The End of Diabetes by Joel Fuhrman MD (2013): What to eat and foods to avoid

The End of Diabetes (2013) is a book that advises a plant-based diet to recover from type 2 diabetes or have a better prognosis with type 1 diabetes

• Avoid red meats, eggs, and oils/fats, minimize fish and white meat poultry to 6 ounces a week
• Eat lots of salads and vegetables; also legumes, some fruits, nuts, and seeds – at least 85% of caloric intake should be from plants
• Nutritarian diet, rich in micronutrients

Below on this page is a description of the food recommendations in the diet. What to eat  |  Foods to avoid  |  Advice with gestational diabetes. There’s a lot more in the book.

Get a copy of The End of Diabetes for more information on medical research on diabetes and diet, the detailed eating plan, and recipes

The theory behind The End of Diabetes

This book claims that oils/fats and red meat/animal fat in the diet, along with refined grains and sugars, can cause diabetes, and suggests a plant-based, high nutrient density diet to provide ideal nutrients. This could lead to:

• No highs or lows in blood sugar
• Reduction of medications by an average of 50% if the first week, more in the first month, and most typically 100% within six months
• Need for insulin is eliminated, typically within the first week
• Normal, lean, and stable body weight
• Normal life span, without complications
• Reversal of diabetes and prevention of diabetes-related complications

Dietary recommendations for The End of Diabetes

Parts of this book refer to phase 1 and phase 2, but there are no clear guidelines found for these phases. Below see what to eat, foods to avoid, and advice with gestational diabetes

What to eat with The End of Diabetes

• Foods high on the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) – mostly vegetables
• Don’t eat between meals, leave a long time between meals to allow for glycolysis to happen
• Eat approximately the same amount of calories at each meal and stay with three meals a day
• Starches
  • May be starchy vegetables or whole grains
  • During phase 1, recommended not to have high-starch vegetables or grains – get carbohydrate and calorie requirements from cauliflower and beans
  • If you’re eating a one-cup serving of a starchy whole grain, such as oatmeal, steel cut oats, or wild rice with breakfast, do not eat the starchy vegetable option with dinner.
  • If you are slim and exercise a lot you can have more starches; for overweight diabetics these are limited foods
• Vegetables
  • Vegetables should be half raw and half cooked, 30-70% of calories
  • Have 8 servings of vegetables a day, with at least two of those being cruciferous vegetables, one raw and one cooked
  • Eat unlimited amounts of: All raw vegetables, all cooked green vegetables, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, mushroom, onions, cauliflower
  • Raw vegetables should be eaten in large quantities at the beginning of each main meal. A sensible goal is to shoot for one pound of raw vegetables daily
  • Starchy vegetables should be limited in the first phase of this diabetes-reversal program (stages are not clearly defined in the book). One serving a day – beets, carrots, peas, corn, and butternut and winter squashes.
  • Cruciferous vegetables – kale, collards, broccoli, broccoli rabe, brocollina, brussels sprouts, watercress, bok choy, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, mustard greens, arugula, kohlrabi, red cabbage, mache, turnip greens, horseradish, rutabaga, turnips, radishes
  • Salad vegetables – lettuce (all varieties), tomatoes, carrots, radishes, fennel, string beans, english peas, hearts of palm, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, baby bok choy, snap peas, endive, water chestnuts, zucchini, onions, scallions, sprouts, cucumber, snow peas, peppers, stewed mushrooms
  • A half an avocado is permitted occasionally, as long as there are no other foods containing fats such as nuts
  • Always wash fresh vegetables thoroughly. Buy organic if possible. Always buy organic spinach and celery
• Fruits
  • Fruits should be 15-25% of calories
  • Limit fruits to a total of five servings daily, usually 2-3 fresh fruits with breakfast, one after lunch, and one after dinner. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries are especially recommended
  • Limit dried fruits such as raisins to a minimal amount, usually only as a flavor enhancer
  • Always wash fresh fruits thoroughly. Buy organic if possible. Always buy organic strawberries
• Legumes
  • Beans/legumes should be 20-30% of calories
  • Use beans as your primary starch source
  • You may need to add more beans to your diet to reach your caloric needs
• Nuts and seeds
  • Raw nuts and seeds should be 10-20% of calories
  • Limit to one to two ounces daily, depending on weight and activity level – usually a one-ounce limit for overweight women and a 1.5 ounce limit for overweight males
  • Raw sunflower, chia, hemp, raw unhulled sesame, pumpkin seeds
  • Seeds are preferred over nuts
• Animal foods
  • Twice weekly or less, 2 or 3 ounce servings, total less than 6 ounces a week
  • Limit fish and white meat to a small amount of fish or shellfish once a week and then only one other small serving of non-fish white meat per week
  • Another part of the book says: fish / fat-free dairy twice weekly or less; poultry, eggs, oils once weekly or less
  • Fish include: salmon, sardines, squid, flounder, scrod, or trout
  • Most people do fine with 2 or 3 small servings of animal products a week, but for some, even this small amount of animal protein can cause their cholesterol to go into the unfavorable range. Therefore this book recommends only one or two servings of animal products a week
• Whole grains
  • Avoid in phase 1 and limit to a one-cup serving or less per day in phase two
  • Grains should be whole and intact when cooked in water
  • Brown and black rice, barley, quinoa, steel-cut oats, old-fashioned oatmeal
• Beverages
  • Choose water
  • Can have diluted vegetable juice
  • Small amounts of nut or seed milk
  • Limit alcohol to one or two alcoholic drinks a week or a few glasses of wine a week
• Breakfast
  • About 300 calories
  • Breakfast should consist of a few low-sugar fruits, such as berries, papaya, kiwis, pomegranates, oranges, and green apples
  • A half cup of cooked oats, or even a whole cup for men, is also acceptable to eat with breakfast. Another option is a squash-based breakfast soup
  • Try to eat one tablespoon of ground chia seeds or flaxseeds daily with breakfast
  • Eat four walnut halves every day with breakfast
• Lunch
  • About 400-500 calories
  • Make salad your main lunch dish
  • Can also have a soup
  • One serving of any type of fruit, not just the low-calorie ones – a mango, peach, pear, orange, or banana are good ideas
• Dinner
  • About 400-500 calories
  • Begin with a salad, or raw vegetables with dip
  • Always have a large plateful of steamed green vegetables with dinner
  • Could have a vegetable bean soup, or vegetable stew such as ratatouille, or beans, or a bean burger
  • If it is your fish night, have salad, steamed greens, and a small piece of fish cooked with garlic, onions, and tomato
• Water-sauteeing is a good cooking technique, instead of cooking with oil
• Get organic foods if you can afford them – it’s better to eat fruits and vegetables grown and harvested using pesticides than not to eat them at all. Try at least to get organic versions of the foods with the most pesticides – apples, celery, bell peppers, peaches, strawberries, nectarines (imported), grapes, spinach, lettuce, cucumbers, blueberries (domestic), potatoes

Foods to avoid or limit with The End of Diabetes

• Animal products
  • No eggs
  • No red meat
  • No whole milk, cheese, butter
  • These could be considered in small amounts on special occasions or holidays
  • Limit fish and white meat to a small amount of fish or shellfish once a week and then only one other small serving of non-fish white meat per week
• Fats and oils
  • Avoid all processed fats and oils – including animal fats, processed oils including olive oil, and trans-fats
• Salt
  • Do not add salt to any food
• Starchy foods
  • Avoid fruit juices
  • Avoid high-starch foods made from flour, bread, bagels, pasta, pizza, rolls, white rice, processed cold cereals, or white potatoes until you’re completely off insulin and sulfonylureas – even then only have unprocessed versions
• Beverages
  • No sweetened drinks of any kind, including artificially sweeteners
• Other
  • No sugar-free cookies, cakes, pastries, or other sugar-free products

Advice with gestational diabetes

• Don’t eat carbohydrates (even beans) with breakfast because insulin resistance is highest in the morning
• Breakfast – salad, roasted eggplant casserole
• Lunch – vegetable-bean soup or stew, roasted tofu slices wrapped in raw collard green leaves, zucchini- cauliflower casserole, lentils over lettuce and cabbage
• Dinner – steamed green vegetable dish plus raw vegetables plus one fresh fruit

Health benefits claimed in The End of Diabetes

The diet in this book claims to reduce the risks for: amputations, blindness, cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, erectile dysfunction, food addiction, food cravings, heart disease, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, kidney disease, overeating, overweight/obesity, nervous system disease, toxic hunger

As always, this is not intended to be a replacement for professional medical diagnosis or treatment for a medical condition. Consult your doctor before starting a new diet. This page describes what the authors of the diet recommend – Chewfo is describing the diet only, and does not endorse it.

Get a copy of The End of Diabetes for more information on medical research on diabetes and diet, the detailed eating plan, and recipes.

Dr. Fuhrman’s website is http://www.drfuhrman.com/; you can also find him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/drfuhrman, Twitter at https://twitter.com/drfuhrman, and his YouTube channel is http://www.youtube.com/drfuhrman.

How has this diet helped you? Please add a comment below.