Does a vegan diet help a diabetic?

Going vegan or vegetarian is a good way to manage Type II diabetes by keeping your weight down. Research. You may want to try a regular vegetarian diet at first, until you get the hang of balancing the nutritional requirements, and then ease into a vegan diet.

I have heard many reviews about diabetics going on a raw food diet and they haven’t had to take insulin in years. If you would like some sources I would be happy to find them for you. If you don’t want to go completely raw going vegetarian or vegan is a good way to manage your diabetes.

Besides going through google, whats the difference between a Vegan and Vegetarian diet?

@Moegitto a vegan will eat no animal products what so ever including milk, eggs, jello (bone marrow), or anything else that comes from an animal. Vegetarians tend to be more flexable with their diet staying away from meat products, and sometimes eggs and milk. Some vegetarians will still eat things containing animals products such as jello or jelly beans. Vegetarians would eat cookies and cake where as vegans would not because it contains milk and eggs. Although vegan do have alternatives for making baked goods.

Here’s some info from the Mayo Health Clinic.

“Changing to a vegetarian diet probably won’t cure your diabetes. But it may offer some benefits over a nonvegetarian diet — such as helping to better control your weight, reducing your risk of some diabetes-associated complications and possibly even making your body more responsive to insulin. ”

There are lots of things that are vegetarian that would be bad for a diabetic. Sugar, for example, is vegetarian (and sometimes even vegan) but you clearly should not eat all that much of it. Waffles with syrup can be vegan, but again, bad idea. So, just like people who are not vegetarian or vegan, it still all depends on what you eat.

I’m borderline or “pre” diabetic (insulin resistant) and my doc prefers me eating bacon and eggs (lots of protein) for breakfast, rather than a whole wheat English muffin. Go figure.

I avoid sugar all together, even though I’m more of a carb allergic diabetic. I can eat a small bag of gummy lifesavers no problem, but I was REALLY disappointed when eating a subway sandwich blew my A1C to above 250. That took some mental training to break from, thinking sugar was the only enemy. That’s why I’m thinking of going Vegan/tarian, because I already don’t eat eggs (yuck), I don’t drink milk (lactose intolerant), and I eat vegetables like some people eat pizza. Did I mention I love vegetables?

Vegetables are awesome, I agree, but some of them have sugar content that might be too high for diabetics. I know my diabetic aunt was forbidden from eating peas and carrots for a long time. While I don’t mean to dispense medical advice, my doc tells me that eating a protein with my carbs will slow down the digestion while the system works to break everything down, slowing the blood sugar rush that comes from the carbs. If you go vegan and do not eat meat or eggs or cheese, the most common way to get protein is to mix a grain and a legume (like beans and rice, or peanut butter on bread), but that can carb you up faster than some people think with all that grain in there. That would be my worry about a vegan diabetic diet.

So I guess I might need to go towards Vegetarian. I do agree, protein is a concern. And I also know about having to take multi-vitamins for vitamins, minerals, and such (like B12). Would Soy or Rice milk be a good protein source?

Be careful about fruit sugars too. No OJ.
I figured out i like sauteed cabbage…...very good.
Meat is not bad…...for diabetics. I am low carb oriented.

@jazmina88 I love cabbage, sauteed, fried, boiled, it cleans me out too. I’m not really too fruit experienced, so I mostly stick to apples, pears, and watermelons. I DEFINITELY avoid pineapple, kiwi, grapes, and cherries.

It’s not soo much of meat being a problem, but it’s all about controlling chloresterol and fat intake.

I have not read the above answers. Being a vegan has nothing to do with whether you eat tons of carbs, so it depends specifically on the food actually consumed by the individual. I do think being healthier overall helps with diabetes, and a healthy vegan diet could have very postive impact in my opinion. But, a poor vegan diet would not help diabetes, or health in general. Eating pasta every, day morning, noon, and night can be vegan.

Diabetics are at risk for heart disease, and I believe a balanced vegan diet is probably one of the best diets for high cholesterol, another factor that contributes to heart disease.

I see your answer just above mine, and if your cholesterol is high, not consuming cholesterol can have huge effects. My cholesterol is 270 typically when I eat whatever I want. If I cut out egg yolks and sweets, within a month it is 225. If I cut my cholesterol intake to under 50 mg a day, in a couple of weeks, I go down to around 215. This has been consistent in my life since I was 16 and am I 43. I was very thin as a teen, average weight through my 20’s, and now could lose 15 pounds. I am sure if I went vegan I would probably finally get down into a normal range.

Unfortunately there seems to be new information on vitamin k2 playing a significant role in keeping calcium from settling in soft tissues and arteries, which causes plaque, narrows and stiffens arteries, and in America the best source is egg yolks. I recently bought some vitamin k2 pills, who knows for sure if it is helping? Diet science and information changes every day, but I do know for sure what my blood tests say, and how my body reacts to cholesterol intake.

You would need to avoid and limit carbohydrates, which means that getting enough to eat could be difficult.

I wouldn’t call soy or rice milk a very good protein source. Here’s one example of a soy milk nutrition label. One thing about these “milks” is that they’re often more heavily sweetened than people think, just to make them palatable. This one has 8 grams of protein and 15 grams of carbs in a serving (131 calories). Rice milk is mostly a source of carbs, with this serving of rice milk having 24.8 grams of carbs and only 0.4 grams of protein for 120 calories.

If eating lean meat is an option for you, have you considered something like the South Beach menu? It’s basically lean meats and lots of vegetables, skipping thinks like potatoes and pasta. My doc wants me to eat more like that.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Soy-Slender-Vanilla-Soy-Milk-32-fl-oz/10322041

I’ve had that one before (but in chocolate), pretty much a low calorie drink. The only thing about eating lean meats is that around here (military stationed in the south) lean meats cost as much as or more than protein powder.

@Moegitto If you decide to use protein powders, and not go strict vegan, watch the whey protein powders, some have a lot of cholesterol. Some are as high as 75 mg in a recommended portion, some as low as 15 mg.

If you go vegan, legumes, as mentioned above, are great sources of protein (beans like black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, not grean beans, and peanuts). Whole grains help you get complete protein. Way back when nutritionists recommended having to eat a legume and grain together in the same meal, but I think now you just should get it all in during the day. You can have toast in the morning, and a three bean salad at lunch, and be ok.

I really like Morning Star frozen veggie patties, the original one that is not flavored to be a like a burger or mushroom, or whatever other flavors they have. Each patty has 9 grams of protein I think. Their soy chicken patty is good also in my opinion.

Here is a list of vegetarian foods and protein content.

A whole foods diet would help most.

@JLeslie Now you got me thinking about a toast and low sugar jelly sandwich…mmmmmmm!!!!

Plain soy milk ( no sugar , no flavor ) is a very good source of protien for diebetic vegans. I do not know much about sugars in natural fruit and how they would harm a diebetic. Any ideas?

@jbijly it’s not so much as the sugar (fructose) in fruit itself, but the amount of sugar. An apple has FAAAAAAAAAAAAR less sugar than a serving of pineapple. Too much sugar is bad for us…

“Some vegetarians will still eat things containing animals products such as jello or jelly beans.”
Those folks are not vegetarians. They might be otherwise vegetarian or almost vegetarian.

Vegetarians don’t eat anything that involves the death of any animal (e.g. no gelatin), they don’t eat anything that had a mother, or a face.
Vegans don’t eat anything that involves exploiting any animal in any way.

What kind of diabetes do you have?

I am type 1, and while I am vegetarian, I have decided it would be too limiting and possibly dangerous for me to be a vegan. Being vegan AND type 1 seriously limits your eating options any time you are not cooking for yourself. And going veg sure didn’t cure my diabetes, LOL.