Diabetes Experts Educate Health Professionals About the Power of Vegan Diet

To help health care professionals stay up to date on the latest diet and diabetes news, PCRM experts hit the road. PCRM director of diabetes education and care Caroline Trapp, M.S.N., A.P.R.N., B.C.-ADM, C.D.E., and PCRM president Neal Barnard, M.D., are hosting four continuing medical education sessions across the country.

A New Approach to Diet and Diabetes is an evening dinner program that examines new information about diet and diabetes. This multidisciplinary event was developed for physicians, registered dietitians, certified diabetes educators, advanced practice nurses, and physicians assistants, as well as students in these fields. The program focuses on the most recent evidence about vegetarian nutrition in the management of type 2 diabetes, and participants learn how to incorporate nutritional interventions into clinical practice.

Dr. Barnard presents “The Science Behind a Low-Fat, Vegetarian Approach for Diabetes,” which provides participants with the National Institutes of Health-funded research showing that a low-fat, low-glycemic vegetarian diet is more effective at treating diabetes than oral medications. He discusses a number of studies that demonstrated the potential of lifestyle change on diabetes outcomes, and talks in detail about the design of these studies and what can be learned from them that challenges some of the common emphasis on restricted carbohydrate intake.

Trapp’s “Translating Nutrition Science into Clinical Practice” focused on the four key principles of a healthy diet: vegan, low fat, low glycemic index, and high fiber. Trapp presents strategies for the clinical implementation of this dietary approach and for the medical management of patients, and she also explores ways to overcome common barriers to using such diets to treat diabetes.

“I hope to build a network of providers who follow a vegan diet themselves and are offering it to patients with diabetes,” Trapp said. “I encourage all attendees to keep in touch with me about their successes and challenges.”

Three sessions—with about 200 attendees each—have already been held in San Antonio, Ann Arbor, Mich., and Bethesda, Md. The final session will take place in Atlanta on December 12. Health care professionals in the Atlanta area can register for this event online.

PCRM Online, December 2007

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