Natural Level Project

Vegan Life – Happy Anniversary!
It’s a small victory, but a victory none-the-less and worth celebrating! I betcha it doesn’t matter whether a person is a vegan, vegetarian, or a pescatarian - committing to a veggie dietary lifestyle and being completely successful with the transition is not only a good feeling; but if our medical system is to be believed - good for a person’s health as well. A veggie based diet is supposed to be good for one’s blood pressure, cholesterol, heart health and even lower rates of cancer.

My wife and I transitioned to a “modified” vegan diet on January 1^st and today marks the one month point of our 90 day experiment. Our diet is a “modified” Vegan diet which means no animal products as the centerpiece; but in addition, we have to limit sugar and carbs because I am diabetic. We have no nuts, no wheat, gluten-free, and no oils. We use sea salt and golden flax. We were advised by the Dietician to only use Stevia as our sweetener. If you’re interested in the other guidelines I follow because I am a diabetic, see the (What about eating a “modified” vegan diet and being a Diabetic at the same time?) section below.

Breakfast - Each morning, we have an almond milk and pea protein shake with a packet of stevia added and a teaspoon of golden flax. Almond milk was the only approved nut we were allowed because soy caused issues with my glucose. The shake gives us an added boost of protein and the golden flax keeps one’s digestive system “regular”, and it works. I also sprinkle a little on each meal.

Lunch - For lunch every day, we have a salad with a fat-free vegan dressing.

Dinner - In the evening, we have a variety of meals. We purchased the Living Cookbook 2013 which allows us to create our dinner recipes, menus, calendar and grocery lists.
One Month and Yippee! I’ve lost 45 lbs. and my wife 20 lbs. since we modified our dietary choices beginning in September 2012.

So, what have we learned?
Planning and research - I know it’s not the same for everyone, but for us, a key to being successful was research and planning. We needed to do many hours of research work in order to understand what we were doing and how other people are successful. We have a lot more dietary guidelines to follow than even normal vegans and so planning was also essential. We had to know what to substitute for the foods we were used to cooking with and consuming. How do we shop and where do we shop for some of the key ingredients? What products are available and how do they taste? Google was invaluable of course but also Tumblr played a large part in our learning. We saw posts with very high quality vegan meals and learned that it was completely doable. Learning is key! Learning what to do, what to buy, what to avoid, how to substitute and what alternatives are available to purchase. This knowledge is irreplaceable.

Reaching out – One of the key elements of our success has been our reaching out and talking to other people! People who have successfully done this or who have lived this lifestyle for years and years are such wonderful resources! They’ve literally saved us hundreds of hours and gave their knowledge and time to help us. We’ve received Tumblr messages from far and wide with ideas, suggestions and information. I can’t express my thanks enough. You know who you are! It is essential. We also reached out to a qualified Dietician who provided her expertise and allowed us to formulate a plan.

Most importantly – we’ve learned that it is completely doable. One can live a vegan lifestyle WITHOUT any huge sacrifice in any aspect of your diet as long as you do the work to learn! There are wonderful alternative products and methods and flavors that more than make up for anything traded for with meat or dairy or eggs or cheese – and they are healthier in the long run! It can not only help make you fit, but in many cases, make people happier

We learned that vegans are not freaks; and they are not alone. They are not on any kind of “edge”; although some would like to romanticize it this way. There is a lot of passion and hype out there as well as a large number of zealots. But I can tell you that the vegan lifestyle is very much mainstream. It is accepted and acceptable. It is here to stay; and for an ever increasing portion of an evolving populace, it is the future.

What about eating a “modified” vegan diet and being a Diabetic at the same time?
Because I’m a diabetic, and due to the impact on my blood glucose levels, I cannot tolerate eating potatoes, rice, much bread, grains, no sugary sweets (or foods with added sugars), corn or things made with corn, no flour (tried wheat, almond, coconut and rice) and nothing else that is starchy or white. My glucometer tells me that these foods, even consumed in small portions, drive my glucose up over 140 after 1 hour of consuming them. Once glucose rises above 140, beta cells in the pancreas die and this causes more and more complications for diabetics over time. It’s like smoking – you can smoke for a while before it starts to catch up with you and hurt you; and it’s the same thing with blood glucose over 140. Over time, this catches up with you and causes complications. It is VERY VERY difficult to maintain a glucose level that is consistently below 140. Members of the medical community will concur with that statement I am certain – but that should not stop one from trying.

Unfortunately, veggie-friendly meals are not always low in carbohydrates. Vegetable protein sources such as beans and soy products can contain high levels of carbs. I cannot eat much soy products such as tofu or soy milk. Some of the tofu is actually low in carbs (some firm types), so reading the label is essential. Eating beans, for me anyway is okay. They seem to release their carbs slowly into my system, while tofu and soy products seem to release quickly.

Another diabetic on Tumblr wrote a piece about the disease and I responded to his comments below:

He wrote - As a diabetic, you’re constantly carb counting. All the time. Every time you eat, you don’t have the luxury of just consuming food. You think about everything you put in your mouth. In this way, it’s a little like Type 1. Type 1’s have to carb count to know how much to bolus for so they don’t go too high or too low. Type 2’s have to carb count to know that they aren’t killing themselves in the long term with glucose spikes that most of them have absolutely no way of bringing down immediately. If you fuck up and eat something bad for you, you deal with the high blood sugar until it comes down on its own. If you’re me, it doesn’t. It continues to stay high for more than 12 hours after the problem food was consumed.

My response - I use an Android app and corresponding web site called MyFitnessPal.com. The app is on my smart phone and tablet and allows me to log everything I put in my mouth. The app calculates calories, fat, carbs and so on for everything. It draws on a database of millions of foods. The app also has a bar code scanner so if it can’t find the food in its database, you can always scan the item in and somehow (not sure how it works) it finds it and gets the carbs and everything from the scan. It has saved me hours. As you log the foods you eat, it uploads all of this to the website and there, you can login and produce reports and export reports. I use these to take to my Dietician and Doctor. This app has been a God send to me.

I work with a T1 Diabetic who has been that way since birth and talk with him quite often. He told me that the order you eat things in has an influence on how it is absorbed. I did a test. I ate some gluten-free bread. My sugar went up in a corresponding manner as expected. A couple of days later, I first drank a large glass of water and then ate the piece of bread. There was very little impact at all! I haven’t figured this entire pattern out yet and there isn’t anything on Google about it that I have found yet, so experimentation is still underway.

One thing I learned is how to test properly. I test before the meal, then one hour after and then two hours after. ANY food that raises my glucose about 140 at the 1 hour mark or 120 at the 2 hour mark is eliminated from my diet. Period. Why? According to the newest research, anytime your glucose goes over 140, beta cells in the Pancreas are killed or die. The more you can keep under 140 all the time, the better. I developed a diet of my own which is heart healthy (Because diabetics have a much higher risk of heart disease). I utilized the plate method of portion control. I took this diet to a Dietician to review and she suggested going on a modified Vegan diet for three months. I can share both the diet I developed (which works great) and the modified Vegan diet if you like.
He wrote: As a result, you develop an unhealthy obsession with food. Here are mine, along with my typical thought process behind choosing to eat or not eat something:

My Response - I actually think it is a very healthy obsession with food that is necessary to manage the disease.
o Milk (Should I really have that glass of milk? It’s an unnecessary source of sugar. I’ll drink water instead. Or maybe I’ll just have a little sip. Barely enough to affect my sugar levels, yeah.)

My Response - I started out replacing cow’s milk with Soy milk, but Soy is made from beans and beans are carbs. In their bean form they are good and release slowly, but in the form on Tofu, or Tempeh or Soy Milk they’ve been processes and so release quickly. This was no good because my glucose spiked. I now drink UNSWEETENED almond milk. Make sure it says unsweetened or you’ll find SUGAR in it in some form or another and this will make your glucose spike. It’s pretty good.

o Juice (Never. Never never never drink this it will spike my sugars sky high. Juice is evil)

My Response - Agree. Juice is not for me.

o Bread (There’s not much to eat in the fridge. I could make myself a sandwich… but one slice of bread is about 19 grams of carbohydrates, and I don’t want to eat half a sandwich. So that would put me at almost 40 grams of carbohydrates, which would leave me really high for several hours after… I guess I’ll just starve instead. Oh, but that’s not good either. My body will just break down glycogen and raise my sugars anyways. I don’t know what to do. I guess I’ll eat one slice of toast with some cheese and a little turkey for now… but I really shouldn’t eat that bread…)*I usually end up eating a couple slices of bread a day anyways because it’s really convenient

My Response - I’ve experimented with eating low carb breads from all over. Some are like eating wallpaper paste made into slices. Then I went for UDIs and/or Canyon Bakehouse Gluten-Free breads. These still spike my glucose but not as much as white wheat flour bread.

o Pasta (Mom made pasta salad for dinner. I’m really hungry, and I don’t want to upset her by not eating it. There’s also nothing else prepared. But pasta is really bad for me. I’ll wake up with a fasting blood sugar in the 200’s. It’s pretty late. Should I scrounge in the fridge for something else, starve, or try to make myself something from scratch that is lower carbohydrate? Or should I just eat the pasta?) *I usually just eat the pasta and refrain from checking my sugars in the morning. Or at all the next day, really.

My Response - Pasta does the same thing with me. I tried gluten-free, low carb, corn pasta, spinach pasta, quinoa pasta and others – same deal – high spike in glucose. Then I discovered how to make my own pasta out of vegetables. I have a device which is just a small plastic cutter. You put a carrot or cucumber or zucchini squash in it and turn the handle and it cuts the vegetable into long strands of pasta. You cook this and it is wonderful and no spike at all!

o Potatoes (I really love mashed potatoes, but I will not eat any because they will spike my sugars. Oh, there are potatoes in this soup? Well… I guess I’ll eat these. I do need some carbohydrates in my diet, but I’ll try not to eat too many)

My Response - Potatoes and Rice – Bad. Glucose spikes. I just don’t eat them. Instead I eat other veggies. I used to love potatoes. Now – never even miss them. I have taken cauliflower and boiled it and mashed it. Works great – just like potatoes and no glucose spike.

o Cereal (This is really bad for me, but I feel like having some dessert, so I’ll just eat a little) *Never happens. I always end up eating a bowl and feeling awful about it afterwards

My Response - I never eat cereal any more. Period. One trick the Dietician taught me is to sprinkle my meals with ground GOLDEN Flax. This keeps you “regular”. If you eat too much … well you know what will happen. She was very insistent that I should only use GOLDEN Flax and no other kind for this. I do – and it works.

o Cake/Pastries/Junk food (Well I don’t really ever eat this… but should I cheat and have some? No good will come of it…. but I really want it….)

My Response - NO. Stay away. Now you can eat sugar-free stuff but you have to watch out for wheat flour and anything else on the ingredients list that will spike your glucose. I have a bunch of great recipes that will help and have experimented and found BENITOS. These are black bean chips that come in various flavors and if I stick to having a sensible portion, they do not spike my glucose. I have other snacks I can share with you if you’re interested.

o Pizza (Oh, my family bought pizza. I really like pizza, but it’s high in carbs, so I should only have a slice. But I’m really hungry, and I want to eat two or three slices…)*I usually eat two or three slices and don’t check my sugars the next day. Because who eats just one slice? Also applicable to parties that friends throw.

My Response - I love pizza! I experimented and found that Domino’s has a Gluten-Free pizza and if I do the “Build Your Own” option and only put on it veggies and white sauce (contains wheat), and drink a lot of diet coke or water while eating it, then I can have half the 10 inch pizza (4 slices) myself (if I’m hungry) without causing a spike over 140 within an hour. I do not put meat or cheese on it. Just veggies. It is delicious and if you wanted to, you could let them deliver it and then put vegan cheese on it.

o Fruit (How does this fruit compare to some other fruit I could be eating in terms of carbohydrates? How could I be eating better? I need dietary vitamins that these fruits could give me, but is it really worth it? Should I try to source those more from non starchy vegetables? Oh, there are grapes in the fridge that will go to waste if I don’t eat them, but they have so much sugar. I really like grapes, but this apple is better for me. If I don’t eat this apple with something else, it will still raise my sugar levels. But I only want to eat an apple right now as a snack, not prepare some protein source to eat it with. I should probably stick with berries since those are the best for me, but those aren’t in season and I don’t want to ask my parents to buy me expensive berries)

My Response - I stay away from fruit. To me, it is just like drinking fruit juice. If I do eat fruit, I get it from a can, with NO SUGAR ADDED and then wash it before I eat it. I consume only a half a cup or it spikes me above 140 in an hour. I have eaten berries successfully but again, in sensible portions. I have a recipe for a wonderful raspberry key lime pie that does not spike my glucose above 140 as long as I only have 1 slice.

o Vegetables (I don’t really like eating raw vegetables, but I have to teach myself to eat these. I need to get a lot of variety in my diet, and eating them raw preserves the vitamin content. But it’s really hard. Maybe I’ll stick with making salads. I like salads. Though I really should expand my diet so I don’t get sick)

My Response – I eat a lot of veggies. I cook most of them (except for like Salads, Tomatoes, Cucumbers). I eat them with a lot of mushrooms and I discovered Creole Seasoning. If I sprinkle a little of this on the veggies, the taste is amazing and I never get sick of eating veggies. I have like 2 billion different ways to prepare veggies so that I never get bored. It works for me. I use Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning. They make it in a salt free version as well.

o Meat (Meat won’t spike my sugar levels the same way other foods do, so it’s easy to fall back on. But I don’t want to raise my cholesterol levels, so I shouldn’t eat too much. But I need to replace the carb calories I’m not consuming with something else)

My Response - I was eating no red meat at all. Just chicken and fish three times a week so that I had a heart healthy diet. I ate using the plate method and so ate only a small portion of meat at any given meal. Since I went to a “modified” vegan diet, I eat no meat at all. I am on this diet for three months to determine impact on my diabetes. Will evaluate whether to continue this dietary choice in late March. Now that I don’t eat meat, I have a peas protein shake with Almond milk every morning. I add a packet of Stevia and some golden flax. This provides the same amount of protein as eating a large steak. It works well and keeps me healthy. Something else – the Dietician said I should only ever have Stevia as my sugar substitute. According to her, ever other sweetener turns into really bad things inside the body after being consumed. Stevia is the only natural one and the only one Diabetics should be using again, according to her.

o Beans (These are good for me and a good source of protein and I should eat them since I do need some carbs in my diet, but it’s still really hard to look at my numbers afterwards. Maybe I won’t…)

My Response - I eat beans at nearly every meal now. They are high in fiber and release their carbs slowly. It took me forever to get over the high carb counts on the ingredients list and prove to myself (using my meter) - that a sensible portion of beans would not spike my glucose. I mix them with the veggies most times. They’re good and I now love them very much on salads. Speaking of salads, the dietician insisted that I eat a salad every single day. I am on a vegan diet currently so no eggs, no dressing, no cheese, no croutons (bread carbs). I eat a normal garden salad with lots of cherry tomatoes and fat free vegan dressings. It is great!

o Anything with any carbohydrates ever (Should I really be eating this? It’s going to raise my sugar levels. If those stay high too long, I will start suffering tissue and nerve damage)

My Response - You will suffer for sure. The latest research shows that anytime you go above 140 things go bad and the more times you go above this limit the more damage you do. It’s like smoking – doesn’t get you right away but over time – these spikes above 140 take their toll. USE YOUR METER and eliminate any food that causes you to spike. I had to get unattached to food and become very unemotional. Luckily for us, my wife and I have never been attached to food emotionally, traditionally or religiously.
I am a diabetic and manage my disease by eating a modified diet. That’s what has to be done so just do it. I have found LOTS of alternative choices which I can share with you if you like. In addition to a Vegan diet, one of the things the Dietician also put me on is a gluten-free diet. She said wheat of any kind can be bad for Diabetics. So I am also doing gluten-free at the moment. I can eat no nuts, no oils, no gluten, no sugar, no animal products. Know what – all I did was modify great recipes and substitute things I can eat for things I cannot. The recipes turn out almost exactly the same with a little practice and so I eat very well even with these guidelines.

He wrote: Depriving myself of the majority of an entire nutrient group probably isn’t healthy, but I’m at the point where I don’t care. I’m extremely sensitive to dietary carbs. If I eat carbs, my sugars go up, and I can’t bring them down very quickly short of exercising after every single meal. Which is unfeasible. I start to stress about the damage that’s doing to my body. I start to stress about complications. There is so much stress surrounding eating that sometimes, I don’t eat. This can be out of laziness (nothing healthy in the fridge, nothing I want to eat in the fridge, can’t be bothered to make a meal) or lack of time (gotta run to class, no time to eat- was doing homework). And sometimes, I will experience burnout and eat all the carbohydrates for a week or a month while I try to ignore the self-loathing and fear that my eyesight will start going or something.

My Response - I go through the exact same thing. I take Co-Enzyme Q10 which brings me much more energy and deals with the fatigue. I take vitamin D3 in a 2000 mg dose and HIGH POTENCY vitamin B. These effectively help me deal with the fatigue of diabetes and since I started taking these, I very rarely now “hit the fatigue wall” and have to have an immediate lie down. This used to happen almost every day until I got the fatigue more controlled. I still have fatigue but it is MUCH improved by taking these supplements.

He wrote: When I kick myself into action, I do eat healthfully. I have fruits and vegetables and protein and good fats and enough carbohydrates to avoid brain fog, but not totally spike my blood glucose. But it’s hard to do this every single day, every single meal, forever and always. I get tired. I mess up. I run out of time. I have class. I run out of healthy foods and feel too guilty to ask my parents to buy me more salad mix or whatever else I need, even though they are diabetics and should be eating more like me. Because really. Really. Why do we even buy pasta still? Why do we still buy so much bread?

My Response - That’s why I created a diet and laid it out so that each day, I had choices so that I wouldn’t get bored AND still not spike my glucose and eat a heart healthy diet. I will gladly send it to you if you like.

He wrote: Not every type 2 diabetic gets to pop a pill and be healthy. In fact, the diabetics that do are probably not helping themselves much. I take pills, little good that they do. I also take long acting insulin. I try to cleave to an exercise regimen, though like eating, it’s so easy to slip off it for various reasons. But the most important factor of all is food. Food is your medicine. Diet is your medicine. If you miss a “dose”, it’s not going to kill you immediately, but you live with the knowledge that every time you fuck up, you’re another hour or day or year closer to suffering horrible complications. And when you do fuck up, you have people riding your back because you’re not perfect enough. You’re not good enough. You are going to die young because you’re not doing everything you can all the time to live. And I’m sick of it. You get attacked about it by your doctor. You get harassed about it by your family. You get nagged about it by friends. I’m sick of it. This is by no means a portrait of every Type 2 diabetic. It’s just mine. And I’m in no mood to put it under a cut, because I am fed up and emotionally drained right now.

My Response - Be well. I will share whatever I have. I have done a fair amount of research because the medication the doctor prescribed was not the answer and caused side effects (like fatigue) for me. Try some of the things I’ve mentioned and let me know if you feel better. I’m dying to know if it’s only me or these things work for other diabetics. Trust your meter more than me or your doctor!