The author, a scientist with type 1 diabetes, argues that dietary changes are an effective way to manage the disease.
A low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet helped the author normalize blood sugar levels and reduce insulin needs.
The author suggests the healthcare system often overlooks nutritional strategies in favor of drugs and devices.
I was 16 when I ended up in a hospital bed and heard three words that changed my life: type 1 diabetes. What I didn’t know then — and what too few doctors acknowledge today — is that dietary changes are often the best way to combat the disease.
For decades, doctors have treated type 1 diabetes as if insulin alone could manage it. But despite billions of dollars poured into drugs and devices, most people with type 1 diabetes still don’t achieve recommended blood sugar control. I know this firsthand, as both a scientist and someone living with type 1 diabetes.
When I was first diagnosed, I did what everyone told me to do: count carbs, take insulin, and hope the numbers balance out. Instead, I lived with constant blood sugar swings that left me exhausted and discouraged.
I tried different tools and strategies, but nothing took me off the rollercoaster. My health only began to improve when I tried a different approach — a diet that would put me into therapeutic ketosis. Because carbohydrates raise blood glucose higher and faster than insulin can lower glucose, cutting them out of my diet nearly entirely made my blood sugar levels far more predictable. Almost immediately, my blood glucose levels normalized and I needed less insulin. My mental health improved. Why? I wasn’t living on the rollercoaster anymore.
Science backs this up.
Multiple studies have shown that people with type 1 diabetes on low-carb diets can lower their blood sugar into the normal range — slashing the risk of long-term complications like brain, vision, and nerve damage. In other trials, patients spent 25% more time in the safer blood sugar range.
I’ve even added my own case in the scientific literature so patients and researchers can benefit from the findings.
For more than 10 years on a ketogenic diet, I’ve kept my HbA1c around 5.5% — the healthy target for someone without diabetes — while cutting my insulin use by 43%.
Insulin is still essential. Every person with type 1 diabetes needs it to survive. But eating in a way that minimizes blood sugar swings allows me to use insulin the way it was intended — to normalize glucose levels, not chance constant high and lows.
This isn’t
Nutrition can help transform Type 1 diabetes | Opinion
