Diabetes Research

Public information

Our research has shown that:

• type 2 diabetes is caused by a small amount of excess fat inside the liver and inside the pancreas
• it is a potentially reversible condition
• if a person has type 2 diabetes, they have become too heavy for their own body (nothing to do with the arbitrary concept of obesity)
• a way of achieving 10-15kg weight loss has been developed
• this can be achieved using the simple 1, 2, 3 dietary method of type 2 diabetes reversal
• type 2 diabetes is most easily reversed to normal in the early years after diagnosis
• people with type 2 diabetes but a ‘normal’ BMI have exceeded their personal fat threshold and weight loss is appropriate
• type 2 diabetes has been shown to be a condition of homogenous causation in genetically heterogenous people. In other words if you have genuine type 2 diabetes you are susceptible to the bad effects of fat. Don’t compare your weight with other peoples’ – you are an individual. 

Caution

Websites advertising medicines of no proven validity with false claims of endorsement by Professor Taylor are prevalent. They sometimes use photographs lifted from the Newcastle University website and alleged quotations which are fabricated. Professor Taylor does not endorse any commercial products.

Read the full story of how to reverse your diabetes

• in the book ‘Life Without Diabetes’ (2^nd edition published 2024 by ShortBooks)
• or a shorter how-to-do-it description - ‘Your Simple Guide to Reversing Type 2 Diabetes’ (published 2021 by ShortBooks)

Read Richard Doughty's personal story Type 2 diabetes and the diet that cured me on the Guardian website, including a video interview of another personal story. You can also read an update from Richard, I reversed my diabetes in just 11 days, on the Mail Online.

The shakes

No commercial products are specifically endorsed, but the following are suitable liquid replacement meals for rapid weight loss:

• Fast 800
• Shake that Weight
• Optifast
• Habitual

Supermarket own brands may be suitable, but must be marked ‘complete nutrition’.

If cost is a major problem, a milk-based diet can be used: 1.6 litre of skimmed milk per day plus non-starchy vegetables. A multivitamin tablet should also be taken with this option, and iron supplementation for pre-menopausal women is wise.

NHS England takes the research into routine treatment

As a result of the new understanding that type 2 diabetes is caused by excess fat inside liver and pancreas, NHS England has established the national ‘Type 2 Diabetes Path to Remission Programme’ to deliver the possibility of remission of type 2 diabetes. Rapid weight loss followed by weight maintenance achieved a remarkable 10.3kg at 12 months, with over a third of people having an HbA1c in the non-diabetic range.  This success led to the scheme being rolled out as a national programme throughout England, and as regional programmes in Scotland.

The Programme requires referral from a general practitioner. All participants have to be aged 25 to 65 years and diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the last 6 years with BMI over 27kg/m2. Find out more. 

Media coverage and press releases

Videos

• European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD24) – Interview – Professor Roy Taylor (November 2024)
• Can you reverse type 2 diabetes? (November 2023)
• European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD23) - Interview - Professor Roy Taylor (October 2023)
• Muscle Memoirs Podcast - Understanding and reversing Type 2 Diabetes (February 2021)
• Reversing Diabetes with Prof Roy Taylor (Metagenics Institute, Apple Podcast, 2021)
• Providing Patients A Life Without Diabetes (Podcast for doctors, 2020)
• Lecture Nutritional management and prevention of type 2 diabetes delivered at the Swiss Re Institute's "Food for thought: The science and politics of nutrition" (June 2018)
• Advice on reversing your type 2 diabetes (June 2016)
• Lecture on the up to date state of the research on reversing type 2 diabetes delivered to the Diabetes UK meeting (March 2016)
• Reversing the irreversible: Type 2 diabetes and you (October 2014)
• Hairy Dieters: How to love food and lose weight (BBC2 August 2012, repeated January 2013)
• Reversing the irreversible: Type 2 diabetes and you (You Tube, 4th Oct 2014) (Lecture to Newcastle University Staff, 2016)

Press releases

• Primary care weight management leads to sustained type 2 diabetes remission (March 2019)
• The two year outcome of the DiRECT trial (March 2019)
• the press release that ‘Weight loss puts Type 2 diabetes into remission for at least two years (March 2019)
• the press release that is ‘Proof that new diet CAN reverse diabetes’ (March 2019)
• the press release for 'Rebooting' insulin-producing cells key to Type 2 diabetes remission (August 2018) 
• the Fixing Dad Prudential Ride London 2017 
• the press release for Fixing Dad (July 2016)

Further information on the Hairy Dieters programme including experts' hints and tips and regular updates on the Hairy Dieters' progress can be seen on the BBC website. The programme promoted the University's aim to help us all live healthy, longer lives 

Recipes and meal plans are included in Professor Taylor’s book ‘Life Without Diabetes’

Other sample recipes and meal plans have been devised by Alison Barnes, Senior Diabetes Dietitian, Newcastle University and Tom Crame, Dietitian Intern, Newcastle University.

Guoda Karoblyte, Human Nutrition placement student at Newcastle University has also devised some 'more vegetable recipes'.

More information on low calorie diets is available from the Diabetes UK website and the British Heart Foundation provide advice on weight loss.

Information for your doctor

Download our information for doctors 2025 (PDF: 88KB).  Even though doctors do not like downloaded information from the web, this comes from an internationally recognised diabetes research centre. It is now being put into practice by both NHS England and NHS Scotland. The American Diabetes Association recognises remission of diabetes as an appropriate aim of management.

Publications

Diabetes Publications 2025 relating to reversing diabetes.