My mom was a Type II diabetic for 14 years before I took over her care. She controlled her blood sugar levels with gymnema sylvestris as she was a naturopath. As she aged into her 80′s, we had to supplement the gymnema with a very low dose of glimeperide. Of course, we stuck to a low carb/correct fat diet and checked her blood every morning.

One day a friend who was on the Gershon diet introduced us to agave, saying that it would reduce Mom’s bgl. I simply did not believe that. Fructose is still a sugar, I argued. He challenged me to test it. So for three days she took only table sugar. For the next three days she took only Splenda. For the next three days she took only raw honey. For the last three days she took only agave. We tested her in the morning and after her lunch and were careful to try to keep the quantities of sugar the same in each case, though to be fair, we had to add a touch extra agave because it was not as sweet.

Splenda raised her bgl the most, by far. Table sugar raised her bgl second most. Raw honey raised her bgl the least. And agave LOWERED her blood sugar. If I had not done the test, I would never have believed it.

When she made it to her 90′s, we added coconut oil to her diet for her dementia (I’ll attach a link, if you are interested in that side story) and on the coconut oil, her bgl went down so low, we had to discontinue first the glimeperide and later, the gymnema. Her bgls ended up perfect and her lipid profile, said her MD, was that of a young woman.

A word of caution, however, if you are going to try coconut oil…if you tend to have loose bowels, increase your intake Very Slowly. We went too fast on Mom – a mistake we regretted.