healthy natural fats like cream,  butter, cheese, olive oil, eggs, avocado, fatty fish, meat, full fat  yoghurt. But I was prepared to give it a go, especially as I could see  the magnificent results the forum members were having as the details  were in their individual signatures. Hba1c going from triple figures  (e.g. 125) down to figures in the 20s! I noticed people were losing vast  amounts of weight. Their blood pressure was normalising (mine was at  this time borderline for medication), cholesterol ratios improving and  lots of other health issues were disappearing like migraine attacks and  brain fog and people seemed to have lots more energy. So many positives.  Everything I was reading gave me great hope that I could do this too.

Another thing that diabetics were encouraging others to do was to invest  in a blood glucose monitor to see which foods suited and which didn’t.  And keep a food diary. We are all different and it isn’t one size fits  all. ‘You wouldn’t cross a road blindfolded’ one member said to me.

So on 8th December 2017 I followed the advice from other diabetics. and I  tested, tested, tested. And sure enough the sugar spikes came from  starchy carbs. So I felt confident in ignoring the guidelines. I swapped  high carb food for low carb. I made better choices from the information  that 4 grams of carbohydrates equated to approximately 1 teaspoon of  sugar. I read labels, I cooked from scratch and avoided processed foods  and low fat products as I discovered that both are loaded with sugar.

In less than 1 month I lost 14lbs. And another 14 lbs by the next month.  On 19 February 2018 my bloods were taken by my diabetic nurse who was  astonished to see my hba1c had dropped to 47 (pre diabetic level).  Apparently nobody had done this before. My blood pressure had  normalised.

By May's blood test my Hba1c had dropped to 41mmol/l which is classed as  normal and I had lost 3 stone, a welcome side effect to the low carb  way of eating. By July I had reached my weight goal and had lost 50lbs.  My next review in November 18 my hba1c was 39 and I was maintaining my  ideal weight. My nurse said I was officially classed as being in  remission. I have maintained my weight easily now for over 18 months and  my latest hba1c in November 19 was 36.

I am now working closely with 5 GP surgeries locally helping other  diabetics and people who might want to lose weight. My surgery have been  ultra supportive asn they can see the benefits and as such helped me to  produce a 4 page leaflet to give to any patients interested in learning  more about controlling blood sugars which can lead to reducing and even  coming off medication.

I give talks and presentations on my journey. These include many visuals  of foods and equivalent sugar cubes. The jacket potato is always the  one that draws gasps at approximatrely 19 tesaspoons of sugar per large  potato and the 'healthy' banana which can have around 10 in! I help as  much as possible on social media sites. I share my journey with anyone  who is interested to give HOPE. Hope is being able to see light despite  all the darkness. I have seen the light.

 
8 December 2017 HbA1c 62
19 February 2018 HbA1c 47
15 May 2018 HbA1c 41
20 November 2018 HbA1c 39
2 April 2019 HbA1c 40
18 November 2019 hbA1c 36
LCHF woe
Weight down from 14 stone 7lbs to 10 stone 7lbs. Currently maintaining well
No meds.
 

T