Designed To Heal Podcast: Your Body's Amazing Healing Power · Achieve Wellness

Rethinking Diabetes From A Thriving Type 1 Diabetic (ft. Ben Tzeel)

·40 min·2 clips

A woman cut daily insulin from about 150 units to 45 after nutrition, activity, and strength training changes.

1. Designed To Heal Podcast: Your Body's Amazing Healing Power focuses on type 1 diabetes, food, exercise, and the body’s capacity to heal. 2. Dr. Ben Rall hosts Ben Tzeel, a registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator, strength coach, and person living with type 1 diabetes for over 26 years. 3. The episode asks whether diabetes has to mean restriction, defeat, and lifelong limitation, or whether thriving is still possible. 4. Ben Tzeel says people are often told to take the same insulin dose for every meal, which he calls fundamentally backwards. 5. He describes patients being boxed into carb limits such as 45 to 60 grams per meal, with warnings not to exercise or eat sweets. 6. Ben says many people never get foundational education and instead receive lazy or outdated advice at diagnosis. 7. He argues that a person with diabetes has to decide whether to accept the restrictions or look for other options. 8. Ben says the mindset question is whether someone wants a 30, 40, or 50-year life inside a narrow box. 9. He describes type 1 and type 2 as different in onset, but says there is enough overlap to group them for some nutrition and activity discussions. 10. On food, Ben says a person with diabetes can eat birthday cake, but should be willing to do extra preparation and fit the food into life. 11. He says exercise raises insulin sensitivity for up to 72 hours after one bout and more muscle improves insulin sensitivity at baseline. 12. He gives a case example of a woman with type 1 diabetes who was using U-200 insulin and about 150 units per day. 13. After nutrition changes, more activity, pickleball, and strength training, he says she moved to U-100 insulin and about 45 to 50 units daily. 14. Ben says the biggest measurable improvement was not only lower insulin use but much better blood sugar control and how she felt day to day. 15. He says mindset matters because people who believe they cannot improve will unconsciously sabotage progress. 16. Ben gives an A1C example, saying some patients go from 10 to 5.8 in six or seven months when they arrive open to coaching. 17. The tone is direct and confrontational toward outdated diabetes guidance, with Dr. Rall pressing and Ben answering quickly. 18. The format is a long interview with practical examples, personal experience, and repeated back-and-forth on myths. 19. Best for listeners managing diabetes or supporting someone with it. 20. Skip if you want a purely medical, lecture-style overview without opinion.

As heard by us

A hopeful, body-first perspective on diabetes management and the habits that can improve it.

Dr. Ben Rall presents diabetes and blood sugar management as part of a broader case for the body’s built-in ability to heal. The conversation lands best when it shifts from reassurance to concrete steps: better nutrition, more activity, and the possibility of improved insulin…

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Why you'd press play

For a tougher, more hopeful take on type 1 diabetes and day-to-day control.

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