Diabetes Educators Employed by Pharmaceutical Companies Are Coming to a Doctor’s Office Near You

I was recently informed by Deb Bellerose, nurse and Plantastic Life (PL) team member, that various pharmaceutical companies have offered to provide nutrition education classes at the physicians’ office at which she works. The classes will be provided by Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs) at no cost to the physicians or to diabetic patients. The education will consist of dietary recommendations and instruction on how to use various monitoring and insulin-pumping devices.   To many of you reading this, this may sound like a positive development. I do not see it that way.

I have a strong suspicion that a whole food plant based (WFPB) diet will not be offered as a dietary option to Type 2 Diabetics as it has the potential for disease reversal. Disease reversal means that the patient could someday be off his/her diabetes medications. That wouldn’t seem to mesh with the pharmaceutical company’s business model. The main reason this education program is being offered is to increase patient compliance with their medication regimen.

So I suspect that the CDEs will instruct people to make the same ineffective dietary changes that dietitians have been recommending for decades. These include:

• Replace eggs with egg whites
• Replace butter or margarine with olive, coconut or canola oil
• Replace vegetable oils with olive, coconut or canola oil
• Replace butter with light butter
• Replace bacon with turkey bacon
• Replace cheese with reduced fat cheese
•  Replace red meat with poultry and fish
• Replace whole milk with 1% or skim milk

I’m pretty sure the importance of “Balancing Your Plate” will be stressed. . Unfortunately the balanced plate approves of meat, fish and dairy and restricts health promoting starches.[1]

Dawn2 (Diabetes, Awaremess, Wishes and Needs 2) is a global initiative led by Novo Nordisk aimed to raise awareness and self management of the unmet needs of patients and their families.[2]

Here is a summary of the advice from professionals involved in Dawn2:

• Not just the Pharma industry, but also healthcare bodies worldwide can reduce non-adherence to medication by working in unison
• Establishing an earnest provider-patient relationship that will overcome patients’ disregard for their health
• Friends/Families can reinforce adherence
• Raising awareness through innovative education programs, which help not only patients, but their respective loved ones
• Taking advantage of today’s medical technologies
• Continuously devise ways to reduce healthcare costs.
• Eating healthy and getting exercise won’t hurt at all[3]

That’s right folks, the most effective approaches to treating Type 2 Diabetes – diet and exercise – are mentioned almost as an afterthought.

You can’t make this stuff up!

The dietary advice that is provided by pharmaceutical companies is meant to teach patients how to manage their diabetes with medication for the rest of their lives.   The diet and lifestyle that could result in patients actually getting healthy are not discussed.

Working with their physicians, Type 2 Diabetics can often get rid of their need for diabetes medications by living a lifestyle that includes a WFPB diet and reasonable exercise.

I believe that one of these two reasons explains why a WFPB approach is not promoted by many physicians.

1. They aren’t aware of the science supporting the use of WFPB diets[4] or
2. They don’t believe that patients will make such a “radical” change[5].

The Plantastic Life team believes that patients should decide whether the health benefits provided by WFPB are worth the effort of transitioning their diet. Many are being denied their right to make this decision because the WFPB option is not made available to them.

If you think that a WFPB diet is something you’d like to try, talk to your physician. This is especially important if you are a Type 2 Diabetic on insulin and/or other diabetes medications.   Do not adjust your medications on your own.

Once you’re ready to go, I hope you find this web site as a useful resource.

[1] http://www.lillydiabetes.com/_assets/pdf/ld86525_elidip-q30040_balancing-your-plate-1-pager-web.pdf

[2] http://www.novonordisk-us.com/documents/home_page/document/index.asp

[3] http://social.eyeforpharma.com/commercial/improving-patients-adherence-medication-through-collaboration-and-education

[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677007/

[5] http://www.wholefoodplantbasedrd.com/2014/07/do-you-really-think-following-a-wfpb-diet-is-a-radical-way-to-lose-weight/