Diabetics are faced with a grim regime of constant blood testing and medications. However, a Slovakian doctor made local headlines in 2019 by prescribing a plant-based diet with great success. (1)

“Pravda” Reports Diabetics Off Medication

Pravda, Slovakia’s biggest newspaper published news about the success seen by type 2 diabetes patients using a new advanced plant-based protocol. According to the article, two leading diabetes experts introduced the Natural Food Interaction (NFI) protocol, as a successful intervention for treating type 2 Diabetes. (1)

Diabetics Off Medication Using Tailored Diets

The NFI protocol provides a personalized whole-food plant-based diet plan, founded by businessman David Hickman and biomedical scientist Zuzana Plevova. By tailoring the diets based on a patient’s height, weight, age, sex, medication, and associated diagnoses the diet becomes highly effective. (1)

The plan is nutritionally balanced, allowing blood glucose levels to normalize, while patients lose an average 3kg each week. Diabetes researcher Professor Emil Martinka, Ph.D., and physician Dr. Janka Lejavova, MD., describe the treatment as a ‘natural and effective approach’ to treating type 2 Diabetes. (1)

147 Diabetics Off Medication

“The NFI diet is based on plant food sources (vegetables, fruits, nuts, pulses, mushrooms, etc.) and at the same time temporarily excludes animal sources (meat, milk, dairy products, eggs),” says Prof. Martinka, the head of the National Institute of Diabetes and Endocrinology in Slovakia. “However, this is not a vegan diet. A progressive specificity of NFI is the combination of plant food ingredients that are optimized for a particular patient.” (1)

Under the care of Dr. Janka Lejavova, 147 patients following the protocol were off their medications in less than a year. (1)

Diabetics Off Medication Must Be Compliant

However, the most important aspect of the protocol is of course compliance according to Prof Martinka. As with any diet, struggling to stick to the regime can make or break success. Because the diet is so challenging, patients can easily get off track. The fact it takes about 20 weeks to potentially be off medication for good, is an excellent incentive for compliance. (1)

Diabetics Off Medication Use Safe Diet

“The NFI diet is absolutely safe, does not require any drugs or chemicals, does not induce any reactions in the body that could be risky in the diabetic or does not burden the body with excessive protein or fat intake with adverse effects on the kidneys or blood vessels,” says Prof Martinka. (1)

So how exactly does the NFI protocol work? “NFI restores and corrects disrupted mechanisms, restores physiology, and achieves improvement at multiple levels of metabolic syndrome manifestations,” explains Professor Martinka. “We have a lot of experience and very good results with the diet and I personally consider it a very suitable and welcome approach especially in the treatment of patients with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus with advanced metabolic syndrome.” (1)

Diabetics Off Medication Praise NFI Protocol

Hearing first-hand how the NFI protocol helps is perhaps the best way to measure success. Brian Walsh had type 2 Diabetes and normalized his blood glucose levels in under eight weeks following the NFI protocol. “I did the NFI plan because like a lot of people, I was at the point where I needed to make a change, and didn’t know where to turn,” he says. “I’d wholly recommend it to anybody because this has made such a difference to my life, it’s hard to comprehend how quick the changes were.” (1)