Tag Archives: David Mendosa

Does a Low-Carb Vegetarian Diet Work for Diabetes?

Posted on March 30, 2017 | Comments Off

Spaghetti squash with parsley, olive oil, snow peas, garlic, salt, pepper

It does for type 2 diabetic David Mendosa, who’s been doing it for three years. He shares some ideas on how to do it at the link below. From the intro:

About nine years ago, I started to eat only food low in carbohydrates that don’t have a high glycemic index. I knew that this was the only proven way to bring my blood glucose level down where I wanted it to be without using drugs or supplements. My most recent A1C test showed that my level is 5.1 percent, well within the range considered normal.

While continuing to eat this way, about three years ago I added the further restriction of eating no meat, fish, or seafood. This was a substantial shift in what I was eating, and I made it mainly because I don’t want to be intentionally responsible for the death of animals or other sentient beings. Only later did I begin to realize its health benefits.

Source: How to Manage Your Diabetes with a Low-Carb Vegetarian Diet – Diabetes

David seems to adhere to the lacto-ovo strain of vegetarianism, rather than vegan or pesco-vegetarian. In other words, he’ll eat eggs and milk products but not fish. I suspect he eats under 40 grams/day of digestible carbohydrate.

Here are more of David’s ideas on implementation of a very low-carb vegetarian diet.

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Posted in Diabetic Diet, Vegetarian Diets

Tagged David Mendosa, diabetes, diabetic diet, lacto-ovo, vegetarian diet

David Mendosa On Low-Carb High-Fat Diets for Type 2 Diabetes

Posted on January 6, 2014 | 6 comments

David Mendosa suggests that all type 2 diabetics can manage their illness without drugs. I’m not quite that optimistic, but probably a majority can, if they have the knowledge, discipline, and willpower. I haven’t looked in depth at David’s diet recently so I don’t know if it’s paleo or not; it’s more likely LCHF (low-carb, high-fat). Here are some snippets from David’s blog:

You can use drugs to bring your A1C level down to normal. That’s a good thing. But this strategy does have its costs, and those costs aren’t just money out of your pocket or your checkbook. The worst of those costs are the potential side effects of the drugs.

***

But some of us think we have a safer strategy of managing our diabetes without drugs. Back in 2007 I joined this group with the encouragement of a good friend of mine who is a Certified Diabetes Educator. Before that, I had 14 years of experience taking a wide range of diabetes drugs, including two different sulfonylureas (Diabeta and Amaryl), Glucophage (metformin), and Byetta. For the past six years I haven’t taking any diabetes drugs, and yet I keep my diabetes in control with an A1C level usually about 5.4.

I had to make three big changes in my life when I went off the diabetes drugs, and they are hard at first. But now they are a routine part of my life, and I would never go back to my old ways. The changes that I had to make are those that almost everyone who has diabetes has to make. In order of importance, I had (1) to lose weight, (2) eat fewer carbohydrates, and (3) exercise more.

Read the whole enchilada. It’s brief.

Steve Parker, M.D.

6 Comments

Posted in Diabetic Diet

Tagged David Mendosa, diabetes, LCHF, low-carb high-fat, paleo diet

What Is The Only Australian Plant Crop That Has Ever Been Commercially Developed as a Food?

Posted on December 23, 2013 | Comments Off

David Mendosa says the answer is the macadamia nut.

Macadamia nuts

From a paleo perspective, a great thing about the macadamia nut is that it’s one of the few nuts with a good omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid ratio. In other words, it’s high in omega-3 and low in 6. This may have important cardiovascular health implications. Macadamias are one of the nuts I recommend on my Paleobetic Diet.

David writes:

The first Australian macadamia plantation didn’t begin until the 1880s. And not until 1954 with the introduction of mechanised processing did commercial production became viable. Nowadays about 90 percent of the the world’s macadamia nut production comes from Hawaii, where it has become its third most important crop, according to The Wellness Encyclopedia of Food and Nutrition, University of California at Berkeley (1992).

Read the rest, where you’ll learn that macadamia nuts are the highest of all nuts in calories, gram for gram.

Macadamia nuts on the tree

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Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Australia, David Mendosa, macadamia nuts, omega-3 fatty acids, omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid ratio, Paleobetic Diet

David Mendosa On Weight Loss and Long-Term Management

Posted on July 28, 2013 | Comments Off

Maybe his method works only for him, but I doubt it. David has diabetes, by the way. See his 2012 article at HealthCentral for details. Here’s a bit:

One cornerstone of this new way to lose weight and maintain weight loss is a twist on a standard dieting recommendation. But instead of weighing myself once a week, I weigh myself every morning.

Supposedly people get discouraged from daily weigh-ins because our weight seems to fluctuate up or down a couple of pounds every day for no good reason, or for at least for no reason that we can figure out. The fluctuations are certainly true in my experience. But, of course, the same fluctuations happen when we make our weigh-ins once a week, and that would be even more misleading.

Then, when the scales tell me that my weight is up that morning from the previous morning, I make an immediate course correction, which we know is easier in the long run than to wait until things get totally out of hand. My immediate course correction is simple. I skip dinner that day.

Note well, however, that skipping dinner could lead to major hypoglycemia if you’re taking certain diabetes drugs. Work with your personal healthcare provider on drug dose adjustments.

Steve Parker, M.D.