Since this has been posted the same day I got my new lab results, I think it
is interesting to compare my results to the study results, see below
interleaved.

and/or www.mantra.com/jai (Dr. Jai Maharaj)> wrote in
message news:20101104YMT3IAk9HqhOjHODvITbEWq@bImTU...
> Vegan diet reverses diabetes symptoms, study finds
>
>
> Washington (Reuters) - People who ate a low-fat vegan diet, cutting
> out all meat and dairy, lowered their blood sugar more and lost more
> weight than people on a standard American Diabetes Association diet,
> researchers said on Thursday.
>
> They lowered their cholesterol more and ended up with better kidney
> function, according to the report published in Diabetes Care, a
> journal published by the American Diabetes Association.
>
>
> "I hope this study will rekindle interest in using diet changes
> first, rather than prescription drugs," Dr. Neal Barnard, president
> of the Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine, which helped
> conduct the study, told a news conference.
>
> Barnard's team and colleagues at George Washington University, the
> University of Toronto and the University of North Carolina tested 99
> people with type 2 diabetes, assigning them randomly to either a low-
> fat, low-sugar vegan diet or the standard American Diabetes
> Association diet.
>
> After 22 weeks on the diet, 43 percent of those on the vegan diet and
> 26 percent of those on the standard diet were either able to stop
> taking some of their drugs such as insulin or glucose-control
> medications, or lowered the doses.
>
> The vegan dieters lost 14 pounds (6.5 kg) on average while the
> diabetes association dieters lost 6.8 pounds (3.1 kg).
>

I lost 11 pounds in 17 weeks on the low-carb regimen.

> An important level of glucose control called a1c fell by 1.23 points
> in the vegan group and by 0.38 in the group on the standard diet.
>

My a1c fell by 1.1 points over the 17-week low-carb regimen.

> DROPPING DRUGS
>
> A1c gives a measure of how well controlled blood sugar has been over
> the preceding three months.
>
> In the dieters who did not change whatever cholesterol drugs they
> were on during the study, LDL or "bad" cholesterol fell by 21 percent
> in the vegan group and 10 percent in the standard diet group.
>

My LDL fell 25% in the 17 weeks of low-carb regimen. I did not change my
cholesterol drug during this time. I'm going to talk to my doctor about
experimenting with dropping it.

> The vegan diet removed all animal products, including meat, fish and
> dairy. It was also low in added fat and in sugar.
>

I eat 3 ounces of full-fat cheese every day for breakfast, accompanied by
usually a whole raw green pepper but sometimes by a head of romaine lettuce.
Most days include 1 to 2 ounces of nuts (almonds, walnuts, brazil nuts)
either as a snack or part of a meal. Many days also include 2 to 3 eggs,
usually hardboiled. Dinner almost always includes a serving of either
chicken breast, ground turkey, tilapia or salmon; steamed vegetables
(usually broccoli and/or cauliflower), and a salad of raw baby spinach and
roma tomato with Caesar dressing; 1/4 apple for dessert. Lunch varies, main
dish may be eggs, sardines, tuna with Miracle Whip light, or a Trader Joe's
soy Italian sausage; will be accompanied by usually a raw zucchini, possibly
also other vegetables. I try to fit in an ounce of raw baby carrots,
usually they are part of my afternoon snack. Lately lunch has frequently
been 2 oz of peanuts with skins and 2 large sticks of celery. When I get a
craving for "carby" food I eat a low-carb tortilla (usually with hummus, but
sometimes with Smart Balance Light) or some garbanzo beans. I do chew
sugarless gum and also eat about three pieces of sugarless hard candy per
day.