Type 1 Diabetic Vegan

My transition was different from most people's, I think. I started cooking vegan at home long before I was even vegetarian. My diet was animal-free except for 4 eggs/week and the occasional meat/cheese eating out or at friends' houses. I was pretty used to not eating meat. After I decided to go completely vegan and I watched Forks Over Knives, I changed my diet fairly dramatically. I started eating far less fat, far more veggies and fruit. I didn't have terrible lows, but I noticed needing less and less insulin for the food I ate. It was particularly dramatic when I would have a lot of smoothies as meals. At first, the smoothie might cost 5 units of insulin, and before I knew it, it would be down to 3. I find that my insulin needs for carbs vary greatly depending on the fat I eat.I hope that answer was helpful and not too confusing.

I wouldn’t tell him if I were you. Doctors are not educated about nutrition. They do not view that as their job. They think registered dietitians need to know about diet and they do not. It’s a real pity, too, because imagine the benefit to your endo’s type 2 patients that would happen if he recommended a diet of only whole plant foods to them.I haven’t seen an endocrinologist in many years. I go to a primary care physician only. I get my full blood work done, and as long as everything is good, my doc will prescribe my diabetes medication and supplies. I did not find endocrinologists to be helpful when I saw them. Seeing as how my a1c is 5.1 without their help, I think I’ll continue doing what I do.I do not eat low carb. I’m a vegan, I eat whole foods as much as I can, and most of all, I just always test my blood sugar and give myself insulin if it’s over 120. That’s how I keep my a1c so low. I don’t need to answer to an endocrinologist.

I beg your pardon? What are you referencing?

You'll be getting perfectly good nutrition as a vegan. If you don't use fortified non-dairy milk every day, I'd say take 1 b12 pill/week. I also supplement calcium and vitamin D. I mostly do this because I know older people who are suffering from osteoporosis and it just seems worthwhile to prevent it by taking calcium and vitamin D, since they will not harm me. The older people with osteoporosis I know are NOT vegan and never were. Anyone can get that.If you are concerned with nutrients, I recommend seriously tracking your food/drink intake on cronometer.com or a similar site. Then you'll know exactly what you're not getting enough of and what you get too much of. I guarantee you, it will at least help you to see that you're getting more than enough protein, lol! If you see you don't get enough of something, Google vegan foods that have that nutrient and start eating that food. There! Problem solved!I also recommend going to nutritionfacts.org and learning a lot more about nutrition from there.

I don't do mixes. Just straight up fruit and veggies is good for me. I enjoy a nice smoothie. I try to drink them slowly.

That’s great! Make sure you share this kind of information with the diabetes online community at large. The bias is so strongly in favor of meat-heavy low carb diets that type 1 vegans get completely drowned out, despite our amazing health success. In many groups, you’ll get kicked out if you so much as mention you’re vegan. We need every type 1 vegan’s help to change this.

Different ways. Mostly it was through facebook, actually. Just the things I’d share, and my responses to the people who would try to challenge it. I do not think I was soley responsible for getting anyone ot go vegan, I think it’s always a combination of things. It helps that I’ve always surrounded myself with awesome radical intelligent folks. That type of person tends to go vegan. In fact, I was in a class last semester that was politically radical and the two most intelligent people besides myself were vegan and vegetarian. And the teacher was also vegetarian. People who care about social justice seem more likely to make this logical progression to including non-human animals in their circle of those who deserve to not be exploited and harmed.

Hi! I guess that depends on your personal style. You can get really good at responding to their crap and always respond. Or you can just ignore them and keep doing what you’re doing. Eventually, they will get used to it. The first year I as vegan, my family made me cry quite a few times. Now they’re all at least vegetarian. People pick on you because you make them uncomfortable with their own life decisians. But that’s their shit, not yours. You do you.