New York City mayor Eric Adams (D.) is facing criticism after he claimed in a Netflix documentary that he reversed his type 2 diabetes purely by going vegan and not using his insulin.
"When she saw my number reverse in my A1C, what is the, an indicator of your sugar level, she said, 'Wow, the medicine must be working.' And I remember placing all the medicine on the table, unused, and said, ‘No, I didn’t use the medicine. I went on a whole-food, plant-based diet,'" Adams says in the documentary, describing a checkup with his endocrinologist after his diagnosis.
Adams recounted the story, as reported Wednesday by Vice News, in an interview for the Netflix series You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment, which tracks a study measuring the health effects of a vegan versus omnivorous diet on sets of twins. The mayor appears in the series along with other prominent advocates of veganism.
"It was really amazing to me when you look at all of the scientific evidence that is hidden in plain sight," Adams added. "You know the old Greek term, 'Let food be thy medicine, let thy medicine be food.' And I decided I wanted to use the power of food, 'cause I was really reluctant to have to use insulin. But all the doctors I sat down with to get alternatives basically said, 'Eric, this is your new norm.' And one doctor, my endocrinologist, I remember sitting down with her, and she said it was impossible. And I said, 'Well, I’m going to try.'"
That story is slightly different from the one Adams told in a 2020 book, in which he claimed he took some of his insulin but then stopped using it when he switched to a plant-based diet after a consultation with a Cleveland Clinic specialist. In the book, Adams recounted that he told his doctor that he had stopped taking the medication a month before the visit.
Although lifestyle changes including eating healthier foods and getting more exercise can help to mitigate the effects of or even reverse type 2 diabetes, most doctors would not advise patients to neglect taking their prescribed insulin.
One expert who expressed concern over Adams's comments in the documentary was Stanford nutrition scientist and professor Christopher Gardner, who designed the twin study the show covers.
"The mayor does indicate that he didn’t take any of the medications that were prescribed," Gardner told Vice. "MOST people who are prescribed medicines should take them, and take all of them. In fact, even when prescribed, and prescriptions are filled, many people do NOT take all of their meds, and this can be problematic for their care."
Adams spokesman Charles Lutvak denied to Vice that the mayor in his interview advocates ditching diabetes medication, only that "he describes his own experience" and "does not say anything about what other people should do."
Louie Psihoyos, the series's director, echoed Lutvak's comments to the outlet and noted that the work "clearly states at the very beginning of the series to not use the film as medical advice" and that "nowhere was that recommended in the film by [Adams] or the filmmakers to not take their medication."
Adams received mockery for peculiar comments he made last month, when he said that, every day, New York City could "experience everything from a plane crashing into our Trade Center to a person who's celebrating a new business that's open" in response to a question about how his 2023 had gone. The FBI is investigating whether his 2021 mayoral campaign conspired with the Turkish government and a construction company owned by Turkish nationals to receive illegal funds, though neither he nor his campaign has yet been accused of wrongdoing.