Low-carb diet key to fighting diabetes and easing medication

Grandmother-of-six Maureen Thomson felt like she was on a backward slide when it came to taking control of her diabetes – until a leading-edge new diet turned her fortunes around.

Maureen Thomson. Picture: James Elsby

Grandmother of six Maureen Thomson felt like she was on a backward slide when it came to taking control of her diabetes and she didn’t know how to stop herself from falling.

Ms Thomson, 64, had battled Type 2 diabetes for a decade, was on insulin and had tried numerous diets recommended by her doctor but only ever got “sicker and fatter”, until she switched to a low-carbohydrate diet which is fast gaining support of the nation’s leading medical experts.

“I thought it was the slow journey down to death,” she said.

“That’s what it felt like, that diabetes was a death sentence. You just don’t get well.”

The South Australian, who calls Kadina home, said she was in a “really bad way” when she decided to make a radical change, signing up to a diabetes diet program through Diversa Health to take control of the condition that affects 1.7 million Australians.

“I had observed my adult children grieving the death of their father and a much-loved brother had died, so I went into a deep sadness, and so I started eating rubbish and I got very unwell,” she said. “ … I had my blood sugar test, called a HbA1c, and it was 12.6, which is double what it should be.”

After three months on a radical form of the “low carb” diet, at first eating only meat, leafy greens and blackberries, the South Australian had brought her blood sugar levels down to 6.2 and lost 12kg.

“Within days I was off the insulin I had been prescribed,” she said.

“Within a very short time I started to have normal blood sugar levels … I started to feel my mood lifted because I saw some success. Now I get up every day and I feel hopeful.”

Diversa Health founder Dr Rob Szabo said the program, which is one of many “low carb” diets on the market, educated its followers about the nutrition of everyday foods and promoted a diet high in red meat, poultry and fish and low-starch vegetables such as broccoli, and avoiding bread, rice and pasta.

“We educate people about the carbohydrate contents of common food and it can be a shock when people learn this stuff about the sugar that is in different foods,” Dr Szabo said.

“For example a slice of bread has four teaspoons of sugar, that is the starch in the wheat, that’s what it breaks down to in our gut. A medium potato is the equivalent of 6 spoonfuls of sugar.”

CSIRO senior principal research scientist Professor Grant Brinkworth said there was a growing body of evidence to support the life-changing benefits of the low carb diet over medication, with the research organisation releasing its own digital health program supporting the diet.

Ophthalmologist and 2020 Australian of the Year Dr James Muecke described diabetes as a “pandemic” with 2 million Australians currently considered pre-diabetic.

“It’s a really exciting and positive thing and needs to be known by everyone in the country when we see how many people are poor metabolic health,” he said.

“It’s something that needs to be broadcasted widely and shouted from the rooftops so that everyone with Type 2 diabetes knows there is the opportunity to avoid the horrendous complications and lost work and life opportunities from complication, and the crippling expenses that Australians have to deal with.”