Vegan Diet

[Grogg1]

I’ve been vegan for 18 months now and can definitely say that there are plenty of benefits to be rewarded with such as loss of weight, sleep and full body wellness. Ethically it’s good but I’m not an activist in anyway and choose to focus on the many health benefits it brings instead.

My daughter originally did it due to acne which did improve. She doesn't need to lose weight as she's quite petite but her sleep is horrendous as sadly she seems to have inherited insomnia from me. She's so passionate about being plant based both for health and ethical reasons that her personal trainer credits her with his decision to go vegan. He is only two months in and already superfit but he says his body has changed for the better and it hasn't impacted on his ability to do extreme fitness challenges.

One thing I have noted is that "home made" vegan cakes impact on my BG is not too extreme. I had a cake made for my daughter's homecoming and had a generous slice, complete with icing and 2 hours later I sat at 8.5 and by hour 3 it was dropping. A small slice of shop bought cake would have sent me higher. I often go for vegan dessert when out, unless it's just fruit salad, as usually so much more thought has gone into flavours, texture etc. that they are a real treat. As a type 2 I cannot adjust my medication to deal with my dietary choices so have to try to balance my diet and everyone needs cake in their life occasionally!

 

[Mucker86]

My daughter originally did it due to acne which did improve. She doesn't need to lose weight as she's quite petite but her sleep is horrendous as sadly she seems to have inherited insomnia from me. She's so passionate about being plant based both for health and ethical reasons that her personal trainer credits her with his decision to go vegan. He is only two months in and already superfit but he says his body has changed for the better and it hasn't impacted on his ability to do extreme fitness challenges.

One thing I have noted is that "home made" vegan cakes impact on my BG is not too extreme. I had a cake made for my daughter's homecoming and had a generous slice, complete with icing and 2 hours later I sat at 8.5 and by hour 3 it was dropping. A small slice of shop bought cake would have sent me higher. I often go for vegan dessert when out, unless it's just fruit salad, as usually so much more thought has gone into flavours, texture etc. that they are a real treat. As a type 2 I cannot adjust my medication to deal with my dietary choices so have to try to balance my diet and everyone needs cake in their life occasionally!

There are many famous world strong men who are vegan. Patrik Baboumian who represents Germany holds many world records and 2014 Mr Universe Barny Du Plessis is also vegan.
Veganism is still quite misunderstood and sometimes frowned upon with lack of understanding. You can be whatever you want to be whilst on a vegan diet and I believe that I can be my best on such a diet. There’s no eating restrictions as such because we live in a world now where there are plenty of alternatives.
Despite already being vegan I will now use my type 1 diabetes as an advantage to be an even better version of myself! 🙂

 

[Martin Canty]

Despite already being vegan I will now use my type 1 diabetes as an advantage to be an even better version of myself! 🙂

Love that attitude....

 

[Grogg1]

Despite already being vegan I will now use my type 1 diabetes as an advantage to be an even better version of myself! 🙂

Can I ask if you are disappointed that following a plant based diet did not prevent you getting diabetes. I know you have to have a genetic disposition to getting diabetes but another factor, which could be environmental, is also at play - hence identical twins and only one will develop diabetes.

I only ask as I have a long standing friend who is a life long vegan (we are talking over 40 years) and he blames a non vegan diet for many ills. So when I had breast cancer he told me to give up diary as it causes cancer. So you can imagine when I told him about my diabetes a year later then he started again telling me how diary was very bad for my health. I've made this sound like he was tactless but he did it in a caring way and his intention was not for me to blame myself for my ill health. My daughter is also very anti diary due to hormones etc. added to it and I have absorbed it and my diary consumption has decreased significantly but I'm not noticing any improvement in my control of my diabetes. i.e. Month 1-3 mainly chicken, veg, cheese and eggs - reduced my hba1c to 42. Month 4-9 - mainly soya, tofu, veg with drastically reduced amounts of cheese and chicken and virtually no eggs and my hba1c now 43, which is basically no change. I should keep a detailed food diary but I kept forgetting to complete and then trying to remember what I ate etc. and just lost interest in it.

 

[Mucker86]

Can I ask if you are disappointed that following a plant based diet did not prevent you getting diabetes. I know you have to have a genetic disposition to getting diabetes but another factor, which could be environmental, is also at play - hence identical twins and only one will develop diabetes.

I only ask as I have a long standing friend who is a life long vegan (we are talking over 40 years) and he blames a non vegan diet for many ills. So when I had breast cancer he told me to give up diary as it causes cancer. So you can imagine when I told him about my diabetes a year later then he started again telling me how diary was very bad for my health. I've made this sound like he was tactless but he did it in a caring way and his intention was not for me to blame myself for my ill health. My daughter is also very anti diary due to hormones etc. added to it and I have absorbed it and my diary consumption has decreased significantly but I'm not noticing any improvement in my control of my diabetes. i.e. Month 1-3 mainly chicken, veg, cheese and eggs - reduced my hba1c to 42. Month 4-9 - mainly soya, tofu, veg with drastically reduced amounts of cheese and chicken and virtually no eggs and my hba1c now 43, which is basically no change. I should keep a detailed food diary but I kept forgetting to complete and then trying to remember what I ate etc. and just lost interest in it.

Initially when I googled type 1 symptoms before going to the hospital my heart sunk for a few minutes as I knew deep down I had diabetes. Me being me I wasn't going to let anything get me down and was already planning my rise back to the top laying on my hospital bed! 😉

It's true that various foods can have an impact on us positively and negatively and certain choices can become a percentage scenario. I'm a big believer that we are what we are and irrespective of our strengths and weaknesses it's important that we look after ourselves and remain happy.

As for HBA1C figures keeping a food diary will allow you to look back overtime to see if there is anything that can be improved or changed. Today marks exactly 5 weeks since I've been formerly diagnosed with type 1 and I plan on getting back into the gym for the first time in 5 weeks tomorrow. I will endeavor to write here my thoughts and feelings regarding being vegan and type 1 whilst lifting weights in the gym. Right now I believe I'm still learning how my body is reacting to all things and once things become much clearer I will write more.

 

[Matt Cycle]

Can I ask if you are disappointed that following a plant based diet did not prevent you getting diabetes. I know you have to have a genetic disposition to getting diabetes but another factor, which could be environmental, is also at play - hence identical twins and only one will develop diabetes.

It wouldn't matter what sort of diet anyone has as that wouldn't influence whether you get T1 diabetes or not. 6 month old babies can get it. As well as the genetic disposition the thought is it's a virus that triggers the bodies destruction of it's beta cells.

 

[Grogg1]

It wouldn't matter what sort of diet anyone has as that wouldn't influence whether you get T1 diabetes or not. 6 month old babies can get it. As well as the genetic disposition the thought is it's a virus that triggers the bodies destruction of it's beta cells.

But it's not that simple is it. Why would a virus make 1 twin develop type 1 but the other twin could also have the same virus but not develop type 1, clearly if it is a virus at fault then something is different in their immune system and is this affected by diet? As with babies, they can have very different diets, not just either human or cows milk but if breast fed then the milk will reflect the mother's diet. I know when I was breast feeding I avoided peas as they gave me a windy baby!!

I don't know but it fascinates me. I'm one of 4 and as a child my mother tried to make me catch chicken pox so all 4 of us could be ill together and she believed it's better to have as a child. I didn't catch it. She tried to make me catch other childhood illness too but I caught nothing! We all lived in same house and generally all ate same meals etc. we even shared baths. Only difference is a very young child I refused to eat meat or fish as I disliked (yes I was the fussy eater of the family!). As nearly every meal was meat & veg I just ate veg. In my early twenties I started eating meat and I caught chicken pox off my nephew!!

 

[Matt Cycle]

But it's not that simple is it. Why would a virus make 1 twin develop type 1 but the other twin could also have the same virus but not develop type 1, clearly if it is a virus at fault then something is different in their immune system and is this affected by diet? As with babies, they can have very different diets, not just either human or cows milk but if breast fed then the milk will reflect the mother's diet. I know when I was breast feeding I avoided peas as they gave me a windy baby!!

I don't know but it fascinates me. I'm one of 4 and as a child my mother tried to make me catch chicken pox so all 4 of us could be ill together and she believed it's better to have as a child. I didn't catch it. She tried to make me catch other childhood illness too but I caught nothing! We all lived in same house and generally all ate same meals etc. we even shared baths. Only difference is a very young child I refused to eat meat or fish as I disliked (yes I was the fussy eater of the family!). As nearly every meal was meat & veg I just ate veg. In my early twenties I started eating meat and I caught chicken pox off my nephew!!

I think one of the problems is they're not even sure it is a virus that triggers it. After I was diagnosed I wondered why I'd got it and the research listed in Balance was going on about a strain of the Coxsackie B virus being implicated. That was over 30 years ago and they're still going on about it now. i.e. they don't really know. 🙄 The human body - still lots to learn.