Hello, my name is Toma Grubb. I am the person responsible for NutriCoach.

The Mission of NutriCoach is to help nutritionally challenged individuals take control of their dietary needs. The nutritionally challenged are people with: diabetes, hypoglycemia, hypertension, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, anemia, obesity and a host of other medical conditions that may require close, individualized and specialized dietary control.

Content and Credentials

This web site is my creation and I am responsible for it’s content. I wish I could take credit for all the wonderful information contained here but it is merely a compilation and condensation of information found all over the web, specifically the US National Center for Disease Control, The US National Institute of Health, The US National Library of Medicine, and other such sources. I do not have any degrees or professional medical training. I am a diabetic. This site is about what I found that works for me and has been responsible for vast improvement in my health. I might consider the possibility that I could be a “miracle patient” as one diabetic trainer referred to me, but friends and family who found out what I was doing and tried it them selves have had similar results. If you try it after consulting with your doctor I am interested in your results either positive or negative. The name NutriCoach is not an official designation. The site needed a descriptive name and NutriCoach was selected since the site is about nutrition and is about coaching for good nutrition.

Funding

This site is funded primarily by me. I welcome and encourage donations from others who see value in what I am doing but there are no required membership dues or fees to be able to use the information on this site. There are affiliate links to products I believe are useful but there are no direct advertising dollars.

Advertising Policy

We will not accept advertising dollars from “diet plans, ” magic pills, supplements and others that might taint the credibility of the information found here. We do participate in Google ad sense and have no control over the ads placed by Google other than the ad filter where we filter the ads as best we can to avoid diet plans and pills. We also participate in affiliate programs with Extend-Life out of New Zealand for their excellent Omega 3 product, Amazon.com, midPhase web hosting, Cyber soft Inc.  for nutrition tracking software. Any additional affiliate programs will also have to meet very strict criteria to be included in this site.

The NutriCoach approach is about nutritional education, self-monitoring, and support. There is a lot of good general advice but very little specific information available in order to make day-to-day choices. NutriCoach is a real life system that can be used by anyone. Trying to cope with daily choices about what one should eat and make good selections isn’t an easy chore. The NutriCoach system is designed to bring it all together in one place and make it manageable. NutriCoach is not a new fad diet, but based in solid science. With the right tools and a little training you will be able to take total control of your nutrition. The NutriCoach system is like having a dietician with you at all times to aid you in choosing what you will eat

This site began on April 14, 2005. This site will continue to grow and new information will be added as it becomes available.

 

My Story 

Throughout my life, I've been pretty active. Even as a teen, I was involved in sports and activities that can take a toll on the human body. My experience as a DUSTOFF pilot in the Vietnam War gave me a taste for the rush of adrenaline that later in my life I was able to achieve without the added threat of live ammunition. Well into my fifties, I participated in sports and activities that many abandon earlier in their lives, ranging from white-water rafting to competitive Country Western Dancing. A few years ago, I started noticing some changes. At first, I thought my age was finally catching up to me. I had no energy, felt achy and thirsty and I was slowly losing my appetite. I thought I had the flu. Then, near the end of January 2005, I started feeling discomfort in my lower back around my kidneys. Thinking I had a kidney infection, I stopped drinking my 10 Dr. Peppers per day and started drinking juices--particularly cranberry juice. Unknowingly I was adding to the problem.

Things were getting worse, but since I was in Canada and had trouble crossing the border, I was hesitant to go to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Seattle. Finally, I decided to go to a Canadian doctor who told me I had diabetes and needed to go to a hospital for treatment. I spent the next day on a ferry from Nanaimo to Vancouver and then a Greyhound Bus to Seattle. Near midnight I finally arrived at the VA Hospital Emergency Room.

Some quick test told the doctor that I was in serious condition. He told me if I had waited much longer, I might not have made it. It was quickly discovered that my blood glucose was at 570. It should be between 70 and 100. My A1C, a test to determine the sugar retained in the blood cells, was at 20.5--it should be under 7. My triglycerides were 1517 and should be under 150. I was badly dehydrated and my potassium levels were low, my eyes were blurry and my blood pressure was high. The doctor placed me in the critical care ward where I spent the next four days.

There, I was hooked up to an IV pump and administered 15 liters of saline over the next 3 days. Twelve of the IV bags contained a potassium mix. I was given so many heparin shots I lost track of them. Every few hours my blood was being drawn to monitor the effect of the treatments. They were giving me pills that to this day I am unable to identify, and insulin.

Doctors and nurses told me that my pancreas had shut down, and that I was close to renal failure. My tryglyceride levels were so high that there was no way to tell what my cholesterol numbers were. Cells need potassium to be able to take in the glucose that feeds our bodies. Lacking insulin, my body was prevented from using or eliminating the excessively high levels of glucose in my bloodstream. So much that my blood was the consistency of syrup, and my urine was so full of sugar it was sticky. Sugar in my lenses even caused my eyes to blur.

In short I was in pretty bad shape. I was in the process of necrosis and had already entered into severe diabetic ketoacidosis. Over the two weeks I was at the VA Hospital, I got quite an education on diabetes--a crash course. When I had stabilized two weeks later, they sent me off with a grocery sack full of literature about diabetes and nutrition. I soon learned that the literature provided good advice but was so general it was practically impossible to apply on a day-by-day, meal-by-meal basis.

I then headed back to join my Canadian wife at our seasonal home in Nanaimo. When I reached the Canadian border, I was told I would be refused admittance until I applied for and was granted permanent residency by Canada Immigration. Although my health had improved, at that point my Blood glucose level was still way too high. Frustrated, I headed back to my home in Denver.

Dan, a friend of mine, asked me to come stay with him and his partner, Jamie, for a while. It was while staying with them that my education really began. Jamie is a nurse and had worked for an endocrinologist. She was also a body builder and very much into nutrition. They gave me a book that really opened my eyes, called The Insulin-Resistance Diet, by Cheryl R. Hart, M.D. and Mary Kay Grossman, R.D. I recommend this book to anyone who is nutritionally challenged. It can be purchased from our books section on this web site. The book was a godsend. It was much better than anything else I had encountered thus far, especially when it came to controlling my blood glucose. However, like the literature given to me when I left the Seattle VA Hospital, I felt it wasn't specific enough. In the meantime, Jamie was teaching me to select and cook foods properly. I found a little nutrition counter that helped but was rather limited and a little clumsy to use. It only had 2000 foods listed and a lot of them were useless to me, particularly the fast food items. Nevertheless, I was making really good progress with the little hand held counter and I knew I was really on to something. I just wanted something even better, so I kept searching. Six weeks later, I finally found a software program that listed 30,000+ foods and 90+ nutritional values for each.

I down loaded the trial version of the software and found it far superior to anything I had found so far, but there were still some minor issues I knew could be easily fixed. I contacted the developer and started negotiation with him to produce a version of his software that would meet and exceed all the requirements I was looking for. I applied all I had learned and have been able totally controlled my blood glucose too less than 100mg/dl ever since. Then there was also the side benefit--I lost 35 lbs and am well on my way to my healthy body weight.

Since then, my energy levels are greatly increased and when I had my last blood test, my cholesterol was almost where it should be. I started this quest with the intention of treating my diabetes. I soon realized this approach would work with nearly anyone who was nutritionally challenged. My sister heard about what I was doing, saw the results I was getting and asked me to come stay with her and see if it would work for her. At that time, she was 5'3" and 310 pounds and tried just about everything from the latest fad-diets to gastro-intestinal bypass surgery. Nothing had worked for her, and she was nearing the point of giving up on life itself. 15 days later and 10 pounds lighter, we knew something was working. Never before had she achieved such results. After two and a half months, she lost 22lbs, and her lab tests were normal.

NutriCoach was born. We realized we have information, techniques and tools that are desperately needed by millions of people. I am bringing it all together in one place for easy access. There is a long way to go but the reality is in sight.

Update 5/19/2005 3:00 pm.

To get my meds refilled I had to do a physical, including full blood and urine tests. I just got off the phone with the doctor I saw yesterday at the Denver VA Hospital. What she told me was quite surprising--all my numbers were exactly where they should be. My A1c in February was 20.5, yesterday, 5.3. Anything under 6 is good. All other numbers were in normal ranges. Based on my blood test and what I told them I was doing nutritionally, they decided to take me off all my meds. She also stated she had never seen or heard of anyone making such progress in so a short time. Like I, she believes we really need to get this information to the general public. I am scheduled for a follow up in 30 days so there will be another update then.

Update 6/22/2005

I went for my 30 day follow up and all my lab results were normal, even without the meds. I was doing it all with just nutrition. If what I learned to do nutritionally works this well for others, and me it must be a good thing. I believe it will work for anyone willing to make major lifestyle changes to obtain better health. If nothing else, it does no harm to try.

Update 8/18/2005

My Daily Blood glucose is still staying right where it should be. I am finding it a bit strange that I am getting resistance from the medical community. There is a Chief diabetes trainer at the VA in Denver who could find nothing wrong with my approach and my results, excepting that I haven't spent the years in school that she has to obtain a degree in nutrition. I would find that a valid argument if I were presenting this as my own method. In fact, I have nothing that can't be found in well-documented medical research available on the web. I simply combined it into a cohesive program and simplified the presentation so it is easy to understand.