00:00:01 Shireen Abdullah
Chef Robert, a.k.a. the Happy Diabetic, shares how his type 2 diabetes diagnosis transformed his life and cooking. From struggling with his health to inspiring thousands with delicious diabetes-friendly recipes, he offers practical tips, busts common myths, and shows how food can be both healing and joyful. Tune in for real talk, flavorful advice, and a dose of optimism for your diabetes journey.

Robert, 69 years old, lives in Wide Bear Lake, Minnesota, with his wife, Cindy, and their cat, Tucker. Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 1995, he initially struggled to manage his condition. After attending a diabetes education class at his local hospital, he began taking care of his health, Drawing on this background as a professional chef, Robert started creating diabetes-friendly recipes, wrote cookbooks, and now speaks at conferences about healthy, chef-inspired cooking. Welcome, Robert.

00:01:08 Chef Robert Lewis
Hi, thank you for having me. I am so excited to be here.

00:01:12 Shireen Abdullah
Such a pleasure having you on. So Robert, the reason why I was really looking forward to our interview here today and for us to talk here today is really because you’ve gone through this personal journey in your own life. You understood how diabetes can really take over someone’s life, but what you really did was you married diabetes and going through this diagnosis and really started specializing in creating these diabetic friendly dishes and recipes. Tell us more about that journey. Just really help us double click more into your experience, what was going through your mind and how the journey has been for you.

00:01:46 Chef Robert Lewis
Sure. Thanks for asking.

So, I’m a chef, and I’m a chef living with type 2 diabetes. I went to the Culinary Institute of America in High Park, New York, graduated in 1976, April 3rd at 4 in the afternoon. So really, for my entire working career, I have been a chef. So, when I was diagnosed in 1995 with type 2 diabetes, it kind of rocked my world. And I tried to figure out exactly, well, now what? You know, I tried to get as much information as I could, but back then, the information was, I think, sketchy at best for me to understand. And my doctor wasn’t very proactive about the information I needed to live a happy and healthy diabetic-friendly lifestyle way of living. And so, a lot of it was trial and error. I had to figure it out. But the diagnosis was a surprise, and I didn’t know anything about diabetes. And again, my doctor wasn’t very clear. And so, for about the first six months of my diagnosis, I was in denial. I just thought I had a mild case of diabetes, whatever that was. And if I stopped eating carbohydrates, everything would be great. As a matter of fact, I even thought at one point, if I decreased the amount of carbohydrates, it would cure my diabetes. Of course, I’ve learned a lot since 1995.

00:03:14 Shireen Abdullah
Thank you for sharing your personal journey. I think there are a couple of things that jump out to me.

One, which I do want to double click into next as well, which is like, what are some of the common misconceptions about diabetes? You mentioned about going through it in your own journey and recognizing mild diabetes and try to even come to terms with what that meant for you. What are some of the common misconceptions around diabetes that you hear of, especially as it intersects with food that you think many people don’t fully understand?

00:03:46 Chef Robert Lewis
That’s a great question. What I hear a lot and what I even thought way back when was my love for food and my eating, the foods I love is over. It’s done with, I have to use a special diabetic diet and I have to really be careful and forsake the foods I love to eat, which really isn’t true.

I think what is more true is to eat a lifestyle way of eating. I don’t believe there’s anything such as a diabetic diet. I think it’s a lifestyle way of eating and living along with exercise and I guess on, of course, seeing your doctor and taking your medicine and eating the right kinds of foods that don’t spike your blood sugars, but not to forsake the foods that you love. Listen, for me, don’t tell me I can never eat macaroni and cheese again. There’s got to be a way for me to eat macaroni and cheese or the foods that I love in a healthy, happy diabetic style way of eating. And I think people don’t understand that they hear only and see only lists on the internet about all the foods you should never eat ever again, but that’s not true. Now, let me just also say right off the bat, I’m not a diabetic educator and I’m not a certified registered dietician. I’m a chef living with type two diabetes, trying to figure it out every single day, but there’s so much great information through diabetic educators and dieticians that can help anyone living with diabetes get a clear picture of how to really manage it correctly.

00:05:27 Shireen Abdullah
And I truly appreciate you being upfront with that as well to say, this is my experience. And I think that’s what I’m trying to pull out over here as well, which is what advice would you give to someone who is being someone with that lived experience?

What advice would you have for someone who’s having difficulty transitioning to modifying their diet when it comes to diabetes itself? What would you tell them? What would you tell the robber back in 1995 about this?

00:05:56 Chef Robert Lewis
I would say surround yourself with a really good care team, which means a really good doc or endocrinologist, a certified registered dietician, and a diabetic educator. Someone that you can bounce your ideas and information, especially if you like looking all over the Internet for wacky and weird information, that just may not be accurate. I would suggest learn everything you can about your disease, diabetes, and learn how what you eat can affect your health. But surround yourself with people who know is, I think, the key.

Because listen, I know when I was diagnosed, everybody had an opinion, and these were friends and family with opinions. Well, why are you eating that? You shouldn’t be eating that and you have diabetes. I knew you had diabetes because you eat cheeseburgers once a week. It’s those kinds of comments that really, my good friend Bill Polonsky, he likes to use the term diabetic police. Those are the people that want to act like your police opposed to your coaches. They come from a loving place, but you need professionals in your life that can really guide you with sound information and sound practices. That made a difference in my life.

00:07:22 Shireen Abdullah
There we go. I also feel there’s a lot of truths within that, which is you don’t have to bear the entire burden of managing the diabetes all on your own, all by yourself, or just googling your way through it as well. There are resources, there are people, there are professionals who can really carry someone through. So I really like the message you have there.

How do you approach cooking when sometimes diabetes is just not by itself? There’s diabetes and there’s other related health concerns as well. How do you approach cooking when someone with type 2 diabetes is also dealing with other health concerns in their lives that they also have to manage and then they’re also not living in their own silo. They have to think about family and they have to think about taste preferences and allergies. There’s just a lot to consider there. And cooking well seems like a very simple task to do. There’s a lot to take into account there. But what advice or what approach would you have for someone like that?

00:08:24 Chef Robert Lewis
Yeah. And I have many friends who have situations with their diet and family members. And I think, again, knowledge is really the key in understanding what those foods do to someone living with diabetes and how you can cook and create dishes that incorporate some of those things that maybe your family members can’t eat. But again, I think for me, everything in moderation is the key, right?

And so what I like to think about doing when I cook is turn ordinary ingredients into something extraordinary. So I like to focus on simple natural ingredients close to the earth, not highly processed, not ultra processed, lots of fresh vegetables and grains and fruits and vegetables and lean proteins that really can help you live a happy and healthy diabetic lifestyle. But I want to just say, make a quick comment on what you said previously. I think surrounding yourself with a team is super important, but things really started to change for me when I woke up one day and took responsibility for what I was doing myself. I can’t blame it on anybody else. It’s all you. And once you start to take responsibility for the way you’re going to be eating and living, especially if you’re living with diabetes, I think that will change everything it did for me anyways.

00:09:58 Shireen Abdullah
And so the message there being, it’s really about not only be responsible for that change, you have to in a way almost embrace it to say that this is where things are and what can I do in order to change that. And you’re absolutely right.

The professionals around you will provide you the advice, they will provide you the recommendations in there. And then everything from there are actions that you have to incorporate. Absolutely.

00:10:20 Chef Robert Lewis
Absolutely. I mean, you go to the gas station and you want to walk into the convenience store and you’ve got to walk by all the Hershey candy bars. You can choose that or maybe a high protein snack like beef jerky or something like that, but it’s making those changes, subtle changes, small changes that can really make a difference. I like to say, give yourself plenty of grace because listen, I might eat a Hershey bar with almonds. It’s going to happen because I love them, but it’s not an everyday occurrence.

So I really try to manage what I eat in moderation responsibly and as well as I can. And I give myself lots of grace because it’s difficult out there.

00:11:05 Shireen Abdullah
I absolutely love that because it doesn’t have to be, it has to be all or nothing. Just be kind.

Be kind to yourself. Be kind to others. But then also don’t forget to be kind to yourself there.

00:11:15 Chef Robert Lewis
Absolutely, because we’re hard on ourselves.

00:11:16 Shireen Abdullah
I want to talk a little bit about the foods that you prepare. So when creating meals, how do you ensure recipes?

And this, by the way, to me is like a personal myth that I’m out to debunk. I’m curious to get your response on it Robert as well, but how do you create meals to ensure that recipes and now these modified meals, especially after diabetes that one creates are not only healthy, but can also be delicious for someone who has again diabetes and just wants to enjoy that experience with food.

00:11:50 Chef Robert Lewis
Yeah, for me, there’s a couple of strategies. I mean, fat and sugar and salt, those are flavors. Those have amazing flavors, but again, in, in the wrong quantities can be very, very unhealthy. So when I create dishes and start cooking at home, right away, I’m going to be looking for lots of vegetables and, uh, minimum proteins and minimum starch. Like I love the ADA has this idea of a plate method, right? So if you’re not familiar with that, it’s half the plate full of vegetables, quarter of the plate full of protein, a quarter of the plate full of, of, uh, starch, rice, something like that. And I think that’s a really great starting point for people who want to start eating healthy.

But I would say, for me, I don’t like to use processed overprocessed or ultra processed foods in my cooking. I like to create dishes that are simple and easy, five or six ingredients with lots of delicious foods that you can buy at every single grocery store. I mean, I shop on the outside aisles of my grocery store, mostly, which is where all the fruits and vegetables and proteins and dairy and cheeses are. And if I’m going to eat cheese, for example, I want a really nice cheese with punch so I can use a little and not a lot, right? So for me, it’s cooking foods that I love that are part of my ancestral heritage. I’m not going to give up, you know, but I’m going to especially focus on the portion size. And I think that for me has been the key to manage my diabetes, having a reasonable portion and foods that taste really good.

So if I’m going to decrease the amount of fat, sugar, and salt, I need to boost up the flavor in other ways. So if you were to come over to my kitchen today, you would see lots of different herbs and spices and flavorings in my spice cabinet, because those things don’t add carbohydrates or calories, but again, if you’re not used to cooking with the right kinds of oils like monounsaturated fats, like olive oil and avocado oil and spices start small, oregano, garlic, basil, those kinds of things can really make a dish hop. A little chicken in a fry pan with a little bit of avocado oil and lots of herbs and fresh vegetables, you know, sauteed and stir fried in about eight minutes, 10 minutes, you’ve got a delicious dish, simple and easy. Don’t overcomplicate it, but you don’t have to give up the foods that you love.

00:14:35 Shireen Abdullah
And that’s what I was going to hone in on in this approach that you’re talking about. It doesn’t have to be about giving up and what you can’t have anymore.

But it’s about how can you include the flavors that you like and how can you enhance. I mean, when you’re talking about some of the spices, there’s just a lot of creativity or a lot of room for creativity there, it sounds.

00:14:53 Chef Robert Lewis
Yeah, well, that’s the fun of cooking for me. I think it’s like a painter with a palette full of colors. And I can just pick and choose the herbs and spices. But again, if you’re not used to cooking, take baby steps.

If you’ve never used olive oil, grab a medium priced olive oil and some vegetables and just experiment and have fun. And of course, there’s lots of great resources out there. My website certainly is a great resource. But there’s lots of ways to learn how to cook delicious chef inspired foods that are easy and delicious. If you were to look at my cookbook, you would see that most recipes are not more than an inch long, simple. You don’t need a lot of ingredients, but I love to eat and I love to cook. So experimenting has always been fun. But initially, when I was first diagnosed, I had the list that was given to me of all the foods I could not eat any longer. So I just figured, well, that’s not going to be the disease for me. I’ve got to find something different because that’s not going to work. And I work with a lot of people whose doctor or friend might indicate to them, well, you should never eat a raspberry ever again because there’s too much sugar. Stop eating apples. Those kinds of things. Find yourself complex carbohydrates like watermelon and cantaloupe and broccoli and all the vegetables. They add great flavor to foods that you eat. And hey, listen, again, everything in moderation. If you’re eating five pints of raspberries a day, that could be a problem. That’s where a dietician can really help somebody understand their ways of eating and what works best for them.

00:16:34 Shireen Abdullah
You know, when you were talking about the different types of foods and different things that you can incorporate, even the spices that you mentioned earlier, what are some ingredients and foods that you recommend? You know, you talked about the chicken just a minute ago, but any others that come to mind in terms of incorporating some healthy, again, delicious foods into this type of diet where you’re managing your diabetes.

00:16:55 Chef Robert Lewis
Yeah. So for me, I have my arsenal, right? I have my standalone arsenal and my kitchen cabinet, and it’s always going to be olive oil, avocado oil, maybe a couple flavored olive oils, things of that nature. I’ve got five or six spices that are my go-to, rosemary, basil, oregano, Italian spice, garlic. Those are things that I just love to cook with.

And then anytime you can eat a lean protein like chicken or salmon, those kinds of steelhead trout, which you can buy very inexpensively, are great ways to boost up your nutrition. And of course, you know, rice has a place, tortillas have a place, ethnic cooking all has a place. But again, like every dish, and I maybe sound like a broken record, but it’s the one thing that’s really made a difference in my life is getting a hold of the portion size. So I love tacos, but instead of four, I’m going to eat two and a really big salad. And I’m going to walk away feeling like that was delicious.

00:18:00 Shireen Abdullah
Love that. You know, you calling yourself the happy diabetic, and absolutely loves that, by the way.

Yes, thank you. What role, I would be remiss if I did not talk about just having a positive attitude. What role does a positive attitude play in managing diabetes? And how would you encourage others to approach their journey with diabetes in a more optimistic way? Because there’s a lot when it comes to a diabetes diagnosis. So how do you look at the glass half full?

00:18:33 Chef Robert Lewis
Yeah, that’s a great question. I learned early on that the complications of managed diabetes are very few, right? So if I could just learn to manage my disease that works for me, it makes a huge difference. And I think your mindset about that is super important because you’re surrounded in a world with people that don’t understand diabetes, who think they know all about diabetes, who tend to put a lot of pressure on you, especially at family gatherings, or when you go to Thanksgiving and they watch you eat and they think they have a commentary, you just have to kind of say thank you for your opinion.

Have a nice day. I’m good to go. Thank you. Appreciate that. I mean, any anything like that comes from a place of love from them. But I think having a positive attitude is super important, because this is a horrible disease. That’s not sugar coated too bad. The complications from unmanaged diabetes are horrible, right? They’re not good. So I just recommend to people, if you can have this mindset that you can live a healthy and happy diabetic lifestyle, through some very basic things, your life will be great.

Now, I can’t talk about your financial state or anything else. But what I’m concerned about is your health. And eating with diabetes is certainly a big part of that. And I like to focus on helping people to learn how to cook again. Fall in love with cooking again at home, because the more you go out to the fast food restaurants, and to restaurants where you don’t know what’s in your food, that is not a great strategy. The one thing I love about cooking at home is I know what’s in it, and I know what’s not in it.

Every week, I bake homemade bread, tree barky, nutty, high fiber, whole wheat bread. I haven’t bought loaves of bread for ages. And I do it because I know what’s in it. And I know what’s not in it. If I go to buy a loaf of bread that looks brown at the supermarket, is it brown because of coloring? Is it brown because of wheat? You just don’t know. So if you can fall in love with your kitchen, and fall in love with cooking again, and just, I mean, I love baking bread and bringing bread to my neighbors. And they have the biggest smile on their face. And they’re so excited because they’ve not eaten home baked bread forever. So those are ways to help I think your mental attitude, share your love, share your cooking with people.

And listen, again, start slow baby steps. It’s good.

00:21:21 Shireen Abdullah
You’ve got some lucky neighbors over there. They do. They love it.

00:21:24 Chef Robert Lewis
Sourdough bread by the way let me just say

00:21:27 Shireen Abdullah
Love it. A few moments ago, you mentioned providing resources and you have some resources to share.

Can you tell us a little bit more about what sort of resources you have? What have you built up in your library? And again, going through your own journey, what resources have you found helpful that you think folks would also like to learn more about?

00:21:46 Chef Robert Lewis
Yeah. There are some great organizations out there doing great things. Yours for one is a great resource. I love this organization, Taking Control of Your Diabetes out of San Diego. They do a great job and I’ve done lots of work with them and they are just amazing endocrinologist.

For me, what I’ve tried to do on my website for people learning to cook is to teach them how to fall in love with cooking again. We have a cooking academy where we have various video lessons of how to cook and eat healthy, simple and easy recipes. I have a podcast, the Happy Diabetic Kitchen podcast, available everywhere. Podcasts are available and we just come from the place of not a doctor. Listen, I’m not a doctor. I’m not a diabetic educator, like I said, or a dietician. Although I have three children, Attila, Dracula, and Frankenstein, that makes me a psychiatrist of sorts, but really I’m just a chef living with type two diabetes, trying to figure it out. And I like to share with people what’s worked for me. And I’m really proud to say that it’s working well for me. And my A1C is typically almost always below a seven or a 6.8, but it takes work. Right? So I think finding resources that are real, that have people involved with diabetes who can share with you their story, I think that resonates with people.

00:23:19 Shireen Abdullah
On that note, Robert, we are toward the end of the episode. How can our listeners connect with you to learn more about your work?

You mentioned the website. I think if you can share the website address with us.

00:23:28 Chef Robert Lewis
Happy to, it’s happydiabetic.com. And there you’ll find all my podcast episodes. You’ll find the Happy Diabetic Cooking Academy. There’s a free email newsletter. We send out once a month.

We don’t spam your email. But really what I want to do is help people and try to help them make a difference in their life. For example, do you know why the rear view mirror in your car is so small and the windshield is so big? It’s because it’s not about where you’ve been. It’s about where you’re going. So keep yourself from looking back and beating yourself up for the fact that maybe I’ve not been a good diabetic. But look forward because moving forward is really what it’s all about.

00:24:12 Shireen Abdullah
Love it. On that note, Robert, thank you so very much for your time. Truly appreciate it.

To our listeners, thank you for listening to another episode of the Yemlish podcast itself. We’d love to hear from you. What do you think about today’s episode? Head over to our social media, head over to Facebook, Instagram, whichever social media channel that you appreciate the most. Head over there, find this podcast post. Comment below to tell us something that Robert mentioned earlier about cooking healthy foods. Share some recipes with us. Tell us what is your favorite healthy recipe, your go-to recipe that you cook up often. Again, we’ll find you on our social media. Again, find us at Yemlish on Facebook, on Instagram. Find this podcast post and comment below to tell us your favorite healthy and quick recipe. We’ll continue the conversation there.

With that, Robert, thank you again so much.

00:25:02 Chef Robert Lewis
So welcome, thank you for having me.

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