A diet to cure diabetes: Patients were able to come off tablets after two months on low calorie regime Extreme low-calorie diet could help millions of Britons defeat diabetes Patients ate only weight loss shakes, salad and non-starchy vegetables They were able to come off tablets after crash dieting for two months Some were still free of symptoms 18 months later, with improved health Type 2 diabetes affects around 3million people in the UK alone Potential cure: Consuming only salad, weight loss shakes and non-starchy vegetables for eight weeks could reverse diabetes, a study has found A crash diet that has been medically approved could help millions of Britons defeat diabetes. Men and women suffering from the disease were able to throw away their tablets after going on an extreme low-calorie diet for just two months. And 18 months later, some were still free of symptoms and said they were astonished at the dramatic improvement in their health. So far the diet has only been tested on a handful of patients. But a £2.4million trial involving 280 diabetics is about to get under way. These men and women will live on meal replacement shakes and soups. They will be allowed to take in only 800 calories a day - an amount many people will consume in their lunch. Type 2 diabetes, which normally develops in middle age, is the most common form of the condition with 3million sufferers in the UK alone. The disease occurs when the pancreas does not make enough insulin and the insulin that is made does not work properly. Newcastle University's Professor Roy Taylor believes fat surrounding vital organs could be the key to understanding the condition. This fat is thought to clog up the pancreas and liver, cutting insulin production and stopping insulin from being used properly. But crash dieting plunges the body into starvation mode, the fat is burned off and the vital organs are then freed up. The original trial - involving 11 men and women - found consuming only weight loss shakes, salad and non-starchy vegetables for eight weeks could reverse diabetes. Fat levels in the pancreas returned to normal and the organ was able to pump out insulin without running into any problems. And three months after the end of the diet, seven out of the 11 participants were still diabetes-free. Even 18 months later, at least four of the patients found that they had no signs of diabetes. Gordon Parmley, 69, of Stocksfield in Northumberland, came off his diabetes tablets after taking part in the trial. He said: "It's astonishing really that a diet - hard as it was - could change my health so drastically." Disease: Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the condition with 3million sufferers in the UK alone And Professor Taylor said: "I believe that this study will lead to a quantum leap forward in our understanding of how best to manage type 2 diabetes." The new, much larger trial, which will be co-led by Glasgow University researcher Mike Lean, will see if the success can be repeated in large numbers of people. It will look at how easy they find it to follow the diet - and see how long they remain healthy after they have started to eat normally again. Professor Lean said: "If our analysis shows this approach is both effective and cost-effective, our aim would be to produce a programme that could be implemented in the NHS as soon as possible." 'It's astonishing really that a diet - hard as it was - could change my health so drastically' Gordon Parmley And Dr Matthew Hobbs from Diabetes UK, which is funding the trial, said: "Type 2 diabetes will always be a serious condition. But perhaps it won't always be seen as a condition that people have to manage for the rest of their lives and one that worsens inevitably over time. If we can do this safely, on a bigger scale as part of routine care, then a low-calorie liquid diet would be a real game changer in terms of reducing people's risk of devastating health complications such as amputation and blindness. However the research has no implications for people with type 1 diabetes, in which the pancreas is damaged by the body's own immune system. And the charity has advised people not to embark on the diet themselves, strongly urging anyone determined to try it to speak to their GP first.