Elizabeth treats her type 1 diabetes, lost weight and has more energy on a carnivore diet

The Carnivore Diet: A Simple Solution for Diabetes Control

When Elizabeth was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, it was “a huge curveball for my life.” She started a ketogenic diet six months later but kept “falling off the wagon.” She gained some weight, up to a high of 207 pounds, and her A1c went over 8. Elizabeth was looking for something easier!

Learning About the Carnivore Diet

Like many of us, Elizabeth first learned of the carnivore diet on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. She found it a practical solution, saying, “It’s convenient, it’s very simple, and it works very well for my life and my diabetes. The majority of the time, I don’t even feel diabetic.” That is very different than how this disease affects most people.

The Simplicity of the Carnivore Diet

Elizabeth likes the simplicity, too: “I have a family, and I have a husband, so I just, you know, make ordinary meals like I normally do; I’m just eating only one part of that meal. They have their rice, they have their veggies or whatever else I decide to make with the protein, and then I just eat the protein.”

Elizabeth does include cheese on her hamburger patties or cream in her coffee, which she enjoys as her treat.

Diabetes Control with the Carnivore Diet

Elizabeth found that the carnivore diet helped her to control her blood sugar, despite being a type 1 diabetic. “That crazy sugar control that I’ve been getting, you know, what I mean like I don’t even feel diabetic.”

My numbers compare to a borderline Type 2, which is crazy considering I control my sugars solely based on injections. I knew my numbers were going to be good, but I didn’t actually realize how good. I take a long, slow-acting shot in the morning, and then I take a smaller shot in the evening.

Yesterday I forgot my morning shot, and my fasting sugar was 4.6. By the time I realized I hadn’t taken my insulin, it was three o’clock, and my sugar had only gone up to seven, which is not very much at all. In my pre-carnivore days, I would be almost in ketoacidosis if I forgot my insulin.”

The Benefits of the Carnivore Diet

Elizabeth finds that the carnivore diet allows her to feel almost like her pre-diabetic diagnosis because controlling her diabetes is so much simpler. She also finds that the carnivore diet makes her insulin much less expensive.

Medical Community’s Response to the Carnivore Diet

Her doctor still isn’t on board, despite her success: “This diet has allowed me to not even use my fast-acting; I use a small amount of long-acting daily. 

I have lowered the amount of money that I’ve spent on medical supplies. But my endo will proceed to tell me to ‘eat a balanced diet,’ a diet that will continue to make me use more insulin, a diet that makes me have those highs and lows, makes me suffer from those adverse effects that will put me in a hospital.

It’s just a vicious cycle. This diet will actually help with the supplies and the amount of insulin you use and overall what you pay for because it is an expensive disease.”