“My food became my medicine”
Before and after
The active and sports-loving Thomas broke his foot in the late 80’s, but kept on eating like an athlete. He ended up gaining a lot of weight, with high blood pressure and finally diabetes type 2 as a result.
Then he read about low carb in a newspaper. Here’s what happened:
The Email
This is my story.
I am now 57 years old and I live in Bålsta, a bit outside of Stockholm, Sweden. I was always physically active when I was young, I played football, ice hockey, I swam, I ran and so on, but in the end of 1986 I broke my foot on my way to a badminton match with/against my future wife.
I couldn’t do any kind of activities during the coming year. At the same time, I kept on eating like I had before, but paid no attention to the fact that perhaps I should be getting rid of all the excess energy I was putting into my body. It all turned into a negative spiral. I started gaining weight. I stopped weighing myself when I passed 253 lbs. (115 kg) sometime in the mid-90’s.
I had no idea I was becoming more and more insulin resistant (I honestly didn’t know something like that even existed). In 1999 I got my diagnosis: “You’ve got diabetes”. My doctor told me that this was a disease which would stay with me for the rest of my life. He said there was no cure for it, but that I could lessen the consequences of it. Consequences include losing a leg, going blind, heart problems, kidney failure etc. A myriad of diseases…
I was scheduled with a dietitian in order to plan my food intake. I was taught to eat according to the official guidelines. I did, but didn’t get any better. I got my first diabetes medications during 2002, Metformin. In 2007 I was put on insulin.
After 25 years with insulin resistance and 13 years with diabetes, the turnaround came. One word: low-carb, low carb, high fat.
And here I’d like to thank all of you who share your knowledge about LCHF, Andreas Eenfeldt, Annika Dahlqvist, Sten-Sture Skaldeman, Mats Lindgren and many more. I had never dared to make my decisions to quit my medications without you.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
My way back
2012:
January
Read an article in a newspaper about a 53-year-old woman, who’d started eating low carb and reversed her diabetes. I have to admit I was quite skeptical.
February
Began eating low carb. After 24 hours I had to lower my insulin to 10 units. After 24 more hours I had to skip the insulin completely. ONLY TWO DAYS.
March
The weight fell towards 198 lbs. (90 kg). I quit taking the rest of my diabetes meds.
April
I stopped the treatment for high cholesterol. AGAINST MY DOCTOR’S RECOMMENDATIONS!
I also stopped taking my blood pressure meds. AGAINST MY DOCTOR’S RECOMMENDATIONS!What happened inside my body?
After my change to low carb, all my metabolic numbers stabilized, even if the triglycerides went up in the beginning, but they too went down later on.
And what happened on the outside?
My doctor did everything to make me lose weight and by doing so get my diabetes under control. But it was the wrong priority. If you heal your inside, the outside will follow suit. So my food became my medicine. Low carb, high fat.
Comment
A big congratulations on reversing your diabetes and regaining your health, Thomas! Well done.
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