“Living food” replaces pharmaceutical medication for local man with diabetes

According to the Canadian Diabetes Association, more than 9 million Canadians are living with diabetes or prediabetes, a disease in which the body does not produce or properly use insulin, the hormone needed to convert glucose into the energy that is required for daily life.

To manage the disease, animal-sourced insulins and biosynthetic (man-made) insulins are commonly used, administered with pens, pumps and injectors.

But what if it was possible to reverse the disease without pharmaceutical medication? Yellowhead County resident Henry Fletcher, diagnosed with diabetes over 30 years ago, may be proof that it is.

Henry, who has a family history of diabetes and lost his father to a stroke, began his search for a better way of life last year.

"I wasn't about to go the route of my father and his father. So (my wife and I) decided, OK, something's got to change," Henry told the Leader.

What he found flies in the face of the 'better living through chemistry' philosophy of the day – an independent documentary film titled Simply Raw: Reversing Diabetes in 30 Days. The film chronicles six Americans with diabetes who travel to the Tree of Life Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia, Arizona and switch to a diet of vegan, organic, uncooked food for 30 days.

In the film, the diet and lifestyle changes that the six Simply Raw program participants make lead to medical, physical and emotional transformations – significant drops in blood sugar and Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics having no more need for insulin – results which stand to reason that diet can reverse disease and change lives.

Inspired by the film, Henry and his wife Delores started the raw diet on January 15. Within a couple weeks Henry was off insulin.

"I've got energy. I don't get tired," Henry said of the ways that the diet has changed his life.

The couple hosted a screening of Simply Raw at the Peers Community Hall on February 20 to share the benefits of the diet and lifestyle change, as well as their tried and true green smoothie recipe, with the community.