How a radical dietary change can help diabetes sufferers

A groundbreaking new approach could help diabetes sufferers end their reliance on medication and give them a new lease on life.

Dietary changes have helped Abbey Schweitzer combat her type 2 diabetes. Picture: Ian Currie

A group of leading doctors is urging type 2 diabetics to end their illness and reliance on drugs by changing their diets.

As evidence and the popularity of using low-carbohydrate diets to control diabetes builds, a consortium of Australian doctors led by renowned sports physician Peter Brukner hopes to radically change the way the disease is treated in Australia.

Launching Defeat Diabetes this week, Dr Brukner said similar programs in Britain and the US had helped diabetics reverse the disease to the extent many no longer needed medicine.

The idea of promoting a diet high in healthy fats and protein to control blood sugar is at odds with many traditional approaches to diabetes but the group of 20 prominent doctors, including 2020 Australian of the Year James Muecke, believes it can change the views of medical colleagues as well as the prognoses of patients.

“It’s pretty dramatic,” Dr Brukner said.

“We are giving them a weapon.

“Dietary advice currently available to Australians fails to reduce type 2 diabetes and with one person being diagnosed every five minutes, I felt compelled to step up and do something,” Dr Brukner said.

Similar to the low-carb diabetes.co.uk in Britain and the virtahealth.com program in the US, Defeat Diabetes is based on a mobile app offering advice to follow a low-carbohydrate diet with recipes and cooking demonstrations.

The venture evolved from Dr Brukner’s Sugar by Half campaign, launched in 2016 after his own diagnosis as pre-diabetic.

While they have increased in popularity among patients and support from doctors in recent years, the safety of low-carb, high-fat ketogenic diets is hotly debated among cardiac specialists.

Having struggled with type 2 diabetes for the past six years, Abbey Schweitzer switched to a keto diet two years ago in desperation.

Although she initially struggled to maintain the strict restraints — including ditching chocolate, takeaway food, potatoes, pasta and rice and replacing them with plenty of meat, eggs, fresh fruit and cooking all meals from scratch — she now swears by its benefits.

She combines the diet with her existing medicine.

“My health was in such a poor state I was frequently in and out of hospital with health scares and I was sick and tired of my family telling me I was going to die before I was 30,” Ms Schweitzer said.

“Last year my sugar levels were at 8.1, they are now down to 5.9. I have lost 12kg, three dress sizes and my blood test results are the best in years.

“This is the best thing ever. I hate taking medication so if I can change it enough so that I don’t need to, I’ll do it.”