Customer Reviews

Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes without Drugs

5 star:		(83)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Almost a year ago I was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 64. I thought that I would escape its impact through a relatively reasonable lifestyle even though my father died of it at age 68 after having it for 25 years. The diagnosis hit me like a brick...there was no way I was going to suffer its possible diverse ramifications or food exchanges like my father endured.
A trip to the bookstore somehow allowed me to find this fantastic information. My A1C was 7.3 and glucose was at 183 when tested and after a week of reading the book carefully and spending a few weeks coming up to speed at the grocery store both my wife and I became vegan.
The results have been nothing short of astounding. Even the family doctor who was prepared to start me on a drug regimen is totally amazed as I progressively lost weight, lowered LDL and triglicerides and raised HDL. I have lost 25#, the A1C is now at 5.9 and feel better than I have since college age. I found everything he predicted to be the truth (which as we all know in todays' world is in short supply. We will continue to develop our cooking skills and look forward to even more success.

MAKE THIS LIFE ALL IT CAN BE FOR YOU AND YOUR FAMILY...THERE IS A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM AND IT IS SO SIMPLE.

Great Program with scientific evidence that will help most all diabetics. Have been on this program for 5 weeks. Within the first week my blood glucose levels dropped 15-20 points. In the last four weeks I have maintained within 80-110 on my morning checks. Have used many of the recipes and amazingly am not hungry at all. I have eliminated the nightly dosage of Metformin. My goal is to eliminate all medications. The American Diabetes Association should rethink their diet plans.

The reviewers who blame the author for not mentioning exercising in his book are absolutely wrong. Of course exercising is good for one's overall health but it is completely outside of the scope of this book. The author specifically talks about ways of reversing diabetes with a proper diet instead of using drugs. There is a whole range of other positive things that you can do to improve your overall health but this book is not an encyclopedia of natural health but a program for reversing diabetes.

And what an interesting and effective program that is! This is a book about a great healthy nutritional plan not necessarily for diabetics only. It is a surprisingly easy plan to follow as it never makes you hungry but you will end up with a lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol level, and also lower body weight. The recipes are tasty and they don't result in the feeling of meat deprivation, which is a good prerequisite for keep the diet for a long term, hopefully for life...

Dr. Barnard in a respectable American scientist. His book is well researched and his system is scientifically proven to bring good results. Yet as the same time, the book is free of doctor's jargon and is easy to read.

But Dr. Barnard is not alone in his approach to treating diabetes. In the book Cure th e Incurable, a renowned Russian scientist writes the following in the chapter about diabetes:

"Thirty or forty years ago, when we didn't have today's abundance of highly processed refined food, deli products, (...) diabetes was a rare disease. People who got it were usually advanced in years and their pancreas wasn't efficient any longer due to old age. (...) We know that our digestive system, if fed natural non-processed food, can produce all hormones necessary for our body. It means that we can get rid of diabetes by putting some efforts into our diet..."

For those who would like to read more about not only the ways of treating diabetes but also other so called "incurable" diseases, and for ways of keeping the body fit and healthy in a natural way, in addition to above mentioned book I also suggest reading Live 150 - Your Body Maintenance Handbook.

Dr. Barnard's program for reversing diabetes is based on Dr. David Jenkins portfolio diet, which is a high-fiber vegan diet. It's a completely vegan diet with no meat, eggs, or dairy products, although in Dr. Jenkins original study they allowed a small amount of butter. The result of the one-month study showed the portfolio diet to be as effective as low dose statin drugs for lowering LDL cholesterol.
This diet is fine for a diabetic who's life depends on it, but for the average reader who is just trying to lose weight or control his or her cholesterol it may be too strict to follow for a long period of time. Not mentioned in the book, but in a survey only 40% of the portfolio diet participants found the diet acceptable. Dr. Barnard does not even allow low-fat fish in his program to keep protein intake low. A low protein diet may not be beneficial for children or athletes who have higher protein requirements. The book gives a lot of good advice, but is lacking in detail. For example, he recommends the addition of a multivitamin with B-12 since this is not found in a vegan diet, but he does not mention the best form of B-12 (methylcobalamin). He recommends fruit and vegetables with a low glycemic index, but does not take into consideration glycemic load. He recommends cinnamon for lowering blood sugar, but does not tell you it works by slowing digestion and so it's most effective taken shortly before or with a meal. After reading that the diet did not allow fish, I thought for sure that somewhere in the book he would recommend fish oil as a source of omega-3s. To my surprise he recommends not taking fish oil. While flax seed is a great source of ALA, it does not contain EPA or DHA like the omega-3s in fish oil. Our body can convert ALA to EPA if an enzyme called delta-6-desaturase is present, but this enzyme is inhibited in diabetes. There is not much information on antioxidants and no mention of natural treatments for lowering cholesterol, such as niacin or red yeast rice extract.

I first read of this diet last April. I have been a Type II Diabetic, morbidly obese (324lbs-6'3"), morning sugars ~200, on 30u of NPH, 2X/day, lots of other meds and previous colon cancer surgery.
I tried this diet with a few modifications (I live alone, hate cooking and recipe following): I had small amounts of peanut butter, and occasionally fish when dining out (~1X/wk.) My weight at a July 20th doctor's appointment was 280lbs(down 46lbs/4mos)! I have greatly reduced my insulin injections(102 blood sugar this AM) and even had a few minor hypoglycemic episodes which I was ready for. I am aiming for 190lbs by next summer. My biggest surprises: 1.) I love oatmeal, rye and pumpernickle and veggie baked beans!
2.) An occasional beer shows no adverse effects
3.) I can't believe that pasta fits in so well with no adverse effects
4.) I have very little hunger between meals.
5.) My grocery bill is down ~ $200/mo.; no dairy, no meat, no fish.
Why is there so little publicity given to this diet when so many other (questionable) methods are so often hyped?

We bought this book back in Feb. 2010. My father has been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes twenty years ago. About 4 years ago he got lymphoma, two different types. After going through treatments for the cancer, the diabetes went completely out of control. His fasting blood sugars were 230-250 range. He was on Metformin and Glyburide. Finally his doctor said Insulin would be next, and someone suggested this book. He failed Atkin's. Not sure if it was a compliance issue or if the diabetes was too far gone.
It took three weeks to see any difference in his fasting blood sugars. He took his blood sugar at least four times a day. After three weeks, he tested one morning and his blood sugar, fasting, had finally dropped to 150's. A month later 120's. At that time, his day time blood sugars were 150 to 200.
Three months out, his fasting blood sugars dropped to the 120s. His day time sugars no longer went past 160, 170.
Six months out, his fasting is 95-100. His daytime 120-140. The other day, he had a fasting blood sugar of 70.
He has been off Metformin since the fourth month. His glyburide has been cut to half pill twice a day. His attending is considering cutting that one altogether. When I sit down and review his book, I see a downward trend in the blood sugar, from the third week on. It just slowly came into normal range.
He eats everything that the book allows:
Sweet potatoes, brown rice, beans. Fruit. He makes his own bread with whole wheat flour. He oatmeal everyday. He puts raisins in his bread and eats it toasted with no butter. He did not appear to be over weight when he started but he has lost about 15 pounds.
This diet has really been a life saver. If you are dealing with diabetes, give this an honest chance. Very easy to follow and you will not be hungry.

I stuck to this diet as posed in the book for 4 months. I did lose weight, in fact I did lose about 30 pounds and then after about 3 months no more weight loss.

The problem with me is that yes my fasting blood sugar average did go down (from 270 to about 240) but that after each meal of allowed foods it would go sky high well over 300. I cheated twice on the diet, one night I had my mom's fried chicken and mashed potatoes and green beans...the other night I got a hamburger and french fries. But those were the only 2 times I cheated on this diet. Other diets I would cheat all the time, so you do feel more satisfied on this diet. Pizza without cheese and just vegies is actually pretty good! Mostly I had frozen steamed vegies, beans and a little rice for my meals, with breakfast being shredded mini wheat (I cannot stand oatmeal and that is advocated for breakfast in this diet) and blueberries and soymilk. I did lose the weight but my blood sugar drop was unsatisfactory.

Last week I went and got Dr Bernsteins Diabetes Solution book. In about 8 days, I lost another 4 pounds and my blood sugar this morning was 140. Its dropped over a hundred points in one week. It may be another alternative for other diabetics.

This diet may work well with others, I gave it a good shot and I did lose weight but I have had better results on Dr Bernstein's diet and treatment.

This book will change your life if you follow it and really want to get and have your diabetes under control and maybe reverse it. We haven't got that far yet. My husband has been following the program for 1 1/2 months. He's had type 2 diabetes for 6 years and been insilin dependant for 5 of the 6 years. He told his Dr and Endocrinologist from day 1 that this was to hard for him to deal with, that he couldn't do it, couldn't count carbs, etc. etc. he worked a rotating shift schedule so he'd always be off balance. This was an excuse, he was in denial. His A1C was never under '12' and the highest was 13.5 His daily blood sugars were always close to 300 and sometime over 400! The man felt miserable all the time. When he finaly hit rock bottom. He saw Dr. Barnard's program on PBS about 2 months ago, bought his book and started following it. After only 2 weeks following the book I'm so happy to tell you his blood sugar was down below 200 on a regular basis. It's been about 6 weeks now, his blood sugars are around 120, he feels so much better, like night and day. Weekly faxes in a glucose log to his doctor who's reduced the amount of insulin he needs twice already and he's made the decision to go Vegan. I thought it could never happen to a man who every Tuesday ate Popeye's Fried Chicken,took left overs to work for a few days. Ate Ice Cream every night, snacked on Potato Chips daily!! Anything he shouldn't eat he did. He was commiting suicide by diet slowly over the years. Since reading this book and following the program he's eating better everyday & everyday he eat's better he feels better and doesn't crave or have any interest or miss any of the old food he use to put in his body. If this stubborn hard headed man can make this much of a change I think anyone can, if they want to. He now cuts and prepares all the veg's he's going to eat and is finding enjoyment in it. Never thought I'd see the day from a man that never set foot in the kitchen before except to go to the frig! Dr. Barnard's Program was a Godsend.

The title of this review will I hope keep the public interested in this book. It is in part a response to the Northern CA writer who warns you to note Dr. Barnard's background with PETA. He may or may not have an agenda within his book, but don't throw the baby out with the bath water. What he did for me was confirm something I uttered over twenty years ago, when I was first struggling with my new diagnosis. I found that I had more trouble with my blood sugars when I ate at the Chinese restaurant than I did when I ate sweets. I assumed it was the fat content of my favorite foods. His information regarding cells and keyholes is right on. I have been on his program for three weeks and am excited to feel so great again. I was taught by my first diabetes doctor that type II diabetes is hereditary and will show eventually if you live long enough, if you have inherited it. Age, hormones, and weight are the factors that make for high sugars. He doesn't talk about the age factor and that does leave me with more questions. We all need to understand ourselves and take part in our own care.

As an RN I find this information easy for the lay person to understand and apply. My brother has used a lot of this information and his diabetes is very controlled (off medication) and he has no other diabetic related problems. This is a must read for all diabetes and their families. The large print book is so helpful!