Am I still diabetic? I think so but am not sure. I'm not sure what the official criteria are. I'm not sure if "once a diabetic always a diabetic" or not. My blood glucose levels rarely go over 150 and most of the time after a meal is is around 130-140. That is basically non-diabetic.  My fasting level in the morning is still a little higher than I would like though, around 115. I would prefer to see that under 100 for a non-diabetic. My HbA1c last year after 6 months on the diet was 5.7, just barely pre-diabetic and down from 7.0 the test a couple years earlier. I expect it is significantly lower now.

I think the alcoholic comparison sounds appropriate to me. I'm quite sure if I went back to eating like I used to, I would eventually be right back to where I was.

My personal "opinion" right now is that my diabetes in in remission and my insulin resistance is greatly improved. I don't very often eat anything sweet, but on the rare occasion I do it does not seem to spike my blood glucose levels (I do still check) nearly like it would have in the past. And in the past I would have been taking insulin shots and am not now. So that tells me that either my insulin resistance is better (cells are using my own insulin more effectively) OR my pancreas has healed and it is able to naturally put out more insulin on demand. Or some combination thereof, which is hopefully the case. Once a diabetic goes too long they can burn out their beta cells in the pancreas then they are dependent on insulin shots just like a type I would be. Thankfully I had not got to that stage. Will my pancreas ever be fully functional like it was when I was young? I don't know and I'm not sure anyone does. It has got to a point that I need no external insulin and can eat a very easy to stay on diet so that is the most important part. I am pretty sure I will always have to limit my carb consumption. I mostly stay under 25 grams carbs now and will continue to do that as long as my wife still has some weight to lose so we can eat basically the same. I hope that some day I can bump that up to 50 grams or so as that gives a little wider latitude of what can be eaten. But I would have no problem eating like we are now for the rest of my life.

As far as the lungs there are only two things I have noticed that may be associated. I do not have as many allergies or the dry cough I used to have, but the cough could have been caused by my blood pressure medicine which I am no longer on. I don't have the phlegm I used to in the morning but that could be because I don't have as much sinus problems which likely caused post nasal drip at night. I added about 10 minutes of air supply to a typical 1:15 minute dive, but this is likely because of my reduced weight and less resistance going through the water and generally overall better health and muscle. So not sure that has anything to do with lungs. So in summary I'm not sure my lungs themselves actually improved. They could have along with the rest of my body, but there could also be other explanations. The improvements were definitely because of the improved diet though. The fact that my blood sugar levels are much better controlled with no high spikes definitely would be beneficial to all the tiny arteries that make up the lungs capacity to move oxygen out of the air and into the bloodstream. High blood glucose levels damage arteries and especially the tiny ones, which the lungs would be full of.

We got back mid-March and at that time there was no CV there that I know of. We went right through the Dallas airport with no screening at that time. Probably because there were no cases in Bonaire.

Hope that helps.

John

Edit: If you happened to miss it, here is my one year update of the diet and all the changes to my health.

https://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=903006&posts=30&highlight=my%20experience&highlightmode=1#M8031372