- So my name's Joe. I am a former diabetic. I have reversed my diabetes. My last HbA1c was 5.1. I've lost 120 pounds over the course of my
investigation into these diets. I've tried them all. I made it my life's work. I quit Goldman Sachs to focus on diet. I had a hell of a time. It went on for decades. But it's left me in the position where I really understand
what works with these diets, and what doesn't, and who they work for. - So first and foremost, what do you think about the low carb diet? - Okay, so from a diabetic perspective, the low carb diet is helpful
because the cause of diabetes is high sugar and high fat. The most obvious thing
that the doctors recommend, and it does make sense, is take away the activator, the sugar. And it does work. We're designed to have a period
of time on a ketosis diet, but it is not our main fuel source. Our main fuel source is carbohydrates. So it's a fantastic diet
to stop emergencies, to lower your blood sugar quickly. It will happen instantly
when you go on a keto diet. But if you make that now your
identity or your lifestyle, you're gonna run into problems
because the fat in the blood is going to pick up and increase. And at some point, you are
gonna crave your natural diet, which is a carbohydrate, and you are gonna pick up an apple, and you're gonna bite it, boom. It will raise your blood sugar. It will spike your blood sugar because you've got so
much fat accumulated, and that's the original
problem you're dealing with. - And what do you think about
the standard American diet? - Standard American
diet will just kill you. It's gonna prematurely kill you because it activates the
weaknesses in your body and they manifest as
what we call illnesses. - The whole-food, plant-based diet? - The whole-food,
plant-based diet, I think, is probably the best diet for most people. If you're diabetic and if you have a bit of a bingey type background, it's not clear enough 'cause
you are gonna gravitate to what you probably
would be eating less of, i.e., handfuls of nuts and dates, right? And there's nothing wrong with
them for a healthy person. But when you are
metabolically-compromised, you're put into this
space that's very broad, whole-foods, plant-based,
and you're just gonna shift to what's not gonna work, right? So you need a little bit more rails. But if you're a healthy person,
you can't go wrong with it. You cannot go wrong with that. And even a lot of people who
aren't extremely diabetic will do very well with that. And I argue that it may
even be a better approach because it's more comfortable. But if you are doing that, a little bit off topic,
but if you are doing that, you've got to let go of the time, 'cause what you'll notice is
that you'll be healing, right? But it's not fast enough
for you to actually notice, so you'll be going, you've got this 12-week
program idea in your head, which is very damaging
for people who are unwell, that everything should happen in 12 weeks. It might take two years, but
you might not even notice it. I remember one period, I
was actually doing very well between the two posts, which might have been 18 months apart, but every day I'm like,
I'm failing, I'm failing, I'm failing, I'm failing, because it's not going fast enough. So that's another issue that
you might have with that. But I would argue that the
most comfortable approach would be just to go
whole-food, plant-based, but you have to put in
some other parameters in the early days 'cause otherwise you're
gonna run into problems. - And what do you think about
the high fat gourmet raw diet? - High fat gourmet raw is too
complicated to do on your own. You need to live with
about 10 people in a house where you've got dehydrators going and you're sharing the food, otherwise you end up with
20 identical sandwiches, 'cause you can't make small quantities. - And 80/10/10, which is lead, I believe, by Doug Graham, which
is predominantly based on, like, a raw food diet, right? - 80/10/10 diet is a
predominantly fruit-based diet with greens and exercise. Most people only read the first two parts, which is fruits and greens, and they leave the exercise alone. Then you're eating a high
amount of carbohydrate, not exercising. It can still work, but if you're diabetic, that's gonna cause you problems. You've got to improve your carbability, which is your ability
to process those foods. And as a diabetic, when
you start, it's very low. So you eat this fruit, your blood sugar starts to accumulate. Bananas make you pass out. And everyone thinks you're lying because fruit's meant to be god. It isn't. If you're diabetic, fruit can
harm you unless you go slowly. What I will add is you,
the author of that diet added you must eat a lot of greens, and people don't do that. Greens pacify sugar in the diet. They just do. And a lot of people leave that behind and they just do the fruit. And then they crash and then they burn. - And what do you think about
the standard vegan diet? - Absolutely delicious. It's great. If you've never been unwell,
and you're starting young, and you just wanna be
plant-based for your life, I think you're gonna do okay. But if you already have illnesses, it may prevent rapid deterioration, but it's not gonna reverse 'em. - And the raw till 4 diet
as a general concept? - Raw till 4 is a great diet. I believe it's a healing diet. Two meals of raw food in the daytime, one at night for your
socializing and emotional eating. There's nothing wrong with it as it is. We used to call it high raw, and it's a very successful diet. If you can do that, go right ahead. - And what do you think about raw till 4 as an online phenomenon? - In principle, the online raw
till 4 diet is a great diet. It's raw food in the daytime, and it's cooked food,
high carb food at night. It's a very, very healthy diet. The big issue with it is this
eat unlimited quantities. Because unlimited
quantities for one person is not the same as someone else. I could eat so much food, right? And other people had that problem. People ate so much food
they would gain weight, or they've got very high metabolism, or they've got very, very
low insulin resistance so the diet works. But once you throw in an
unlimited calorie amount, plus a calorie goal, then for
some people in the population, that is gonna create a lot of harm. - What about the 30 bananas a day diet? - 30 bananas a day is, like,
it's so catchy, it's so great, bananas are great, but
the 30 bananas a day made me really unwell as a diabetic. It's so much sugar going in all in one go. If you're already lean,
you're already fit, and you're doing quite well,
it's a great thing to do. You'll feel fantastic. Your digesting will really improve. But as a diabetic, I'm passing out. - And gluten-free? What do you think about
the gluten-free diet? - Gluten-free diet is just really for someone that has allergies. It's not gonna be that, it's not enough to change your health just eliminating gluten. If you have an allergy, it will help, but it's not gonna change your health. You could have a standard American diet and it could be gluten-free. - And finally, what's working
for you at the moment? What would you recommend? - When I want to have great blood sugars, like, pristine blood sugars. I eat above ground
vegetables with nice sauces, spices, and a bit of protein. When I'm socializing, 'cause how often do we really socialize around food, it's not as much as we pretend, I eat a regular vegan diet. It might be one meal, two meals a week. But the rest of the time,
when I control my food, I go for above ground vegetables in bowls of sauces and
spices, and then fruit. - Thank you so much. I think people find this video interesting because you've got not just
a unique perspective on this, but I think you've been through a lot of years of researching this and trying different things. And so, I think a lot of
people who wanna get healthier or wanna tackle their Type 2 diabetes will find this very helpful. - Everybody who's
contributed to these diets is trying to be of benefit in some way. All of these diets are promoting, all of the plant-based
diets are beneficial for the animal welfare. They all provide some health benefits 'cause they're all leaving stuff out. And all the people that have created them have done the best they can with the knowledge that
they can at the time. The problem with all
of these branded diets is you are a individual. And if we all grew up in
a tropical environment, we would all eat the same diet. But everyone is coming
from different gene pools, different backgrounds,
different hormonal imbalances, different illnesses, so you've got to tailor the
diet to not where you are. You're not a bonobo living in the jungle. You're you with your issues and you've got to make
the diet work for you, whatever that is. And if you're diabetic, that means that you don't ask the guru if you can eat this, you
ask your blood sugar meter. That is the key.
