Crushing Diabetes: How Richard Dropped His A1c by 9.4 Points

Article written and reviewed by Robby Barbaro, MPH
Published March 26, 2025

Surrendering to His Family Fate

When Richard was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, he was scared. Both his father and grandfather had type 2 diabetes, so he was no stranger to the disease. He figured that he would have to accept the same fate for his life as he had witnessed in their experiences before him.

At first, that seemed to be the case. He went to two doctors in order to get a second opinion, and both told him that he needed to take metformin as well as blood pressure medication. At first, the medications helped him to feel better, but after about 6 months he started to feel worse. He began experiencing the same symptoms he’d had before being diagnosed.

Forging a New Path

He went back to his doctor, whose response was to increase Richard’s daily dosages on his medications. This was his red siren wake-up-call moment. He realized that if he didn’t make a significant change, this was going to be the trajectory for the rest of his life – and he didn’t want that to be his future. He had young kids and didn’t want their dad to be on a track of worsening health. He knew what that was like, and he wanted to choose a different route for himself and his family.

He had heard of using a whole food, plant-based diet to reverse chronic disease, and decided to learn more and give this route a try. He read Dr. Neal Barnard’s book on reversing diabetes, and then followed that up with reading the Mastering Diabetes book… and then he went all in. 

Bringing His Body Back to Life

Richard followed the Mastering Diabetes Method to a T. He was concerned about eating a lot of fruit, and was surprised to find that it didn’t spike his blood sugar levels – it actually lowered them! He started eating big, hearty salads for lunch and meal-prepping on Sundays to have healthy dinners for the week ahead.

He started feeling better in just a few days. “Your body comes alive again. It’s a crazy feeling,” he says. His blood sugar was dropping, he was losing weight, and he had so much energy that he wanted to exercise. “Everything comes together and it’s spectacular.”

Richard’s numbers are particularly impressive. In just 2 months, here’s what happened…

Header

March 2021

June 2021

A1c (%)

15.8

6.4

Fasting Blood Glucose (mg/dL)

335

95

Weight

183

154

Total Cholesterol

334

209

Triglycerides

1112

112

Blood Pressure

140/90

111/73

Medications

2000mg Metformin, 5mg Lisinopril

NONE

Gratitude for the Information, Anger for the Injustice

Richard is elated at his results, but he also is angry.

He is angry that he wasn’t provided with this information sooner. He is angry that he wasn’t given the opportunity to prevent diabetes from developing, or from changing his trajectory from day 1 of his diagnosis. He is angry that other people aren’t given this information either.

Because of this, he wants to help as many people as possible to learn what he learned, and experience what he has experienced.

Time to Jump In

His message is this: Jump in with both feet and give this a try. It doesn’t take long, you are rewarded so quickly with feeling better and seeing your numbers improve. You’ll learn how amazing your body is, how capable it is of healing. You’ll have so much energy that you’ll feel like a kid again. And with how good you feel, you won’t miss anything you ‘gave up’ in the process of getting there.

Like Plato’s allegory of the cave, once you have gone out and seen the light, you know a new reality and you can’t go back. You just want to help everyone else see what you’ve seen – which you know is the ultimate truth.

Richard has firsthand experience of this truth and he’s grateful he could share it with you today. Thanks for reading/watching.

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About the author 

Robby Barbaro, MPH

Robby Barbaro, MPH is a New York Times bestselling co-author of Mastering Diabetes: The Revolutionary Method to Reverse Insulin Resistance Permanently in Type 1, Type 1.5, Type 2, Prediabetes, and Gestational Diabetes.

Robby was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 12 and has been living this lifestyle since 2006. In that time, while eating pounds of fruit every day, his HbA1c has been stable with a current A1c of 5.3%, TIR of 92%, and average total daily insulin use of 30 units.

Robby graduated from the University of Florida and is the cofounder of Mastering Diabetes and Amla Green. He worked at Forks Over Knives for six years before turning his attention in 2016 to coaching people with diabetes full time.

He is the co-host of the annual Mastering Diabetes Online Summit, a featured speaker at VegFest LA, and has been featured on The Doctors, Forks Over Knives, Vice, Thrive Magazine, Diet Fiction, and the wildly popular podcasts the Rich Roll Podcast, Plant Proof, MindBodyGreen, and Nutrition Rounds.

Robby enjoys exercising every day, spending time with friends, and sharing his lifestyle on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.