Which is lesser of the two evils?

[Somtam]

My insulin-dependent diabetic mother has been kind of fooling around with raw for a couple of months. She felt great and had lots of energy when she stuck with raw, but she fell off the wagon a lot. The problem is that when she eats fruits, her blood sugar goes through the roof and she needs to up her insulin which is what neither she nor her doctor is happy about. I feel for her, because she really has the desire to better her health, but she's human just like us and slips up quite a bit. She was on a low-carb diet for three years. She lost a lot of weight and got down to about 5 pounds over her ideal weight. Her blood sugar was also under control. I was the one who talked her out of continuing her low-carb, high-protein diet.

Here's the thing. The raw lifestyle is already, and I think a lot of us here agree, difficult to maintain. If you have to cut down, waaaay down, on fresh fruits, it would be tremendously difficult to be raw. At least, that's the case for me. My mom is struggling both physically and psychologically. Physically, she has to cut down on fruits, meaning, on raw, her diet would consist of only raw veggies and nuts. Psychologically, she kept wanting to go back to low-carb, because historically that's been the ONLY diet that has helped her control her diabetes. When you have these two things going on, staying raw is really hard.

So she came up with these options:
1. She would be completely raw on weekdays. On weekends, she'd eat lean meat and raw veggies and small amount of fruit.
or
2. She'd go high raw, meaning she'd still eat cooked whole grains, tofu, and other cooked vegan stuff. Little to no fruit.

She said she could do either one of these options for a long period of time. That's better than trying to go raw for 3 days then going on a binge for 2, feeling guity, trying to restart raw, then bingeing again, etc.

Which, in your opinion, is less evil? Thanks.

[Conscious Midwife]

I say given the options

go for very high raw vegan

skip the animal products altogehter

Monitor serving sizes of fruit and encourage her to graze on high glycemic index foods, as opposed to eating full servings at once.

[luckitri]

No answers for you. My dh is diabetic and craves red meat. Will not eat fish or fowl. His sugar often prevents him from eating fruit as well. Just got an advertisement to get rid of type II diabetes in 25 days that someone posted here as well. (Will come back and link)

I am very ill myself for a long time so I have been unable to entice dh with raw foods as much as would like. I did however start making flax crackers last week and they are a wonderful thing! Much better for him than other evening couch potato snack foods. They are also very easy to make and you can flavor them different ways.

http://www.truthpublishing.com/HaltDiabetes.html

the link (grin)

[Damzlfly]

read the China Study and eliminate all animal products...definitely vegan, highest raw possible. My $0.02

[juliebove]

Why do you assume it would be difficult to do a raw diet with no fruit? And when I say fruit, I mean sweet fruit. I am one who does not like fruit and most of the time I do not eat any at all. I do grow apples, pears, cherries and strawberries. They were there when I bought the house. They're like freebies to me in terms of money, so in season I might eat them sparingly just so less of them go to waste. I am a diabetic and I don't use insulin.

I may be the odd one. It would seem most people not only like fruit but LOVE fruit. That's just not me. I don't care for sweets too much either.

You say your mother uses insulin but I presume she must be type 2 for her Dr. to be concerned with her insulin use? People with type 1 generally do not have to worry about hyperinsulinimia and can eat a fairly normal diet in terms of carbs, injecting to cover what they have eaten.

[luna99]

I'm going to go against the grain (so to speak) here and go with option one:

"She would be completely raw on weekdays. On weekends, she'd eat lean meat and raw veggies and small amount of fruit."

the reason I'm choosing this is I think I remember Matt Monarch saying once that if you had to choose only one food group to eliminate from your diet it should be starches first... and don't starches eventually turn to sugars anyway in the body, and that's exactly what a diabetic doesn't need.

I know this board and alissa's way is a VEGAN raw food diet.. and I DO love animals.. but I personally don't really have a problem with eating fish or even chicken once in a while. I don't do it right now because I'm practicing eating a 100% raw food diet at the moment but in the future if I ever decide to be more flexible with myself I would probably incorporate lean meats back into my diet.

Now, I will admit that I have not read up much on the benefits/drawbacks on eating meat...

I do know some of the various arguements... how the human digestive track is shorter than that of carnivores hence we shouldn't be eating meat, etc..etc.

but this is just my opinion on the topic. If anyone wants to fill me in on why meat is SOOO BAD for our bodies... I"m more than willing to listen.

My father is also diabetic and I've been talking to him about raw foods too and he always says the same thing "well, I probably shouldn't eat too much fruit". I know fruit sugars are different than processed sugars too, so sometimes I think that maybe it would be ok for him to eat some fruits....

I'd love to hear more about this topic and what people's opinions are...

me personally, at this time, if that was my father.. I"d tell him to do raw during the week and lean meats on the weekends.

let us (me!) know what decision you and your mother make and how it works for her, then I can tell my dad!! It's great that your mother is so willing to take care of her own health... my dad isn't really in that same boat and I have a long way to go to convince him to start eating more healthy!

[chilove]

Hi there,

I can't imagine being a raw foodist without unlimited amounts of delicious sweet ripe fruit! It is the best thing about being raw! :-)

Your mom can be raw and vegan and eat lots of fruit IF she is willing to give up fat. It is actually the fat in the bloodstream that slows down the utilization of the sugar by the cells, causing blood sugar issues. Check out Dr. Grahams FAQ section at www.foodnsport.com and have your mom order his book, 80/10/10.

Wishing you all the best,

Audrey
www.rawhealing.com

[tvillemom]

I think I kinda agree with luna99....I think stay 100% raw, low-glycemic as much as possible, and stay away from all the cooked vegan options because I think they possibly raise blood sugar. When I think of my old favorite cooked vegan foods, I think of all the grains...and those are high-glycemic if I remember. I also think eventually, your mom may choose just to cut out the meat altogether....I would encourage her to cut it out eventually, but baby steps, and she may feel better right now, coming from a high protein diet, to at least know she can have some meat on the weekend. Does that make sense? Good luck.
Wendi

[EastCoastie]

I've read in a number of places (Dr. Robert Young's pH Miracle or ph Miracle for Diabetes one of them) that it's when people eat cooked that the blood sugar spikes and that the body processes food differently if it's cooked versus if it's raw. I believe Dr. Cousens also refers to this, as well as Storm & Jinjee (thegardendiet.com)

Dr. Young has documented cases of helping people get over their diabetes with a limited cooked vegan approach. I think if she's going to eat cooked she definitely should not eat fruit with anything else and should allow proper digestion time when eating fruit to avoid blood sugar spikes. The only exception on eating fruit with anything else would be in the instance of doing green smoothies.

[luna99]

bump.

I'd just like to see if anyone else has anymore opinions on this topic. thanks. :)