Before the Facebook Private Group, Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics™, was started, Weimar’s only internet and Facebook presence were marketing pages, advertising the 18-day residential NEWSTART® Lifestyle Program costing thousands of dollars, claiming a 50% success rate for diabetics. They no longer offered the three-day seminars specifically for diabetics.
At my suggestion, Weimar started a Facebook group called NEWSTART® Insights, supposedly a support group for Weimar program alumni. I tried to ask questions but got little to no responses from even the 50% of “successful” diabetics. Eventually, NEWSTART® Insights was deactivated.
However, I did start this conversation with the question, “What do the diabetics in this group think about this? Do you rely on your semi-annual A1C tests rather than testing your post-meal blood glucose every day? Why or why not?”
Brenda answered, “I don’t check it every day but at least 1–2 times a month and the A1c is just confirmation for me that my lifestyle is working for me.”
Patricia wrote, “I would much rather have my finger hurt from pricking it to than to lose my limbs, my eyesight, or my organs, or die from this disease. So I test 5 to 7 times a day and I’m med-free.”
Vickie said, “I always check my post-meal blood glucose (about 2 1/2 hrs after a meal). It helps me keep my A1C between 6.0 and 6.6%. My morning blood sugar is usually between 78 and 105 [mg/dL].”
I couldn’t resist asking, “Do you also check your pre-meal BG? I’ve heard that your BG peaks at 60-90 minutes after the START of the meal and should not be over 140mg/dL, as greater than that can cause organ and nerve damage. By 2–3 hrs post-meal, your BG should have come down to what it was pre-meal. An A1C of 6.0-6.6% (prediabetes to diabetes) would be roughly equivalent to a BG of 125–143. Is that the general range your post-meal BG is in?” She said that was accurate.
Here is the response from Ron Giannoni, who was the group admin at that time. He said, “It is recommended to keep A1C between 4 and 6%. Anything above is pre-diabetic or diabetic, depending on whom you ask. If I were checking sugar levels daily, I would want to know immediately if I need to make adjustments. I wouldn’t want to wait one year to know my A1C is creeping up to 7% and above.”
I posted this article by author Chris Kresser:
Why hemoglobin A1c is not a reliable marker
Hemoglobin A1c is being increasingly used as a way to screen for diabetes. Read this to learn why Chris thinks this is a very bad idea.
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Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics™ Recipe Book was published in April 2023. It can be found on Amazon at (https://www.amazon.com/Adventist-Vegetarian-DiabeticsTM-Recipe-Book/dp/B0C1JJTGLW/) in both Kindle and paperback formats.
Our classic book, Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics, 2nd Edition, was published in May 2023. It can be found on Amazon at (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C5KNKS8B) in both Kindle and paperback formats.
We encourage you to join our Facebook group for Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics™ in order to ask questions, make comments, and share your own experiences. If you are not a member of the Facebook group for Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics but would like to be, please click the link and request to join. You will be asked 3 questions. Here’s a description of the Facebook group.
If you just want continuing information and don’t want to take part in any discussion, we recommend you peruse our website at https://adventistvegetariandiabetics.com/. We also have a Facebook information page, Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics Resources.
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Adventist Vegetarian Diabetics 