Diabetes 171Type 1 Diabetes Prevention in Children
If you are planning to get pregnant, are already pregnant, or have given
birth, the following information is worth taking seriously. A study, pub-
lished in 2001 in the British medical journal Lancet, of ten thousand
subjects revealed that those children in the study who were given vita-
min D for one year after birth had 80 percent less type 1 diabetes overAlbert had always had a fear of needles, so he went through
the tortures of the damned every time he injected himself with
insulin. Out of desperation, an idea struck him that he could
control his diabetes if he ate the right foods. When he had
threatened to stop the insulin and the doctor warned him this
was a death sentence, he agreed to stay on the insulin while he
followed a diet that he hoped would cure his insulin problem.
He took the niacin test, found out that he was a grain eater,
and went on the grain eater’s diet with the objective of lowering
his excessive blood sugar. Henceforth he avoided refi ned
carbohydrates and ate vegetables in place of the large quantities of
fruit he had eaten before. This reduced his overload of blood
sugar.
Most seriously ill people who go on a diet to improve their
health go off it once their fear of dying subsides. But Albert stuck
to his diet. After he had been on the grain eater’s diet for diabetics
for three months, his elevated triglycerides and cholesterol
dropped, and the Clinistix strip he waved in his stream of urine no
longer turned red. This was a sign that his urine was sugar free.
The doctor gradually cut down on his insulin, from 45 units to 30
and then to 15.
Six weeks later, Albert went off insulin altogether. A year after
he had begun injecting himself with insulin, he was able to control
his diabetes entirely through diet. Albert may very well be one of
the few people with type 1 diabetes who had cured himself
through diet, but that his case is not an anomaly is proven by my
knowledge of four other people with type 1 diabetes who were
also successful in using diet to wean themselves off insulin.