The great thing about the foods that can reverse diabetes is that the same foods that reverse diabetes also can prevent and cure heart disease, auto-immune conditions, and most of the chronic diseases that have become so common, including type 2 diabetes.
Medical doctors who are leading experts in nutrition, including Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Terry Shintani, Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, Jr., Dr. Michael, Dr. Michael Klaper, Dr. Alan Goldhamer, Dr. Baxter Montgomery, Dr. Steve Lawenda, and many more leading medical doctors with expertise in nutrition, agree that the foods that can reverse diabetes (type 2) are whole food plant-based foods. These board-certified medical doctors collectively have many decades of experience helping their patients reverse type 2 diabetes, heart disease, auto-immune conditions and other diseases and illnesses.
Learn more about these medical doctors who also are leading experts in nutrition here.
Many of these board-certified medical doctors also are best-selling authors, whose books discuss the medical studies, their own personal experience helping patients reverse type 2 diabetes in their medical practices, as well as easy to follow guidance to help you choose whole food plant-based nutrition — the foods that reverse diabetes (type 2).
There is some variation among these medical doctors in terms of which varieties of whole food plant-based foods they emphasize for overall health as well as specifically foods that reverse type 2 diabetes. Following are several variations of medical-doctor-recommended whole food plant-based foods for life that can reverse diabetes (as well as prevent and reverse many other illnesses and disease.)
Dr. Neal Barnard’s Expertise on the Foods that can Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
In board-certified medical doctor Dr. Neal Barnard’s book, Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes without Drugs, you can learn everything you need to know about the disease-reversal power of whole food plant-based nutrition, which are the foods that often result in reducing/eliminating diabetes medications (under your doctor’s medical supervision, as with any diet or lifestyle change) and even reversing type 2 diabetes.
As discussed in detail in Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes without Drugs, here are some of the foods to include to reverse diabetes, as well as foods to avoid.
FOODS TO INCLUDE for Reversing Type 2 Diabetes
(From Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes)
Fruits
Eat unlimited amounts of most fruits, including fruit smoothies (dairy-free) and assorted fresh fruits.
Beans and Legumes
Eat beans, peas, lentils, low-fat tofu, unsweetened soymilk, and fat-free soy foods such as veggie burgers and other meat alternatives.
Whole Grains
Carbohydrate-rich whole grains such as oatmeal, barley, couscous, rice, rye and pumpernickel breads, and pasta.
Vegetables
Eat lots of vegetables including low-glycemic vegetables such as yams and sweet poatoes, green beans, and cauliflower.
Foods to Avoid (for Reversing Type 2 Diabetes)
(From Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes)
AVOID Animal Products – Avoid all red meat, poultry, fish, all dairy products (regular and fat-free), and eggs.
AVOID High-Glycemic Foods – Avoid foods high on the glycemic index, which increase blood sugar too rapidly. These include sugar, white or wheat bread, most cold cereals, and baking potatoes.
AVOID Added Oils (including vegetable oils and other high-fat foods.) Keep added oils to a MINIMUM (or none at all) due to the high-fat content; also keep to a MINIMUM (or not at all) oily toppings, fried foods, peanut butter, olives. Also keep avocados to a minimum (due to high-fat content).
In addition, as a practical step-by-step introduction to switching to whole food plant-based nutrition, Dr. Neal Barnard offers his online 21-Day Kickstart Program free of charge. Did we mention? Dr. Barnard’s 21-Day Kickstart Program with recipes, meal plans and guidance is FREE.
Watch the short video below to learn more.
In addition to Dr. Barnard’s FREE online 21-Day Kickstart program, anyone with type 2 diabetes (and anyone who cares about someone with type 2 diabetes) should first read Dr.Barnard’s book, Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes without Drugs, and consult with your doctor as you make these powerful changes for health so that your doctor can reduce and/or eliminate medications when and to the extent you no longer need them.
Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s Nutritarian Lifestyle and The End of Diabetes
Dr. Joel Fuhrman advocates a “nutritarian” lifestyle, (encouraging people to choose whole food plant-based foods giving priority within each group to the foods that have the most nutrients per calorie).
For type 2 diabetics, Dr. Fuhrman recommends a broad variety of green vegetables, beans, lentils and other legumes, non-starchy vegetables (including mushrooms, onions, garlic, peppers, eggplant), fresh fruits and nuts and seeds.
You can learn in detail about the foods that reverse diabetes (type 2) in Dr. Fuhrman’s book, The End of Diabetes. Dr. Fuhrman’s book The End of Diabetes should be required reading for ANYONE suffering with type 2 diabetes, as well as anyone who cares about someone who is a type 2 diabetic. (Type 1 diabetics also should read Dr. Fuhrman’s book to learn how to improve their insulin sensitivity.)
Dr. Fuhrman also offers a specific diabetes reversal program — currently under $16 — as a companion to his book, called the Transformation 20 Diabetes plan, offering “guidelines, meal plans and recipes for 20 days of Nutritarian-style eating to wipe out type 2 diabetes.” (Read Dr. Fuhrman’s book The End of Diabetes first, as his Transformation 20 Diabetes Plan is a practical step-by-step companion to make it simple to apply what you learn by reading the book).
Always consult with your doctor, as with any diet or lifestyle change, especially since as you begin eating the way Dr. Fuhrman recommends, your doctor may need to reduce your diabetes medications/insulin very soon, within a few weeks or even in a few days.
Other medical doctors who advocate whole food plant-based foods for preventing and reversing disease including type 2 diabetes, may include/allow more starchy vegetables on the menu, for example, Dr. John McDougall’s nutrition program, available free online.
Dr. John McDougall: More than 35 Years of Experience Helping People Reverse Type 2 Diabetes
Dr. McDougall advocates a whole food plant based diet to replace the western diet (aka S.A.D. standard American diet) that most people eat and which causes so much suffering, illness and disease. The whole food plant-based diet that Dr. McDougall advocates includes plenty of filling, delicious starch-based vegetables, as well as including a broad variety of additional nutrient-rich vegetables and fruit.
Listen to Dr. McDougall’s description of the foods that reverse diabetes in this short (2 minutes) video:
In the video, Dr. McDougall emphasizes that,
By definition, type 2 diabetics are ALWAYS curable, by fixing the problem: the western diet. Get rid of it. Substitute it for a starch-based diet with the addition of fruits and vegetables. Lose the associated excess weight, the obesity, and you will be CURED. That’s what the truth is. That’s what the science says, and my more than 35 years of experience as a medical doctor shows that to be true.”
Dr. McDougall notes further that “type 2 diabetes is a dietary disease by definition. so why couldn’t you fix it? YOU CAN.”
You lose the weight, eat a healthy diet, and it goes away, and you get off the pills, and that is, of course, what you want. But, people aren’t hearing that. They are hearing that you need to take one pill after another pill, and then you have to go on insulin shots. These pills make you sick, as a matter of fact they make you even fatter, your diabetes gets worse and you feel lost. And the problem is continuing. Expect, within the next 30 years, that 30% of the population in Western countries will suffer from type 2 diabetes. You don’t have to be one of them!” – Dr. John McDougall, McDougall’s Moments: Cure Type 2 Diabetes without Pills video (watch above).
Dr. McDougall is often quoted for this pithy and to-the-point observation about what causes type 2 diabetes (as well as heart disease and so many other illnesses and disease): “It’s the food!”
Accordingly, it’s also the food that can reverse type 2 diabetes, specifically, an abundance of delicious whole food plant-based foods.
You can sign up FREE online for Dr. John McDougall’s nutrition program, which includes free recipes, meal plans and guidance for weight loss and health.
The Power of Green Vegetables in Reversing Type 2 Diabetes: Eat Your Brussels Sprouts (+ a Recipe to make them DELICIOUS!)
Read below about the foods that reversed the type 2 diabetes of an engineer and former type-2-diabetic who first learned he had type 2 diabetes when he came out of a diabetic coma at the hospital and was told he would need to have both of his legs removed. He was in his early 40s.
He did not go through with any amputations, and in a week’s time brought his blood sugar down to healthy normal range upon his return from the hospital, all thanks to the foods his mother made for him to help him reverse his type 2 diabetes.
He has now been free of diabetes for [14+ years], off the diabetes drugs, off the insulin, all thanks to changing his food choices for life (and for his health for life).
(Scroll down to read more about his type 2 diabetes reversal success story – thanks to his mother preparing for him the kinds of foods that can quickly and easily reverse diabetes.)
Inspirational Diabetes Reversal Success Stories: Watch the Documentary films that Show How the Right Foods can Reverse Diabetes
For anyone who wants to learn about the foods that reverse diabetes, read about (here at ReverseDiabetes2.com) — and watch — the inspirational documentaries that show the real life success stories and diabetes reversal testimonials of other people who have reversed their type 2 diabetes by switching to whole food plant-based nutrition for life.
Here at ReverseDiabetes2.com we are documenting together in one easy-to-find place the stories of people have been able to reduce and then get off their diabetes medications and insulin (under their doctors’ close supervision) by switching to whole food plant based nutrition.
Read their stories, watch the documentaries and interview videos in which you can see these people transform their health over the course of the documentary.
You can then see and hear their stories with your own eyes and ears, and decide for yourself if you would like to get the same results as all of these people around the country (and around the world) who have discovered the power of whole food plant based nutrition for life to reverse disease, including type 2 diabetes.
One of the most powerful testimonials of how food can quickly reverse type 2 diabetes is the success story of DeWayne McCulley, an engineer and former type 2 diabetic who is the author of the book, Death to Diabetes.
Look for our article about DeWayne McCulley’s journey in the coming days; in the meantime, for anyone looking to learn about the foods that reverse diabetes, it’s important to include at least a brief synopsis here because Mr. McCulley’s story is so instructive and powerful.
More than a decade ago, when DeWayne McCulley was an engineer with Xerox (and in his early 40’s), he awoke one morning with a strange feeling of numbness, as if his limbs had fallen asleep, but worse. His situation quickly became more dire, as he struggled with immobility, haziness and mental fog, and a strong desire to go to sleep, when a voice in his head alerted him, “If you go to sleep, you will not wake up.” Fortunately he was able to call 911. He ended up in a diabetic coma, in the hospital. Previously he had not even known that he was a type 2 diabetic.
DeWayne has described how strange it felt to wake up from the diabetic coma, to find a doctor there, explaining to him that now the doctors would need to remove DeWayne’s legs. In his foggy state having just come back from a coma, DeWayne thought the doctor was saying that they would need to MOVE his legs. The doctor reiterated that they would need to REMOVE both of his legs. DeWayne has described the (surreal and absurd) moment his doctor started talking about how, fortunately, he would be able to save $250 . . . (and DeWayne in his groggy state wondered out loud if the doctor meant $250 per leg, or $250 for both legs). DeWayne’s adult daughter who was there with her father at the hospital told the doctor that they would not be removing her father’s legs.
Even with maximum dosages of diabetes medications and insulin, the doctors at the hospital did not succeed in bringing DeWayne’s blood sugar down further (reduced from 1337 down to 400 with drugs and insulin). They determined there was nothing more they could do so they sent him home (with blood sugar over 400 and a very high A1C while on the maximum doses of drugs and 4 four insulin shots a day).
What happened next may seem miraculous, and it is, except that it’s also another predictable outcome in line with Dr. McDougall’s maxim, “It’s the food!”
DeWayne’s mother and sister came to see him and help take care of him upon his return home from the hospital. DeWayne has described how his mother went into his kitchen and expressed her disappointment that he was not eating the way she had taught him to eat. She had him get rid of all of the frozen pizzas, the processed foods, the pies, everything unhealthy. And instead she replaced his S.A.D. standard American foods/western diet with green vegetables: specifically, BRUSSELS SPROUTS, as well as spinach and broccoli, to turn DeWayne’s health around. (He notes that, at the time, those green vegetables were NOT his favorite foods.)
DeWayne has said that the first morning, he awoke to a breakfast of . . . brussels sprouts … that his mother had prepared. He attempted a weak protest – but then got to eating the brussels sprouts. Listening to DeWayne recount his success story, you can easily imagine DeWayne’s strong mother and her determined mission to rescue her son’s health and his life. DeWayne had no choice but to comply – fortunately for him!
It was fortuitous that DeWayne, as an engineer who likes to scientifically track data and understand what the data shows, had set about testing his blood sugar levels frequently (6 times a day) upon his return from the hospital. He was frequently testing and tracking his blood glucose, and charting the results throughout the day, at least six times a day.
DeWayne’s engineering-minded and fastidious testing, tracking and charting of his blood glucose is why he was able to so quickly discover the stunning, seemingly miraculous direct effect that even his very first brussels sprouts-for-breakfast meal had on him.
This is why it made an immediate impression on DeWayne that day when, a few hours after eating the FIRST brussels sprouts-for-breakfast meal his mother made for him, SUDDENLY his blood sugar fell from over 400 down a hundred points or so to around 300. As his mother continued to prepare these green vegetables for him over the course of the next week (instead of the S.A.D. he had been eating previously), his blood sugar quickly continued to fall down to healthy levels.
Within a week of replacing his previous S.A.D. standard American diet with green vegetables — lots of brussels sprouts — DeWayne’s blood sugar was down to 100 — well within a healthy, normal range.
Remember, and once again consider this: At the time (a few weeks prior) when DeWayne was hospitalized and ended up in a diabetic coma, and was told that he needed to have both of his legs amputated, his blood sugar had been high as 1337!
A week or so after returning from the hospital, when he was sent home taking maximum doses of drugs and 4 daily insulin shots which still only succeeded in lowering his blood sugar to 400 at best, he began eating brussels sprouts (no added oils) for breakfast and green vegetables and healthy whole food plant-based foods to replace the S.A.D. standard American diet he had eaten previously.
Only ONE WEEK of eating brussels sprouts for breakfast and lots of green vegetables and healthy whole food plant-based foods, DeWayne’s blood sugar had dramatically fallen to a healthy, normal level, testing at 100.
As he continued to eat this way over the course of the following weeks and months his A1C levels fell to consistently perfectly healthy, low levels.
DeWayne was in contact with and under the supervision of his doctor as all of this unfolded. (Anyone who makes diet and lifestyle changes must do so under their doctor’s close supervision).
His doctor’s response was that it was just “an anomoly” – his doctor was adamant that DeWayne’s drastically lowered healthy blood sugar numbers could have NOTHING to do with the food. His doctor tested and re-tested but didn’t believe the results of the doctor’s own tests. This doctor refused to believe that type 2 diabetes could be reversed, even when seeing the reversal clearly with his own eyes through the doctor’s own testing and repeated re-testing.
Fortunately DeWayne’s training and expertise as an engineer gave him the confidence and skill to thoroughly investigate the CAUSES of this awful type 2 diabetes disease that nearly killed him, leaving him in a diabetic coma. After experiencing the seemingly miraculous reversal of his own type 2 diabetes — initially by eating brussels sprouts for breakfast, spinach and broccoli, whole food plant-based foods with no added oils — he set out on a mission to determine what causes type 2 diabetes, and to understand scientifically those causes in order to help other people REVERSE type 2 diabetes as he had.
The diabetic coma he experienced had been like a strike of lightning from out of the blue since, prior to the time he ended up nearly losing his life and in a diabetic coma in the hospital, and awoke to his doctor telling him he would need to have both legs amputated, he hadn’t even known previously that he had type 2 diabetes. He was working diligently as an engineer, living his life, in his early 40s, when BAM! Type 2 diabetes struck him with full force all of the sudden and all at once, seemingly out of the blue.
DeWayne McCulley has described how whole food plant-based foods — SPECIFICALLY, GREEN VEGETABLES, and SPECIFICALLY brussels sprouts, spinach and broccoli were the foods that helped him reverse his type 2 diabetes, quickly and easily. These were the foods that his mother prepared for him in those first weeks upon his return home from the hospital, to REPLACE the S.A.D. western diet he had previously been eating.
Moving forward, switching to a focus primarily on whole food plant-based foods for life allowed DeWayne to reverse his type 2 diabetes, and he was able to get off all of the drugs and insulin.
However his doctor, despite repeated tests over the next six months, still refused to believe the results of the doctor’s own tests, and kept telling DeWayne he should stay on the drugs and the insulin even though DeWayne’s tests showed that his blood sugar and his A1C (at 4.3) both were consistently at perfectly stellar healthy levels. Instead, DeWayne is happy to be drug-free and insulin-free and free of type 2 diabetes, thanks to switching to whole food plant-based foods (no added oils) for more than 14 years now!
Since that time DeWayne McCulley has become an expert, author, health coach and public speaker who now helps other people reverse type 2 diabetes, through his book, Death to Diabetes, as well as through his other programs, coaching, and speaking engagements.
DeWayne McCulley’s health transformation all began in one miraculous week of initial healing thanks to his mother who knew best: she innately KNEW that green vegetables, including lots of brussels sprouts (for BREAKFAST!), spinach and broccoli could help him to self-heal. She was right! These are some of the foods that reverse diabetes, along with the variety of nutrient-rich foods within the larger universe of delicious, filling, whole-foods plant-based foods. These are the foods that DeWayne McCulley continues to eat for his health for life, having long ago ditched the S.A.D. standard American diet in favor of his health and his life.
Bookmark ReverseDiabetes2.com in your website favorites, and in the coming days look for our more detailed article about DeWayne McCulley’s health transformation journey and his mission to help others reverse type 2 diabetes just as he himself has done.
On a side note – how to make brussels sprouts DELICIOUS!
It’s interesting that Chef AJ’s new book (2018) with lots of delicious recipes emphasizes the importance of vegetables for breakfast for weight loss, for health, and for maintaining a healthy weight for life. In her new book, Chef AJ includes a recipe for DELICIOUS, easy-to-make roasted brussels sprouts.
Watch and learn (with Chef AJ herself) how to make these delicious roasted balsamic dijon brussels sprouts. At the beginning of the video, Chef AJ says: “Even if you hate brussels sprouts, I PROMISE, you will LOVE this recipe!”
In the video above you can watch and learn how to make Chef AJ’s balsamic-dijon glazed brussels sprouts, DIY stuffed kabocha squash, and an easy, no-bake, decadent banana strawberry chocolate mousse torte (made from only 7 healthy ingredients).
Click the button to play the video above, and you will also see Dr. Roy Artal, a triple board-certified medical doctor, internist, pulmonologist, and sleep medicine specialist in Los Angeles, who himself switched to whole food plant-based foods five years ago, and recommends a plant-based diet to his patients. Chef AJ notes that Dr. Artal is the creator of the roasted balsamic dijon brussels sprouts recipe!
The Chef AJ video above also features plant-based elite 2-time champion bodybuilder, Robert Cheeke (plant-based aka vegan for more than 20 years), and other guests.
Chef AJ’s brussels sprouts recipe can help you give it a try and then add this nutritional & health power house to the list of foods you love!
For more testimonials about the foods that can reverse type 2 diabetes, read the success stories of:
Joey Aucoin (Forks Over Knives documentary),
Amy Johnson of Frisco, TX (by way of upstate NY),
Micheal Abdalla of Atlanta, GA (What the Health documentary),
Patty of Mebane, NC (Plant Pure Nation documentary),
Kirt Tyson of Baltimore, MD (Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days documentary).
Just to name a few. You can discover and read many, many more additional diabetes type 2 reversal stories, with links to the first-hand testimonials in videos and documentaries so you can watch their diabetes reversal transformations, here at reversediabetes2.com.
The list goes on and on! Read their stories here at ReverseDiabetes2.com with many more success stories added frequently.
The bottom line is, all of these leading medical doctors who are experts in nutrition, and all of the people whose success stories are featured here at ReverseDiabetes2.com (and many, many more across the country and around the world), choose to eat whole food plant-based foods for life because these foods are filling, delicious, satisfying, (no measuring food, no weighing foods or combining foods; feeling satisfied and without feeling hungry).
They also choose whole food plant-based nutrition for life because the same foods that reverse diabetes also lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, prevent and reverse heart disease, auto-immune conditions, and many other chronic diseases, including preventing and reversing type 2 diabetes.
The greatest win-win choice you could ever make!
As Dr. Barnard says, try it for 21 days (under your doctor’s supervision, as with any diet or lifestyle change) and see what happens!
Former type 2 diabetics who have switched to the foods that reverse diabetes for 21 days, or 30 days, end up feeling so good that they don’t want to go back to eating the way they used to eat. They discover that it feels too good to feel healthy to accept anything else. It feels so good to take control of your own health destiny, simply by switching to delicious whole food plant based foods for life, especially compared with feeling afraid and helpless in the face of the devastating effects of type 2 diabetes.
Give it a try for 21 days, or 30 days, and then keep going. Share your own success story in the comments below! Your own success story can help so many others.
Excellent article, Thank you
Thanks for thr great article!