Even SLIM type 2 diabetics can reverse their condition

Even lean people with type 2 diabetes can reverse their condition through a soup-and-shake diet, researchers revealed today.

And they only need to lose 10 percent of their body weight, experts think.

This is the equivalent of someone with a 13th (83 kg) frame losing 1st 4 lbs (8 kg).

Scientists from the University of Newcastle say the findings, presented at a medical conference in Sweden, support the idea that everyone has a “personal fat threshold.”

Professor Roy Taylor, a world-renowned diabetes expert and lead researcher, said: ‘When you develop type 2 diabetes, you simply have more fat in your body than you can handle, even if it seems lean.

‘This excess fat ends up in your liver and pancreas, stopping normal function and causing type 2 diabetes.

‘You only need half a gram of extra fat in the pancreas to prevent normal insulin production.

“I’m often asked, ‘Why do I have type 2 diabetes if all my friends are taller than me and don’t have diabetes?’ The current work answers this riddle.’

Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body doesn’t make enough insulin, or the insulin it makes doesn’t work properly, leading to high blood sugar levels.

Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to blindness and cause patients to amputate their limbs or go into a coma.

It affects about 4.5 million people in the UK and 37 million in the US.

Although heavily driven by obesity, about 15 percent of all patients are a “normal weight.”

This puts them in the group known as TOFIs – who are “thin on the outside and thick on the inside.”

TOFIs are usually not advised to lose weight, while doctors believe their condition has another cause.

But the new findings prove that counseling — which has been pushed out for years — is wrong.

Twenty participants were recruited for the study. They had an average BMI of 24.8 – defined as a “healthy” weight.

All volunteers were asked to adhere to a daily 800-calorie regimen consisting of low-calorie shakes and soups for two weeks.

A similar diet, called “game-changing,” has been shown to help overweight people with type 2 diabetes to reverse their condition. The results have even seen NHS doctors prescribing soup and shakes to help obese Britons lose weight.

The participants were then allowed to throw away the soups and shakes, but eat sensibly for up to six weeks, so that they do not pile on extra kilos.

The cycle was repeated up to three times, until they lost at least 10 percent of their body weight.

Fourteen volunteers went into remission, which allowed them to dump all their medication.

Reversal was defined as blood sugar that remained below the technical threshold for diabetes for at least six months.

Their average BMI dropped to 22.4.

Meanwhile, MRI scans showed that the fat levels in their liver and pancreas had fallen ‘significantly’.

The findings were presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Stockholm.

Marathon runner diagnosed with diabetes is now in remission after dieting with soups and shakes

Having recently run his first marathon, David Childs seemed an unlikely candidate for type 2 diabetes.

But in June 2020, he was diagnosed with severe daily headaches and fainting, because his blood sugar had become too high.

After recently running his first marathon, David Childs looked like an unlikely candidate for type 2 diabetes. But in June 2020, he was diagnosed after severe daily headaches and fainting spells because his blood sugar had become too high.

Mr Childs, 48, signed on to the ReTUNE study in March to reverse type 2 diabetes, as one of about 10 percent of people with the condition who are at a healthy weight.

The father of four, from the village of Cleadon in South Tyneside, said: ‘Even my GP didn’t believe I had type 2 diabetes at first.

“I have no family history of diabetes, I am slim and I recently ran a marathon, after several half marathons.

‘But unfortunately, although I didn’t have a beer belly, I did have excess fat in my liver.

“I was determined to get off the tablets I had been given and roll it back if I could.”

Mr. Childs completed two-month diets of meal replacement soups and shakes to lose about 10 percent of his body weight.

That brought the 48-year-old, who is six feet tall, to a weight of 82 kilograms (12 bricks and 13 pounds).

Mr. Childs, who works for a pharmaceutical company, achieved diabetes remission mid-trial and has not looked back.

He runs twice a week, tries to eat healthy and has reduced his chip and bread consumption.

He said: ‘I was worried that my future would involve slowly increasing my medication and risking health problems from diabetes.

“Now I poke my finger every morning to check my blood sugar and every time I see it’s normal, I smile to myself that I don’t have diabetes anymore.”