Chickasaw citizen Mike Carrillo is a walking commercial for his latest passion in life — persuading others who suffer with diabetes that they too can beat the debilitating disease by switching to a plant-based diet.
Carrillo learned he had diabetes in 2003, and almost two decades later a related medical issue eventually led to a cure. It was 2020, the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I developed a fever and thought I had COVID,” Carrillo said.
Tests came back negative. COVID was not the culprit. His illness was caused by an errant posterior hair that turned into a boil growing bigger with each passing day to the point he could not sit down due to excruciating pain.
His wife, a nurse, told him to see a doctor immediately.
The doctor sent him to an area hospital for emergency surgery to remove what turned out to be an infection that caused sepsis, a potentially life-threatening infection. The afflicted portion was removed, but the surgery was not a total cure.
During his weeklong hospital stay, doctors told Carrillo he must reduce his A1C (a measure of sugar in one’s red blood cells) or his body would not heal properly.
He had already enrolled in a diabetes reversal class, which emphasized what he said was the same mantra every other diabetic hears: Food is medicine.
He needed more.
“When you’re diabetic, everybody tells you, cut the sugar, cut your carbs, but no one explains to you why and the benefits of it,” he said.
The diabetes reversal class eventually provided “more” in the form of advising converting to a plant-based lifestyle.
“It’s more than just cutting carbs and sugars,” he said. “You have to replace them with something that feeds your body in order for it to heal.”
Carrillo credits his newfound plant-based diet with dramatically lowering his A1C from more than 9 to 6.1 in only three months. His wound healed in less than two months.
The new dietary insight was so successful it caught the attention of medical professionals.
“The wound care people told me, ‘Whatever you’re doing, keep it up.’ They had never seen a diabetic heal so quickly,” Carrillo said.
In Carrillo’s estimation, his plant-based regimen seemed nothing short of a miracle. His former 365-pound frame is now reduced to 265 pounds, and he no longer takes diabetes medication. His goal is to eventually get down to 230 pounds.
“Everyone thinks it’s impossible and they can’t do it. I’m walking proof you can do it,” he said.
Carrillo’s experience also led to a career change. After working years in the oil field business, the Midland, Texas, resident now heads up the culinary department at an Odessa, Texas, community college.
“I went back to school first to become a certified health coach but didn’t feel like I was reaching people like I wanted to,” he said. “I found a school, Escoffier School of Culinary Arts, that offered an associate degree.”
Upon graduation, Carrillo was offered the job as the department chair at the Odessa community college’s culinary department.
“Last year before we broke for summer I was promoted to director,” he said.
“I worked with oil field companies in management and sales, and thought I would die in oil field management and sales, but I am now happier doing what I love,” he said.
Carrillo said he is not against eating meat and will occasionally do so.
“I’ll enjoy a burger occasionally. If I go to a barbecue, I’m not over there chewing on lettuce while everyone else is eating steak. And if we go out to eat, I won’t ask for the biggest steak they have. I’ll ask for the smallest cooked meat they have,” he said.
Carrillo has become something of a reluctant celebrity in the Midland-Odessa area due to a TV commercial and billboards produced by Lifestyle Medical Center in Midland touting his weight loss journey.
“My friends are like, ‘Oh, we didn’t know you were a star.’ I’m not a star. I’m a regular guy who just made some life-changing decisions. When you get the mindset that you are in control of things, it gives you not just understanding, but hope,” he said.
“I know it’s kind of cliché to say it, but if I can do it, anyone can. I don’t have anyone in my kitchen cooking for me. Everything was locally sourced at our grocery store,” he said.
Carrillo said he traces his Chickasaw heritage through his mother.
“I always knew I was Chickasaw,” he said. “It’s something I take pride in.”
