Introduction

Obviously, I have no idea who you are, sitting there with this book in your hand, but you probably have diabetes. Maybe someone who cares about you gave you the book. Or maybe you bought it yourself because you want to change your life.

Perhaps you’ve just found out that you have diabetes? If so, this news probably surprised you. In a matter of minutes you went from not feeling well, to being seriously ill. Your body feels exactly the same as the minute before you were told, but now you’re ill. Really ill. You have discovered that you now need to prick your finger several times a day to check your blood sugar.

Maybe you’ve found out that you need to watch what you eat. Nevertheless, you’re uncomfortable with the new situation. That’s what I felt, anyway, when I found out I had become a type 2 diabetic. A multitude of questions popped into my head: What should I eat? Will I die soon? Will I need a membership card at the diabetes clinic? How often do diabetics have their feet amputated? What will happen to my vision!? Will I become a blind vegetable with no feet? How bad is my condition on a scale of 1 to 10? Maybe it’s not that bad, or am I deathly ill? How can I find out? Is it irreversible? Is there anything anyone can do to help? Is it like a snake pit, where I’ll spend the rest of my life? Will I be able to climb out?

After the hospital visit during which I discovered that I really was a diabetic, they gave me some brochures that explained this diabetes thing. I was also told that I had to learn to eat healthily. The doctor told me that from now on, I MUST eat the way other people SHOULD eat. These were depressing words, indeed. Well, it’s supposed to be good for me, but how good does it taste? I was presented with pictures of the plate model, food circles and pyramids and all that stuff, and it did not look appealing. At least, I didn’t think so. But from now on, I would be eating low-fat, with lots of whole grain bread and plenty of pasta. I’d always choose the low-fat alternative because the others were dangerous. More than half of my food would be carbohydrates. I found out that my illness would worsen with time, even if I took care of myself. Eventually, I’d have to start sticking myself with needles, and finally end up with so-called “deferred complications” anyway. This is known as the “natural course”. All-natural, in other words. Anything else would be strange.

But are things really that bleak? Is there no alternative to facing the facts? Maybe there’s hope to escape these problems, or at least delay them for a very long time?

I’m sure other diabetics have received the same brochures I did. What I didn’t have, however, was a book that explained what had actually happened to me, and what problems I was about to face. The same book would obviously also tell me what to do to avoid the problems.

You’re holding this “missing” book in your hands right now. This book is about what I wished I had known when I sat in the waiting room after my “sentence”, waiting for my brochures and feeling confused. Yet, this book is meant not only for newly diagnosed and confused diabetics. Even if you have been living with diabetes for years and become accustomed to it, you will benefit from reading this book.

Improving your health will require some sacrifice, but most people will agree that it’s worth it. After a while, many people no longer experience the sacrifice as something negative; on the contrary, they feel almost ashamed of it – it seems like a luxurious life. There are, of course, people who would rather take injections and eat their sandwiches; we have to accept this – even if it causes personal suffering and results in great expense to society.

The following pages will teach you enough to enable you to confidently reject advice that will only make you more ill.

The advice presented in this book is very different from what they write in the diabetes brochures. The advice in the brochures is based on the viewpoint that, of course, you should continue to eat more or less as you did before, just with more fibre and less fat. Almost all of the brochures are published by pharmaceutical companies, and they have no great desire to help you live without their medication. That’s why their advice will slowly but surely make your condition worse, requiring more and more medication. As cynical as this may sound, it is the truth. This also applies to today’s websites about diabetes. These are generally operated by pharmaceutical companies, and the advice presented there will keep you just sick enough to stay on your feet, but not to get well. I know this to be true.

Perhaps you remember the “Marlboro Man”, Wayne McLaren? The Marlboro Man was the cool cowboy featured in ads for Philip Morris’ Marlboro cigarettes. McLaren smoked a pack and a half a day. He contracted lung cancer, and despite chemotherapy, radiation treatment and the removal of a lung, his life could not be saved. The cancer spread throughout his body and he died in July 1992. From his deathbed, he participated in an anti-smoking campaign, and the final phase of his suffering in the hospital was documented on film.

Wayne McLaren learned his lesson the hard way. Wilford Brimley was another man who paid a high price for his daily habits. Wilford was well-known in the United States for many television advertisements for Quaker Oats’ Instant Oatmeal. In the TV ads, he portrayed a jolly old fellow who enjoyed spending time with his children and grandchildren, all the while praising the benefits of instant oatmeal. Maybe you can already guess what happened to him? Wilford Brimley contracted diabetes of course. These days, Wilford works for a supplier of diabetes treatment equipment.

It’s not hard to imagine that at a relatively young age, you might promote something that’s not good for you. You feel immortal. Wayne McLaren smoked cigarettes that destroyed his lungs and Wilford Brimley ate instant oatmeal.

Oatmeal contains starch, which is metabolised to glucose – the kind of sugar that elevates your blood sugar level. You might think that I’m saying that you can get diabetes from eating starch and sugar. It’s really not quite that simple.

You cannot develop type 2 diabetes without eating sugar and starch. If you do eat sugar and starch, you can develop type 2 diabetes. But there’s more to it than that. I’m convinced that a genetic predisposition is also necessary. In my case, one of my grandfathers had type 2 diabetes – I was genetically pre-disposed. However, if I hadn’t gorged myself on potatoes and bread as I did, I’m sure that type 2 diabetes would not have developed. Instead, I would be walking around like a ticking diabetes bomb. That bomb would not have exploded, and so much the better for me. Instead, I was unlucky and developed type 2 diabetes.

If you avoid the disease-triggering factors, you won’t get the disease. Just as a person who is predisposed to alcoholism can dodge the bullet by never drinking alcohol.

The advice presented in this book is based on the fact that you have decided to never suffer any symptoms of your diabetes, or at least reduce them as much you can.

The recommendations in the book focus mainly on what diabetics should eat to reduce their dependency on medication, so you will probably need to give up some of the foods you usually eat. It’s your choice. You can follow the guidelines in the brochures you have received, increase your medication and still eat basically what you’ve always eaten. In time, as your weight increases, you will need to increase your medication – and in turn gain even more weight … and so on.

Some diabetes medications, such as sulfonylureas (also known as “SU” pills) and insulin make it harder to avoid gaining those extra pounds. When you start to eat according to the recommendations in this book, you’re taking the most important step you can take to keep yourself healthy. I know of many cases where type 2 diabetes patients could stop taking medication and insulin after starting to eat the way I will describe in the following pages. Actually, there are also type 1 diabetics who can get by without insulin. As strange as it may sound, in some cases it’s true.

As I previously implied, your new life may come to seem a bit luxurious, so if you’re assuming that this new diet will be tedious and boring, you’ve got it all wrong. Instead, you’ll be enjoying truly delicious meals.

In 1926, the Swedish journal Hälsovännen (Friend of Health) published a review of the book by Professor Karl Petrén entitled “On the Treatment of Diabetes (even with insulin)” by Georg Engstrand. Here are some quotes from the review: