WHY MY DAD'S STORY LED ME ON A CRUSADE TO HELP PEOPLE REVERSE THEIR TYPE 2 DIABETES

WHY MY DAD'S STORY LED ME ON A CRUSADE TO HELP PEOPLE REVERSE THEIR TYPE 2 DIABETES
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A daily reality for many people.
A daily reality for many people.

I got into health and nutrition after treating my own serious illnesses through changes in my nutrition. Though I had always followed a healthy diet, there were certain foods that I was eating that were causing major health problems and when I eliminated those foods, my long-term illnesses such as arthritis, fibromyalgia and asthma went away. You can read my story here:

The reversal of these illnesses by simply changing my diet was nothing short of amazing and so I wanted to know more and thus started to study health and nutrition as well as doing many personal development courses along the way. One of the reasons I was so passionate about wanting to know more about health and nutrition, was that I wanted to help my own father who had suffered from Type 2 Diabetes from the time he was in his late thirties. Type 2 Diabetes which is on the increase in all western societies and accounts for approximately 85 – 90% of all diagnosed diabetes cases, occurs when the pancreas produces insulin which goes unrecognised by the body. It also occurs when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin (Reduced Insulin Production) or when the insulin does not work effectively in the body (Insulin Resistance). Many people mistakenly think that Diabetes is a disease of the blood but it is in fact a disorder of insulin and leptin signalling that evolves over a long period of time from Pre-diabetic to Type 2 Diabetes.

By the time that I got into health and nutrition, my father’s health had severely declined but I believed that I could help him reverse his Diabetes by changing his diet and lifestyle. I had watched firsthand how the medication for Type 2 Diabetes had wrecked my father’s life. As I write this, my father weighs 56kg! Now some of you might say, wow, you wouldn’t mind being 56kg but my father is well over six feet tall! So you can see, this is not a healthy weight. Sadly the medication that he has been put on to control his diabetes has affected so many other essential organs in his body and I cry with frustration, that he didn’t have a loving and helpful medical practitioner who said to him initially, “Hey, let’s look at your diet and lifestyle and see what we can do to reverse this?” If they had, my Dad would be the loving and dynamic man who I remember from my youth and not the frail, anxious man he has now become who suffers with early stage dementia.

Sadly my father bought into the myth that Type 2 Diabetes can not be reversed and thus went along with his Doctor’s recommendations which basically where to take his medication and when he did overindulge in foods that sent his blood glucose levels spiking, that he should double-up on medication!!! Whilst I have successfully reversed Type 2 Diabetes or dramatically reduced their medication in all clients who have seen me for this preventable and treatable condition, I have sadly been unable to help my father as he only trusts mainstream doctors and believes that if the role of diet was so important, that his doctors would have told him this in the first place! Mind you, the last time he was in hospital and the nurse took a reading and found his blood sugar levels were 19.8, she returned ten minutes later with both a bottle of orange juice and a cheese sandwich made on white processed bread. When I tried to tell the nurse that my Dad couldn’t have either of them, her response was that it was alright as the orange contained no added sugar! She obviously doesn’t understand that fructose is a type of sugar and one of the driving forces behind the spike in diabetes and that fructose leads to insulin resistance, increases uric acid which causes inflammation, kidney disease, metabolic syndrome and a fatty liver. Needless to say, my Dad drank the orange juice and ate the sandwich because he believed the nurse.

After my Dad’s latest stint in hospital, a hospital dietician visited him to look at his diet. Can you believe that she has actually recommended that my father ADD sugar to his cereal and states that “sugar gives energy”? She recommended a fruit smoothie every day for morning tea and provided the recipe which contains a TIN OF FRUIT (why can't my Dad use whole fruit and vegetables) PLUS 2 scoops of ice-cream.She then recommended a flavoured milk for an afternoon snack containing flavoured syrup (high in sugar) AND ANOTHER 2 scoops of ice-cream. Let’s add all that sugar to the pudding recommended for dinner plus the daily Sustagen which is unbelievably high in sugar, and what hope does my dad have? As if this wasn't criminal negligence already, the suggested beverages my father should have during the day, includes SOFT DRINK (pop sodas) AND cordial! Here in Australia, when a person knowingly harms another person, they can be charged with assault or attempted manslaughter. There is no such recourse for me to do anything about what this trained and registered dietician is doing to my father’s health and no doubt to many other patients as well.

What if we were to turn the current model for treating Type 2 Diabetes on its head and seriously looked at the role of nutrition and lifestyle in managing it?

What if medication was a last resort? Wow, wouldn’t that be wonderful! When I look at so many “official” websites on the management and treatment of Type 2 Diabetes, they all perpetuate the myth that it can’t be reversed. Well, how can I have clients who have made the decision to completely quit their medication because they no longer have any of the symptoms of the disorder by simply changing their diet and addressing some lifestyle issues? Those clients who haven’t yet quit their medication, have significantly reduced their medication under medical supervision and even had their doctors tell them that whatever they are doing, to keep doing because it is working! I even had one client who came to me six months ago in desperation as she had been told that particular day that she had to go on insulin injections as she was not managing her Type 2 Diabetes with the medication. Not only did she not go on insulin, she has reduced her medication to a third, lost significant weight and stopped her gout medication all through diet and lifestyle changes!

The treatment of managing and reversing Diabetes Type 2 depends on each individual and there is no one plan that will suit everyone. But simply put, people with this preventable and reversible disorder, need to eat a diet that is based on whole foods with approximately 70% of their food intake coming from vegetables, 20% from good quality proteins such as seeds, nuts, fish and lean meats and 10% from good quality fats such as avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, macadamia oil and hemp seed oil.

If you want to know more about how I can help you reverse your Diabetes Type 2, then please head over here: http://www.mykitchenheals.com.au/integrative-nutrition-health-and-wellness-coaching/

You might also like to check out my 12-Day Detox For Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes and see first-hand for yourself how quickly you can take control of your health and see improvements in your blood glucose levels.

You might also like to consider my DIY program “28 Day Transformation To Better Health” and learn how simple changes really can transform your health!

Ann Stewart

Certified Integrative Nutrition and Wellness Coach

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