A woman who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has spoken about how she reversed the condition after following a low carb lifestyle.
Yvonne Lane, 52, from South London, told iNews that she decided to overhaul her lifestyle after being told her health was at risk.
At the time of diagnosis in December 2016 she weighed nearly 16 stone, and vowed she would start a new approach to eating in a bid to lose weight.
Following in the footsteps of Labour deputy leader Tom Watso, who too has put his type 2 diabetes into remissio, Yvonne ditched sugar. She also signed up to Diabetes.co.uk’s award-winning Low Carb Program and cut out sources of starchy carbohydrates such as pasta, potatoes and bread.
Starchy foods are broken down into glucose quickly in the body and result in greater increases in blood sugar compared to protein or natural fats.
Discussing how she adapted to her new lifestyle, Yvonne said: “I’d honestly say that I don’t feel denied. It took a few weeks of cravings and feeling cranky from the carb withdrawals but now I just feel so much better. I used to suffer very bad migraines – about six to eight a month – and they have now gone too.”
Yvonne decided to keep her carb intake to below 20g a day and also began exercising. This low carb intake is known as a ketogenic diet, whereas a low carb diet is generally considered to involve eating less than 130g of carbs per day. Now, Yvonne’s diet mainly consists of fish, meat, cheese, salads, nuts and most vegetables.
In June, the Low Carb Program was approved by an independent not-for-profit body called QISMET, meaning it can now be prescribed by healthcare teams for people with type 2 diabetes. The program also received CE Mark approval in June.
Since it was launched in 2015, more than 326,000 people have signed up to the Low Carb Program. It is a 10-week, evidence-based structured behavioural change programme supporting people with type 2 diabetes.
Those who sign up and complete the programme reduce their HbA1c levels by 13mmol/mol (1.2%) and lose 7% of their body weight on average.
