Why rely on risky drugs when you can change your diet and improve your health? Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

I don't think that a person must go to the extreme of becoming a vegan. A small amount of lean meat in your diet won't hurt you.

But why a vegan, which I think means no milk and other dairy products at all? Why not a vegetarian, with dairy products in one's diet, no need to go overboard, but some, as the other poster said why not a small amount of lean meat? Well why not, although, I'm basically a vegetarian myself, but believe that when one chooses one's own lifestyle, without other people "insisting" that theirs is the "best", it's easier to stick to it. If an extreme lifestyle is what one likes than so be it. Each to his/her own, but eat things in moderation and it will work to lose weight, bring one's glucose down and be healthier in every way.

But I do think, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has taken a very courageous step to even call for this step, when in spite of all the adverse reports coming out against Avandia, many doctors do not feel it needs to be taken off the market.

I think PCRM is correct and is right in trying to get this information to the public. As a professional in the health field, I have seen vegan diets do much more for health than drugs. For instance, cancer, and the aforementioned afflictions, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes. . .
So, obviously, "lean" meat in your diet will kill you. Don't knock if you won't try it.

It never ceases to amaze me how people can see being "vegan" as an extreme lifestyle. A bit of unbiased research is all that is necessary to see things otherwise. The profound healing that can take place when animal products are removed from the diet is convincing enough for me. Extreme is not eating fruits, vegetables and whole grains...extreme is having your chest opened up and exposed to stale operating room air and taking a monumental chance of signigicantly losing cognitive brain function from the procedure itself. All of this for a possible short term "fix". That's no answer. Pass the peas, please.

Can we see some peer reviewed research please? Can we see a list of the membership of the PCRM. Is this, perchance, more PC than RM? Please do some in depth reading on diet. Moderation is an answer.

PCRM is just another group of PETA and their ilk.
Living the vegan diet does NOTHING to either control nor eliminate Diabetes.
This is a disease of the Endocrine system.
These people who really are persona non grata in the medical community have no business telling Diabetics how to control their disease.

While I have no ethical problems adhering to any kind of vegetarian diet, both my diabetes and 3 kinds of anemia respond better to daily ingestion of the hemeiron from animal sources. I still need regular infusions. I've had Type 2 diabetes for almost 10 years, and it's my medical condition that is under best control.

I think PCRM is correct and is right in trying to get this information to the public. As a professional in the health field, I have seen vegan diets do much more for health than drugs. For instance, cancer, and the aforementioned afflictions, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes. . .
So, obviously, "lean" meat in your diet will kill you. Don't knock if you won't try it.

A little lean meat won't hurt you? Tell me that after you eat a piece of meat from an animal with Mad Cow Disease. Or Avian Flu. And the list goes on. Why take a chance?

Not eating animals is good for us, good for the planet, and most of all, good for the animals! Veganism is not an extreme lifestyle. It's a healthy and compassionate way of life.

Type 2 Diabetes and the Vegetarian Diet (from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 78, No. 3, 610S-616S, September 2003) -

Based on what is known of the components of plant-based diets and their effects from cohort studies, there is reason to believe that vegetarian diets would have advantages in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. At present there are few data on vegetarian diets in diabetes that do not in addition have weight loss or exercise components. Nevertheless, the use of whole-grain or traditionally processed cereals and legumes has been associated with improved glycemic control in both diabetic and insulin-resistant individuals. Long-term cohort studies have indicated that whole-grain consumption reduces the risk of both type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In addition, nuts (eg, almonds), viscous fibers (eg, fibers from oats and barley), soy proteins, and plant sterols, which may be part of the vegetarian diet, reduce serum lipids. In combination, these plant food components may have a very significant impact on cardiovascular disease, one of the major complications of diabetes. Furthermore, substituting soy or other vegetable proteins for animal protein may also decrease renal hyperfiltration, proteinuria, and renal acid load and in the long term reduce the risk of developing renal disease in type 2 diabetes. The vegetarian diet, therefore, contains a portfolio of natural products and food forms of benefit for both the carbohydrate and lipid abnormalities in diabetes. It is anticipated that their combined use in vegetarian diets will produce very significant metabolic advantages for the prevention and treatment of diabetes and its complications.

I have attended cardiologists seminars, diabetes seminars, American Diatetic assoc seminars & many more professional seminars where vegetarian & vegan diets have been presented as very beneficial to diabetes & numerous other chronic disease. If anyone has any doubt, they need to read the research, it's there!

Has anyone else noticed that the recommendations of this article are the exact opposite of Dr. Rosedale, in this same newsletter? Don't know if I should be commenting as a type 1, but I did spend 3-5 months on the Vegan diet as described above back in the early 90s. I gained weight and was hungry all the time. My energy was low; I felt awful. I am now on Dr. Bernstein's recommended low carb diet, lowered my insulin use way down, and feel more energy than I have in a long time.

Ditto. I wish it worked for me, but I gained 10 pounds very rapidly using the PCRM vegan diet, and was hungry constantly. My brain can't dictate to my body what fuel is best.

Please do note that "Physicians committee for Responsible Medicine" is focused on animal rights. They also do not believe in using animals for medical research. Shall we ask our islet cell transplant researchers if they can proceed without animal models?