A couple of months ago, I told you how one of my favorite actresses — Halle Berry — keeps her skin looking so incredible…
She uses an old-fashioned “secret” that I first heard about from my grandmother.
Halle Berry helped reverse her diabetes by following two “tricks” that are an integral part of the diabetes protocol here at the Sears Institute.
But I just found out something about this 52-year-old superstar that I never knew…
Halle was diagnosed with diabetes almost two decades ago. She discovered she had the disease after she fell into a diabetic coma while filming a TV show.
But Halle REVERSED her diabetes using two “tricks” that are an integral part of the diabetes protocol we use at the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine.
Halle’s first diabetes-reversing secret is following a ketogenic diet. She started practicing this kind of eating plan years ago.
A keto diet is super low in carbohydrates, very high in fat and moderate in protein. When you eat this way, carbs can’t trigger insulin.
And studies confirm that very low-carb diets improve insulin sensitivity. In one study of overweight women, a diet with less than 10% of calories from carbs improved insulin sensitivity. While a low-fat, high-carb diet made insulin sensitivity worse.1
But I take the keto diet a step further at my clinic. And it’s been extremely successful in helping to get my diabetic patients off their medications and insulin.
I advise my patients to follow what I call my Primal Power Meal Plan. It’s similar to the keto diet Halle Berry follows.
Except my plan focuses on foods that score a zero, or near zero on the Glycemic Index (GI). The GI measures how quickly foods break down into sugar in your bloodstream. High glycemic foods turn into blood sugar very quickly, causing your insulin to spike — and the pounds to pile on.
I’ll admit… It’s not always easy to eat this way. But you don’t have to do it forever. Foods that score a zero on the GI include meats, fish, eggs, nuts and cheese.
But there’s a second step to my diabetes protocol that Halle Berry practices…
I’m talking about intermittent fasting.
Intermittent fasting — or “periodic” fasting, as it’s sometimes called — is one of the most powerful ways to stabilize and balance your blood sugar that I know of.
It forces your body to burn fat instead of sugar as its main fuel source.
And it follows the “feast-or-famine” lifestyle of our ancestors. For millions of years, our primal ancestors often went for long periods of time with very little food — at least until the next successful hunt or gathering expedition. But these extended periods of hunger didn’t damage their bodies. It had the opposite effect — it regenerated them.
Now, thousands of years later, this incredible healing power remains hardwired into your biological makeup.
More than 80 years of research proves that intermittent fasting triggers powerful health benefits and even slows the aging process.2
Now scientists have discovered that intermittent fasting also triggers the regeneration of key pancreas cells. You see, your pancreas produces insulin — the hormone that controls your blood sugar levels.
Previous groundbreaking research from USC shows that intermittent fasting causes stem cells to awaken from their normal dormant state and start regenerating.3
And the latest study reveals that’s exactly what happens in your pancreas.
The USC researchers’ “feast-and-famine” diet kickstarted a special type of cell in the pancreas called a beta cell. These are the cells that identify sugar in the blood and release insulin if it gets too high.
By regenerating pancreas beta cells, the researchers were able to rescue mice from type 1 and late-stage type 2 diabetes.
Halle Berry’s method of periodic fasting is to eat two meals a day — skipping breakfast. But that’s not the only way to make intermittent fasting work for you.
Reverse Diabetes with These Simple Steps
Here’s what I recommend to my patients…
- Start out slowly. The easiest way to start fasting is to practice meal skipping. You simply decide which meal to eliminate depending on your hunger level at any given time. It’s a great way to ease into this lifestyle.
- Then, take it up a notch. If you’ve never fasted before, I suggest starting with a simple plan that gives you an 8-hour eating window every day, followed by a 16-hour fast. For example:
- Have breakfast at 10 a.m.
- Lunch around 1:30 p.m.
- Finish your dinner by 6 p.m. Don’t have anything else to eat until the next morning.
- Finally, increase the amount of time you don’t eat. Once your body is used to fasting for 16 hours, move up to 24 hours. And after your body gets used to the 24-hour fast, you can begin stepping up to the two-to-four-day fasts.
Stick to the Primal Power Meal Plan during the time you do eat. And be sure to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated during your fasting periods.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD, CNS
1. Volek JS, et al. “Comparison of a very low-carbohydrate and low-fat diet on fasting lipids, LDL subclasses, insulin resistance and postprandial lipemic responses in overweight women.” J Am Coll Nutr. 2004;23(2):177-184.
2. McCay CM, et al. “The effect of retarded growth upon the length of life span and upon the ultimate body size. 1935” Nutrition. 1989;5(3):155-171.
3. Cheng CW, et al. “Prolonged fasting reduces IGF-1/PKA to promote hematopoietic-stem-cell-based regeneration and reverse immunosuppression.” Cell Stem Cell. 2014;14(6):810-823.