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FFD Protocol from India
FFD Protocol from India
25 Apr 2019
Disclaimer
Freedom From Diabetes (FFD) is a healthcare initiative in Pune, Maharashtra, India, led by Dr Pramod Tripathi & Dr Ritu Tripathi.

FFD Protocol has four aspects to it: Food, Exercise, Inner Transformation (via multiple modalities including meditation) and Western Medicine. Foodwise, FFD is inspired by Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) guidelines with one major difference: oils are allowed.

FFD Food Protocol

FFD Food Protocol is described in this publication: Reversal of Metabolic Syndrome with Freedom From Diabetes (FFD) Protocol, Elixir International Journal, 122 (2018) pages 52217-52219. Excerpt from this article:

The patient followed a diet consisting of plant based foods designed to meet the daily macro and micronutrients requirements.

a) A nutrient dense green smoothie made of locally available fresh green leafy vegetables and herbs on empty stomach.

b) To avoid cereals in breakfast and should consist a mix of raw and cooked form of pulse/legume preparations.

c) Lunch and dinner should consist of a one cereal meal with an equal proportion of pulse/legume, cooked vegetable and raw salad i.e. 25% of each.

d) One fruit per day.

e) Whole and sprouted legumes, raw vegetables should be in the form of salads.

f) Low glycemic fresh vegetable strained juices every 2-3 hourly on the day of juice feasting is advised by avoiding any form of cooked food. This was done once a week for 8 weeks.

Oils: Oils are not mentioned in the paper above. So I had to dig around to figure out if oils are included or excluded. FFD Recipes have oils in 80% to 90% of recipes. Consumption of 1-3 tbsp flax seed oil is a recommendation. At offset 94 seconds into this cooking video, large bottles of ground nut oil and extra virgin olive oil in the center of the table may be seen (I imagine cold-pressed oils are preferred).

FFD Food Protocol for Live-In Program

Patients who opt for a 7-Day live-in or residential program, they follow a slightly different protocol which is described in this publication: Effectiveness of a 7 Days Residential Integrated Lifestyle Modification Program on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Single Arm Observational Study, European Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 7, Issue 1, January 2019, pages 17-22. Excerpt from this article:

The dietary modification included Green Smoothie empty stomach at 7 am and again at 4:30 pm.

Breakfast was made from pulses or legumes with a proportion of 50% of raw and 50% of cooked food.

Lunch and dinner had an equal proportion of cereal, pulse, cooked vegetable and salad.

Alternate day juice feasting (to consume variety of low glycemic juices for the entire day without solid food) was followed.

The different juices given were

  • red juice — carrot, tomato, cinnamon powder;
  • green juice — green apple, cucumber, mint, green sorrel, ginger, ridge gourd, lemon& spices;
  • classic green juice — spinach, coriander, ash gourd, lemon, green capsicum, ginger and spices;
  • white juice — bottle gourd, cucumber, lemon, ginger, garlic, spices.

In small quantities following two liquids were also given:

  • okra water - 2 pieces of okra per head soaked overnight in one glass water and
  • bitter gourd shot - bitter gourd juice 30 ml (for every bitter gourd of length 5-6cm = 100gm, one cucumber of the same length was used).

Consumption of animal products, milk and milk products, refined foods were excluded from the diet.

Comparison with Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) Diet

Whole Food Plant-Based (WFPB) guidelines include (Grains, Beans, Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts & Seeds, Herbs & Spices) and exclude (Processed Foods, Meats, Fish, Dairy). Among the three "SOS Extracts" (Salt, Oil, Sugar), two extracts are completely eliminated: Oil and Sugar. Salt is reduced to small quantities. There is no special emphasis on raw foods or juices or fasts.

FFD Food Protocol includes (Grains, Beans, Vegetables, Fruits, Nuts & Seeds, Herbs & Spices) and excludes (Processed Foods, Meats, Fish, Dairy). In this regard, FFD is identical to WFPB. Among the three "SOS Extracts" (Salt, Oil, Sugar), only one extract is completely eliminated in FFD: Sugar. The other two extracts (Oil and Salt) are reduced to small quantities. In addition, raw foods and juices are encouraged for everyday consumption. Veggies, especially raw veggies in the form of smoothies and salads, are emphasized.

Differences: In relation to WFPB guidelines, FFD protocol seems to make these changes:

  1. Boost intake of raw veggies by consuming a daily smoothie.
  2. Make sure that raw salad is 25% of lunch and dinner; this raw salad could have sprouted beans.
  3. Fruit intake should be low: 1 fruit per day.
  4. Juice feasting once a week for 8 weeks. On juice feasting days, juice should be made of low glycemic fresh veggies.

In brief, FFD Food Protocol = WFPB guidelines + oils + boost veggies + boost raw + daily juices + juice fasts.

Questions

Would FFD Food Protocol + No Oil be even more effective? The authors of FFD Food Protocol are familiar with WFPB guidelines (they refer to them in their publications). WFPB doctors emphasize No Oil unanimously. That makes me wonder: why does FFD Food Protocol introduce oils into their protocol? What is the rationale? Is it possible that even better results may be achieved for diabetes if FFD Food Protocol were extended to include the 'No Oil' guideline? And how about other chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease and so on? Would FFD Food Protocol + No Oil be more effective overall?

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