How wife’s diet inspired me to cure my diabetes
Even at 16st my wife Susan looked great to me, but when she said she wanted to lose weight I was determined to back her. Little did I realise that her battle would help change my whole life too.
It was September 2013 and, as Susan pounded away at exercise classes with my encouragement, I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.
With no family history of the disease, it came as a total shock, but it was also a relief to learn why I was so exhausted and that my mood swings were caused by blood sugar crashes. I was told I didn’t need insulin injections but could control it through better diet.
Naively, I paid little attention to the GP when he told me to ditch doughnuts and cans of Coke.
I tried to eat more healthily but my job – in the food industry – meant I was on the go all the time. I’d have a bit of toast for breakfast, if anything, and spent the day snacking on crisps and chocolate from garages before having a huge portion of whatever was for tea that night. In the evening, I was snacking like crazy to make up for the calories I’d missed during the day. A year later, Susan was starting to look absolutely amazing, but I’d done little about my own 16st weight, or my bad eating habits – and still felt drained and generally dreadful. When my doctor suggested I take part in a diabetes diet trial called DiRECT at Newcastle University, it was the nudge I needed to do something about my health. Trial expert Professor Roy Taylor warned me it wouldn’t be easy. I’d have to stick to water and four vitamin and mineral shakes a day for 16 weeks, only eating real food desperate.
Looking at my children Warren and Connor, now 10 and 12, I knew it was time to do something. I wanted to be around for them as they got older. And it was Susan’s weight loss that spurred me on.
That said, the first seven weeks were horrendous.
I had no energy and apparently looked like death warmed up. I was an area manager and part of my job was taste testing in kitchens, restaurants and pubs – so I was surrounded by food all day long.
Sweet treats and bakery food were replaced by litres of water and a 212-calorie shake every four hours. I had a choice of banana, vanilla, summer fruits and chocolate... but even then it got boring.
Every time I thought I’d give up I just looked at what Susan had achieved. When things got bad I’d eat sugar-free if I was polo mints. Normal blood sugar levels range between 4.0 to 5.9 mmol/L. At their highest mine were over 10 but as weeks went by I watched the levels slowly fall until I hit 4.7.
Sixteen weeks into the programme my diabetes went into remission and three years later I’m still under control.
My weight dropped to just under 13st. I won’t pretend it was easy and I have to work to maintain my weight.
My rubbish diet has been replaced by a good breakfast of porridge, a preprepared ■■Seventeen million babies are breathing toxic air that could damage their brains, says UN children’s agency Unicef. Tots in South Asia are the worst affected by pollution that could undermine cognitive development. ■■Letting kids lick the bowl after baking a cake could give them E. coli, the US Food and Drug Administration warns. Grain used lunch of pasta or rice with veg – while dinners are good choices such as jacket potatoes and salad, home-made lasagne or chilli. And we eat off overloaded side plates instead of dinner plates – tricking the brain into ensuring you don’t eat too much. The shakes are still being trialled but if they become readily available everyone should have a chance to reverse their illness using this drink. It would save NHS cash in the long run. And Susan? Well she’s now a size 10, 10st and is looking better than ever. I’m really proud of her... and pretty proud of myself too. Grace Macaskill
■■More than a third of UK teenagers are dangerously overweight, experts claim. A University College London study of 12,000 children born since 2000 found 35% of 14-year-olds are obese, with girls most affected.