Reverse Type 2 Diabetes with Singapore Hawker Food: Is It Possible?

If you are Singaporean and you have diabetes, there is a good chance you have thought this at some point.

"I eat at hawker centres almost every day. I cannot change that. So how to reverse my diabetes?"

I hear this in my coaching sessions regularly. And I understand why. When most people think about reversing diabetes through diet, they imagine home-cooked meals, carefully portioned, prepared with full control over every ingredient. Hawker food feels like the opposite of all that.

But I want to challenge that assumption. Because it is costing people something they cannot afford to lose.

Watch the short podcast episode below, or read on.

The Assumption That Stops People Before They Start

The assumption goes like this. Hawker food is unhealthy. Unhealthy food raises blood sugar. Therefore, if I eat hawker food, I cannot reverse my diabetes. So there is no point trying.

That logic feels airtight. But it has a flaw.

It treats hawker food as a single fixed thing. As if every plate from every hawker stall is equally harmful and equally unchangeable. It is not. Hawker food is a category, not a prescription. Within that category, there is enormous variation. And within that variation, there is room to make choices that are meaningfully better for blood sugar control than what most people with diabetes are currently making.

The question was never hawker food versus perfect home-cooked meals. The real question is: are your hawker food choices today better than they were before? Are they consistently better? And are you sustaining that over time?

That is a very different question. And it is one that most people with diabetes who eat at hawker centres have never seriously asked themselves, because they already decided the answer was no before they tried.

Not Ideal. Not Easy. But Not Impossible.

Let me tell you about Marcus. He is not a real patient. His story is a composite drawn from my years of coaching Singaporeans with diabetes. But his situation is completely typical of what I see.

Marcus had Type 2 diabetes. He ate at hawker centres for almost every meal because of his work. He came to me wanting to attempt diabetes reversal but convinced it was not possible given his food situation. He had already made up his mind before the conversation began.

I did not tell him hawker food was fine. It is not ideal. I told him the truth: not ideal, not easy, but not impossible.

What matters is not whether the food comes from a hawker stall. What matters is whether the specific choices being made at that stall are better at managing blood sugar and reducing insulin resistance than the choices being made before. A diet does not need to be perfect to support diabetes reversal. It needs to be better. Better, sustained consistently, is enough to move the needle.

Marcus changed nothing about where he ate. He ate at hawker centres throughout the entire time we worked together. But he changed what he ordered. Targeted changes, built around his specific diabetes profile and dietary approach. Meal after meal. Week after week.

His blood sugar improved. His medication reduced. Eventually he came off his diabetes medications altogether.

Where he ate did not change. What he chose did. And that was enough.

Why There Is No List

I know what you want to ask next. Just give me the list. Which hawker foods are good for diabetes reversal?

I cannot give you that list. Not because I am withholding it. But because it does not exist in a universal form.

The hawker choices that support diabetes reversal depend on the dietary approach being used, and the right approach depends on the individual. Their specific pattern of diabetes. What other conditions they have. What medications they are on. What their current diet looks like. What they actually enjoy eating.

Two people with similar HbA1c readings can need completely different strategies. A list that works for one may actively undermine the other. That is why the work I do with patients is always personalised. I assess first. I understand the full picture. Then I make specific, targeted recommendations for that person's hawker food choices.

Generic lists feel helpful. But they can also create a false sense of doing the right thing when the choices being made are not actually aligned with what that individual needs.

The Window Does Not Wait

Here is what I want every Singaporean with diabetes who eats at hawker centres to hear.

Your food environment is not a reason to delay. It is not a reason to accept that better blood sugar control is out of reach for you. It is not a reason to put off the work that needs to be done.

The window to attempt diabetes reversal does not stay open forever. Every month of delay is a month the condition has to progress further, making reversal harder and less likely. Hawker food is not the obstacle. The belief that hawker food makes improvement impossible is the obstacle.

You do not need a perfect diet. You do not need to stop eating at hawker centres. You need to start making better choices there. One meal at a time. Consistently. Now.

Do not let perfect get in the way of good. Do not let hawker food be the excuse that costs you the window.

Learning About Reversing Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes may potentially be reversible if lifestyle and eating habits changes are made early enough, appropriately, adequately, and sustainably. If you have Type 2 diabetes and are not as equipped with the essential foundational knowledge about reversing Type 2 diabetes as you should be, I have a structured online learning programme that you might find very useful. You can find out more through the link below.

Find out more about the Reversing Type 2 Diabetes: Essential Basics - Structured Online Learning Programme Here

Related Posts

• Can Type 2 Diabetes Be Reversed? Dr Chan Answers
• Eating Out with Diabetes: Dr Chan on a Common Challenge
• Lifestyle vs Pills for Diabetes: 3 Mistakes
• Diabetes Control: Effort, Not Money, Is The Key

About Dr Chan Tat Hon

Dr Chan graduated from the National University of Singapore medical school in 1992. For the last ten years, his work has focused on lifestyle medicine. He works with healthcare and corporate organisations to design and deliver lifestyle behaviour change programmes, train health coaches and build communities engaged in cultivating healthy behaviours to combat diseases.

He also provides training and coaching to individuals with diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, cardiovascular diseases and other lifestyle-related chronic diseases through 1-1 personalised coaching, live webinars, and online courses.

• 1-1 Personalised Coaching with Dr Chan
• Online Courses and Programmes by Dr Chan
• Reversing Type 2 Diabetes: Essential Basics Online Programme
• LinkedIn Profile of Dr Chan Tat Hon

About This Podcast Episode

In this episode of The Habits Pharmacy Podcast, I address one of the most common concerns I hear from Singaporeans with diabetes: whether it is possible to reverse diabetes when most meals are eaten at hawker centres. Using the composite story of Marcus, I explain why the answer is not a simple yes or no, why there is no universal hawker food list for diabetes reversal, and why personalised dietary guidance matters. I also share what happened when Marcus made targeted changes to his hawker food choices without changing where he ate.

Full Transcript

The following is the full transcript of the podcast episode above.

Doctor, I am not able to reverse my diabetes because I take almost all my meals at hawker centers or kopitiams. I cannot change that because of my work situation. Therefore, I don't think I can reverse my diabetes because hawker food is so unhealthy. That was what my patient, Marcus, said to me during a coaching session.

Hi, I'm Dr Chan. Let me use the story of Marcus to answer the question of whether a diet consisting mainly of hawker food can help reverse diabetes. Marcus is not a real patient. His story is a composite drawn from my years of coaching people with diabetes and other lifestyle-related chronic diseases. But his story reflects how many of my diabetes patients see hawker food and diabetes reversal.

Before I continue, I would like to ask you, what do you think? Would you agree with Marcus? Can a person still reverse his or her diabetes with a diet consisting mainly of hawker food? Is your answer yes or no?

From my ten plus years of experience coaching patients with diabetes to make dietary habit changes, my answer is maybe. It is possible to reverse diabetes even with a diet consisting mainly of hawker food. Is it ideal? No. Would it be easy? No. But is it possible? Yes. Not guaranteed, but possible. Because a diet that can help reverse diabetes does not need to be 100% perfect in every way.

If a person's goal is primarily to reverse diabetes, the new diet just needs to be better than the old diet at lowering blood sugar and reducing insulin resistance. So if you're asking whether a diet consisting mainly of hawker food is advisable as a long-term healthy diet, the answer is clearly no. But if you're asking whether a person can still achieve diabetes reversal after a few months with a diet consisting mainly of hawker food, the answer is possibly yes. Not guaranteed, but there is a reasonable chance if the person makes appropriate and adequate changes to the kind of hawker food chosen. Consistently making new choices that are better at minimizing blood sugar spikes. Consistently making new choices that are better at reducing insulin resistance and doing that consistently over a period of time.

So the point is not whether it is hawker food or not. The point is whether your new hawker food choices are better than your old ones at reducing unhealthy blood sugar spikes and insulin resistance, and whether you can sustain those choices consistently over time.

So many people at this point would probably ask me, "Doctor, just give me the list of hawker foods that are healthy, that can reverse diabetes." My answer would be, there is no such list. There is no such one size fits all list. Because the question is not about whether a specific hawker food is good for reversing diabetes. The real question is whether your new hawker food choices support the mechanism you have chosen to attempt to reverse your diabetes.

What do I mean by that? Let me explain. Some people use a calorie restriction diet to try to reverse diabetes. Others use a ketogenic diet, and yet others use a mainly plant-based diet. The underlying mechanisms that contribute to reversing diabetes are different for each of these different dietary approaches, and not all of these dietary interventions are suitable for every person with type 2 diabetes. It will have to depend on a person's dominant diabetes pathophysiology, the severity of the diabetes, what other medical conditions they have, what medications they are taking, and what diet they are currently practicing.

So the new hawker food choices made to support one's attempt to reverse diabetes must be individualized. They must align with the chosen dietary strategy and its underlying mechanism. That is why in my one-to-one coaching session, I do not simply give patients a list of foods or hawker food choices that are supposedly good for diabetes. I will first assess and understand the patient's diabetes, the underlying pathophysiology that may be contributing to their condition, their other medical conditions, the medications they are on, the problems in their current diet, and their home and work environment, especially in terms of food access. I also take the time to understand their food preferences, their likes and dislikes, their favorite hawker foods. Only after that do I propose a possible dietary approach and strategy to improve their blood sugar control and where possible, to even attempt to reverse their diabetes.

I think this is a good moment to return to the story of Marcus. Marcus wanted to attempt to reverse his diabetes through lifestyle and dietary changes, but he did not think it would be possible, given he had no choice but to eat at hawker centers most of the time. So I spent some time educating him. I highlighted that even though Singapore hawker food is generally not ideal for blood sugar control, there would always still be room for him to make better choices when eating at hawker centers. Choices that would support his chosen dietary approach and give him a real chance at improving his diabetes with the hope of even possibly eventually achieving diabetes reversal.

I assessed his usual hawker center choices. I gave him specific suggestions on changes that he could make, and then I coached and supported him through those months. Over time, his blood sugar control improved, and he needed less diabetes medication. He improved further and eventually came off medications altogether.

Marcus did not change where he ate. He continued eating at hawker centers for most of his meals, but he changed what he chose to eat at hawker centers, and that was enough.

Again, Marcus is not a real patient. His story is a composite drawn from my years of coaching Singaporeans with diabetes, and it reflects what I see in some of my diabetes patients. My purpose in sharing this composite story is this. I want to encourage people with diabetes that dietary improvement should be made as early as possible. Just because your home or work situation requires you to eat most of your meals at hawker centers does not mean you cannot improve your diabetes control or even possibly reverse your diabetes.

You do not need to wait till your situation changes. When it comes to combating diabetes, changing and improving your diet is critical, and it should be done as early as possible. Do not wait until your diabetes condition becomes so severe or complications set in before you make the effort. If you have diabetes, do not wait for the perfect timing or the perfect environment. Start as early as possible. Start with what you're willing and able to do. Do not let perfect get in the way of good.

You do not need to be perfect. You just need to focus on making your food choices at hawker centers better, one step at a time. And do not let eating at hawker centers stop you or delay the critical work of improving your diet to combat your diabetes or to attempt to reverse your diabetes.

So if you ask, "Is it possible to reverse diabetes if you have to eat at hawker centers most of the time?" My answer would be not ideal, not easy, but not impossible. It may be possible if the right targeted changes are made consistently enough.

I also want to take this opportunity to highlight something very important to every person with type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is potentially reversible if lifestyle and eating habits changes are made early enough, appropriately, adequately, and sustainably. But the window to reverse your diabetes does not remain open forever. The earlier you try, the better your chances.

Most people do not have a comprehensive understanding of diabetes reversal, and that is why I created a structured online learning program called Reversing Type 2 Diabetes: The Essential Basics. I hope it would equip people with type 2 diabetes with the must-know foundational knowledge of reversing diabetes.

I hope you have found this useful. I'm Dr Chan. Your habits can be powerful medicine to combat diabetes and other lifestyle related chronic diseases. Choose better and get better. Eat well and be well. Take care.

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