Our Country Is Waking Up: Eating Vegan Is The New Prescription to Treat Diabetes

The time has arrived; no longer is a vegan, plant-based diet being seen as a trendy, hippie fad. It’s finally seen as an Rx treatment to take on one of the largest killers of our time: diabetes. Diabetes affects 115 million Americans every single day. More cases develop year by year, despite what we’ve done to eliminate soda in some cities, eliminate a large majority of high-fructose corn syrup on the market, and even list calorie content on fast food menus for people to make better choices. Those are a step in the right direction, but aren’t solving the diabetic problem. What is? A fiber-rich, plant-based diet – simple as that.

The Simple Solution to a Really Big Problem

The Center for Disease Control says that 86 millions Americans now have prediabetes. That’s a major problem if they end up joining the already 29 million Americans that already have it. Neal Barnard, M.D., and founder of The Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, recently shared his take on the new findings that show a plant-based diet prevents and treats Type 2 diabetes and helps those with Type 1 diabetes manage, and eliminate some symptoms.

Our Country is Getting a Wake-Up Call

We’ve long known how a plant-based diet supports and prevents diabetes, but we’ve yet to see medical organizations and the government wake up to this crazy (yet simple and smart) notion themselves. Many medical professional believe that their patients simply won’t stick to a plant-based diet, and that may very well be true if they don’t have the right knowledge and motivation to do so. Luckily, organizations like PCRM are showing patients they can eat any foods they want from whole, plant-based foods with no other restrictions at all besides eliminating oils. This not only makes things easy, but keeps it simple.

Kaiser Permanente, who is the largest managed care organization in the United States, has even recently began recommending every single patient they encounter receive information and Support about a plant-based diet. This is helpful to both the patient and the doctor, since it allows medical doctors who don’t have time (or knowledge) to discuss vegan diets with patients, at least be able to direct them to registered dietitians or have access to online resources.

Even the Government is Getting on Board, as Slow as That May Be

While Michelle Obama has done tremendous efforts to bring healthier meals into lunchrooms, we still have a long way to go before we get Congress and the USDA on board. However, the National School Lunch Program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) do promote intake of more fruits and vegetables than before, which is at least a step in the right direction. The more people push for a change, the more likely we’ll see one occur.

Don’t wait for congress before you act though- you can get your guide to eat an easy, vegan diet to prevent diabetes and see all of our recipes to see just how easy eating plant-based can be.

Every bite we take can contribute to disease or prevent it. What’s on the end of your fork? We’ll take the Rx for diabetes prevention on ours!

Image Source: kris krug/Flickr