I Learned to Control My Diabetes!

by Mary Beth Sweetland

I became an insulin-dependent diabetic (type 1) when I was 25. Before I figured out what was wrong, my weight dropped to 90 pounds, my vision became seriously blurred, I ate and drank constantly, I was extremely lethargic, and if I cut myself, the wound would not heal. My doctor told me to check my glucose twice a day with urine dipsticks and to take one injection of insulin a day. After starting pork and beef insulin therapy, I quickly lost muscle mass in my thighs and stomach injection areas, and my blood-sugar level was still poorly controlled.

Today, I check my glucose three to four times a day with a blood-glucose monitor that is easy to carry around and easy to operate. I also take up to four lower-dose injections of insulin a day instead of one, knowing that good blood-sugar control staves off many of the typical complications of diabetes.

Five years after I became diabetic, I discovered that the real secret to being a healthy diabetic is adopting a vegan diet. The fact that I was able to cut my initial dosage from more than 50 units of insulin in the morning to only 15 units can be directly attributed to not eating any animal products. Instead, I eat lots of beans, nuts, tofu and other soy products, whole grains, and vegetables, and I try to minimize the fat in my diet. With all the fat and cholesterol in animal products, it's no wonder that my health improved when I cut meat, eggs, and dairy products out of my diet and replaced them with healthy vegan foods.

When I exercise regularly, I have to take even less insulin! The Stairmaster or 30 minutes of quick walking every day are excellent ways to lower your need for insulin. Because I now use Humulin, a synthetically produced insulin that's much more appropriate for the human animal, I have regained the muscle mass that I lost when I was on animal-based insulin.

If you are diabetic, you owe it to yourself and to animals to give exercise and a vegan diet the chance to give you what nothing else has been able to—the upper hand with a disease that we can live with if we know how to control it.