The furnishings of Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams are hardly distinctive: a large refrigerator stocked with fresh fruits and vegetables, a table where he mixes herbal ingredients for his meals and snacks, a conventional oven, and a hot stove on which he cooks them. In the hallway there is a stationary bicycle, a multifunctional simulator and a hanging horizontal bar. The laptop is mounted on a stand for the machine, so Adams can work right during the workout.
Eight months ago, the head of the district underwent a medical examination due to severe abdominal pain and learned that he had type 1 diabetes. The average blood sugar level was so high that the doctor wondered how the patient had not yet fallen into a coma. The level of hemoglobin A17C (a laboratory test that shows the average glucose level over the previous three months) was XNUMX%, which is about three times higher than normal. But Adams did not fight the disease “American style”, stuffing himself with tons of pills. Instead, he decided to explore the body’s abilities and heal himself.
Eric L. Adams, 56, is a former police captain. Now he needs a new photo as he no longer looks like the man on the official posters. Switching to a vegetarian diet, he began to prepare his own meals and exercise daily. Adams lost almost 15 kilograms and completely cured diabetes, which can lead to heart attacks, stroke, nerve damage, kidney failure, vision loss and other consequences. In three months, he achieved a decrease in the level of A1C to normal.
He now strives to inform people as much as possible about how to counter this lifestyle-related disease. It has reached epidemic proportions in the country, and even children suffer from it. He started in his neighborhood, setting up a cocktail and snack truck in Brooklyn. Passersby can indulge in plain water, diet soda, smoothies, nuts, dried fruit, protein bars and whole grain chips.
“I loved salt and sugar, and often ate candy to get energy from them when I felt low,” Adams admitted. “But I discovered that the human body is amazingly adaptable, and two weeks after giving up salt and sugar, I didn’t crave it anymore.”
He also makes his own ice cream, a fruit sorbet made with a Yonanas machine that can make a frozen dessert out of anything you want.
“We need to focus on how to wean people off bad eating habits and get them moving. It has to be done just like we do when we try to wean them off drugs,” Adams said.
A new study on the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle, published in the journal Diabetologia, has shown that the periodic change from a sitting position to a standing one and exercises with light intensity are even more effective than traditional circuit exercises. Especially for people with type XNUMX diabetes.
Instead of simply enjoying overcoming his physical ailments, Adams prefers to set an example for other people, provide them with information about healthy food and physical activity.
“I don’t want to become everyone’s annoying vegan,” he says. “I hope that if people focus on adding healthy food to their plates, rather than medicine before and after dinner, they will see results eventually.”
Adams also hopes to encourage more people to make smarter changes for society, so that they too can showcase their accomplishments, create newsletters, write books with healthy recipes, and educate the public about healthy eating. He plans to introduce a course for schoolchildren so that from an early age children take a healthy lifestyle seriously and watch what they put on their plates.
“Health is the cornerstone of our prosperity,” continues Adams. “The changes I made to my eating habits and lifestyle did a lot more than just get me out of my diabetes.”
The district chief complains about most Americans’ addiction to processed foods and restaurant meals laden with unhealthy ingredients. In his opinion, this approach deprives people of a “spiritual relationship” with the food they eat. Adams admits that he has never cooked his own food in his life, but now he loves to do it and has become creative with the cooking process. Learned how to add spices such as cinnamon, oregano, turmeric, cloves and many more. Food can be delicious without the addition of salt and sugar. Moreover, such food is more pleasant and closer to a person.
Most people with type XNUMX diabetes are prescribed medications to reduce the amount of sugar in the blood made by the liver and increase the body’s sensitivity to insulin. Numerous studies have shown that weight loss (for overweight people), a diet low in refined carbohydrates and sugar, and an active lifestyle are the most effective ways to reduce drug dependence and eliminate disease.