Health & Nutrition
Mastering Diabetes: Cyrus Khambatta and Robby Barbaro on Reversing Insulin Resistance with High-Carb, Low-Fat Vegan Eating
Cyrus Khambatta, Ph.D., and Robby Barbaro of Mastering Diabetes, both living with type 1 diabetes, explain how a high-carbohydrate, low-fat whole-food plant-based diet dramatically improved their insulin sensitivity, and why the same principles can reverse prediabetes and type 2 diabetes for the vast majority of the 110 million Americans affected.
Topics Covered
- Cyrus's diagnosis with three autoimmune conditions at 22, and how switching from a low-carb diet to a plant-based diet cut his insulin needs by 40% while eating five times more carbohydrate
- Robby's own diagnosis at 12, his experimentation with the Weston A. Price diet and a plant-based ketogenic diet, and how a whole-food plant-based, fruit-forward diet finally resolved his symptoms
- The different types of diabetes explained: type 1, type 1.5 (adult-onset autoimmune), prediabetes, type 2, and gestational diabetes
- How insulin resistance actually develops: saturated fat accumulation in the liver and muscle blocking insulin signaling, not carbohydrate intake itself
- Why low-carb/keto diets can mask insulin resistance with better blood glucose numbers while the underlying condition worsens
- Key diagnostic tests to know: fasting blood glucose, fasting insulin, A1C, and C-peptide
- The four components of the Mastering Diabetes Method: low-fat whole-food plant-based nutrition, intermittent fasting, daily movement, and daily documentation
- Complications of unmanaged insulin resistance, including heart disease, kidney failure, neuropathy, retinopathy, amputations, and cognitive decline
About the Guest
Cyrus Khambatta, Ph.D. in Nutritional Biochemistry, and Robby Barbaro, MPH, are the co-founders of Mastering Diabetes and co-authors of the book Mastering Diabetes: The Revolutionary Method to Reverse Insulin Resistance Permanently. Both have lived with type 1 diabetes since their youth and coach clients worldwide on reversing insulin resistance through whole-food, plant-based nutrition.