Extreme Diet Cures Type 2 Diabetes

British researchers say obesity-related type 2 diabetes, previously considered a lifelong illness, is curable—if you stop eating. Eleven people with diabetes participated in the extreme experiment, slashing their calories to just 600 a day and consuming only specially formulated drinks and non-starchy vegetables for two months. The volunteers' blood sugar returned to normal within a week and, three months after returning to normal eating, seven of the 11 participants remained free of diabetes, reports the Guardian.

"This is a radical change in understanding type 2 diabetes," said the study leader. "It will change how we can explain it to people newly diagnosed with the condition." The researchers say that the extreme diet—think lots of broccoli, asparagus, and cabbage—allows the body to remove the fat that clogs the pancreas in diabetics, preventing them from producing insulin. "It's astonishing really that a diet—hard as it was—could change my health so drastically," said one participant. (More Type 2 diabetes stories.)