Hi,
Every time I write or blog about the effect and advantages of the low carb diet for Diabetics, I get involved in a lot of questions, arguments and controversies about the low carb diet.
Samples of these questions are as follows:
- What are your sources?
- Whether the low carb is safe or no?
- Did you try this theory on yourself?
- Are you better controlling your Diabetes?
- Is it make sense to do it?
- Whether results are guaranteed or no?
- Can we see difference in our daily lives and in our BG readings as Diabetics?
- Take it easy man and don't be philosopher - Why don't we just eat and bolus?
Well this time I will only talk about my sources...The sources that I feel confident and trustful reading for them - you know why?
Because most of these sources (I believe all) are Diabetics and they live the same case that we, as diabetics, live.
Being Diabetic is the main reason that these sources adopt new attitude, new eating habits, creative and out of box treatment behavior that they thought after researches and looking around and most importantly after trying them on themselves first; that it will help their control of the disease.
One of these actions is adopting the low carb diet.
Because they are Diabetics; they know, from the heart, they know what is feeling when you get Hypoglycemia, they know the meaning of high blood sugar after a high carb meal and they know how tough is it to bolus for 120 gm / meal of carb in terms of timing, dosing, matching, sensitivity time to time, IOB, .. etc...
So, to make it short; let me talk to you about five models today:
1 - Dr. Richard Bernstein
He is the author of the great book of the diabetes solution.
I consider Dr. Bernstein a legend in his field and his age having such control on the disease as a real model for excellent control on Diabetes.
He is 80 years old type 1 diabetic who got all possible complications at the age 38 when he was following ADA recommendations of eating 60% or so of carbs daily; and he was almost destined to die at age 40 if he continued doing the same eating pattern - but as an Engineer; he thought of the whole things mathematically and out of any outer influence; he tested himself on each and every food he eats and write the effect of that food on him and to his surprise; he found out what is the real impact of carbohydrate on type 1 diabetics.
He reversed all complications by adopting the low carbs diet (severe low carbs 30 gm per day) and please do not get me wrong here and do not think that I am asking you to eat 30 gm of carbs a day although I wish you can do it and see yourself the great results that could bring to your long term complication reverse.
Now Dr. Bernstein is 80 years old type 1 diabetic and a famous physician adopting the same low carbs diet, advising all his patients to do the same thing along with daily exercise and he just doing great in this age as a type 1 diabetic that had all complication 40 years ago but he managed to reverse them all and help a lot of people live better lives.
By the way Dr. Bernstein is the Physician who invented the bolus and basal theory and practices.
If I can have the right to advise any one here, I would say, please find a diabetic physician that really will make a lot of difference in your treatment plan.
2- Dr. Rob Thompson
He is a preventive Cardiologist the author of the low starch Diabetes solution book and the Glycemic load diet book and again he is a type 2 diabetic and was advising patients to do the ADA diet until he gets Diabetes and only by then he figured out the differences between a meal of consists of large piece of beef stick, asparagus and Cesar salad and and a meal contains two toasts and their contradicted effects in his blood sugar.
He advised Diabetics in his simple and beautiful book the low starch Diabetes solution to cut the starches like rice, bread, pasta, muffins, donuts, Cereal, etc...and gain the great results represented in their diabetes control instantaneously.
he found out that all starches have high Glycemic index and load!! means it will raise your blood sugar faster than lightening.
Not only that. but he is saying that low starch diet will benefit your heart; as it will lower your triglyceride and raise your good Cholesterol HDL and that is the same thing said by Dr. Bernstein.
3- Jenny Ruhl
who is the author of blood sugar 101 and the author of the Diet 101 the truth about low carb diets and owner of the web site www.bloodsugar101.com - which is a great site to surf on it and get yourself a real education about all aspects of diabetes in plain and honest language without any hidden interests or zigzags.
Jenny is a 64 years old. she was first diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in 1998. Several years ago she discovered that she may actually have a form of MODY which is a genetic form of diabetes different from both Type 1 and Type 2.
She is currently control her own diabetes by keeping carbohydrates under 110 grams a day and taking metformin and a low dose of Coenzyme Q10.
she used to consume a few units of fast acting insulin at mealtime if I ate over 15 g of carbs at one time - By October of 2012, her A1C was to 5.5%
She has a great section in her website about low carbs she call it why they do not tell you about the low carb, she has it all there - I advise you as a diabetic; to read it very well. It is actually very beneficial and supported by numerous researches.
4- Gary Sheiner:
The author of the great book - Think like pancreas - who is also a Type 1 Diabetic CDE who wrote about the effect of fast acting carbs or starches effect in blood sugar.
he said by word in his book (by words) : From the stand point of blood sugar control whether the carbs you eat are in the form of sugar or starches doesn't matter. Both will raise your blood sugar with the same amount. A cup of rice containing 45 grams of complex carbohydrate will raise the blood sugar just as much as a can of regular soda (coke or whatever) that contains 45 grams of simple carbs (sugar) and both will do it pretty fast.!!
5- Riva Greenberg:
The author of the simple and to the point book of: 50 diabetes myths that can ruin your life and the 50 Diabetes truths that can save it.
She is Type 1 diabetic for 36 years (was 32 when she wrote her book in 2009) she was diagnosed with type 1 when she was 18 years old.
She said in her great introduction: The day I heard that “diabetes is not the leading cause of blindness, kidney disease, or losing a limb,” my life abruptly changed. Ever since my diagnosis thirty two years earlier, I had lived with the fear that one of these diabetes complications would inevitably be my fate. These words would change my diabetes management and my life. me too>>>
She continued with a great words of hope and openness: It was Dr. William Polonsky, Diabetes psychologist and founder of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute, who uttered these fourteen words in his “Coping with Diabetes” workshop. My astonishment was mirrored in the faces of all those around me.
How could it be that what we’d heard our entire diabetes lives wasn't true? Then Dr. Polonsky said, “Poorly controlled diabetes is the leading cause of these outcomes.” In that moment I recognized the absolute power of learning a truth and the debilitating power of believing a myth. My long years of fear shifted to hope: hope that if I managed my diabetes well, facing major complications might not be my fate after all.
she said in her great book the following:
This notion that people with diabetes shouldn't eat sugar is one of the hardest myths to lay to rest, says Dr. John Bantle, professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota, in a June 2008 Diabetes Health article titled “Sugar and Diabetes: The Myth That Won’t Die.” Fifteen years ago, Bantle and his colleagues performed an experiment comparing two meal plans. Both had the same amount of carbohydrates, the food most responsible for raising blood sugar. In one meal plan the carbohydrates came primarily from sugar, and in the other primarily from starch.
Participants ate the foods from one meal plan for twenty-eight days and then switched to the other meal plan.
The researchers discovered that participants’ blood sugar levels were essentially the same whether they ate the sugary meals or the starchy ones.
Conclusion: Sugar and starch raise blood glucose equally. Thus it’s the amount of carbohydrate, not the source, that determines blood glucose levels.
she also says: A way to not limit your carbohydrates and to choose healthier carbs is to eat more low glycemic index (GI) foods and less high glycemic-index foods.
High-GI foods turn into glucose quickly and include typical sweets and desserts, such as cake, candy, cookies, soda, fruit juice, and syrups.
Faster-acting sugars are also found in refined food products—foods where the outer fiber of the grain has been removed—such as white rice, white bread, bagels, pita,pasta, many breakfast cereals, muffins, and bakery goods.
None of these foods are excluded from what you may eat, but they usually contain fewer nutrients and will spike and subsequently drop your blood sugar rapidly.
Now talking about my own experience in this:
I am type 2 diabetic and now; totally dependent on Insulin after too many wrong medications that I got when I was illiterate, Diabetic wise, that burnt out my beta cells and now producing Zero Insulin.
After I read Dr. Bernstein book (4 years ago); I started searching, testing, inspecting , comparing BG readings and found great deal of difference and improvement in my readings doing low to moderate carbs' diet - about 90 to 100 gm per day.
My health and mood get better when I reduce my intake of carbohydrate especially the refined ones and eat the healthy ones.
But even with the healthy Carbs; I do not go crazy on them.
For example; I do not eat three banana right after each others, I just go easy with Carbs because I believe (of course after verifying that with my meter) that carb with same grams, no matter what it is, will raise your blood sugar the same mgm/dl by various duration after eating based on their digestion speed, so it will end up needs the same insulin with different timing and type (sometimes) technique.
Example:
If I eat some fast acting carbs that I know it will be glucose in 30 mins and I know it needs 6 rapid actin insulin, I then inject 6 rapid 10 or 15 mins before eating.
Now if I am eating some complex Carbs that have the same carbs' count and I know it will take 4 hrs to be finish its effect on my blood sugar , I then split the 6 units to 3 units to be taken at meal time and another 3 to be taken after 2 hours>>>>you see I still get the 6 units, anyway, which some people will say: so what? as long as you are eating healthy carbs take the six units.
But here we go again; big quantities of Carbs means less control, more insulin, hard matching, High insulin resistance, less Insulin sensitivity and more weight gain.
So I eliminated bread, potato, rice, pasta and of course sweets, cakes, donuts, Pizza...I may get some on weekend but I really do not need them any more, I am happy without them, they ruin my readings, my mood and raise me up like nothing even if I am skilled boluser.
I found matching my starchy food and fast acting carbs' intake with expected digestion, insulin type, insulin dose duration, peak is a big challenge that I am as a diabetic do not want to go through this lose / win challenge 4 or 5 times a day and usually I lose and Diabetes wins.
So; believing in my meter and only my meter I am doing the sensible low carbs, I do eat good carbs but I am away from bad ones.
Of course I slip sometimes
If you are not convinced or you think it is tough for you to do it, or you read the otherside of ADA or whatever....let me tell you something sincerely from my heart; It is extremely important that you learn about the healthy good carbs, if you are Diabetic, or pre-Diabeti.
You really need to educate yourself by searching, readings, asking, trying , measuring, testing, comparing and get out of the old box of Doctors; that the last book they read was 15 years ago.
Read every thing your eyes can reach about Diabetes and the food that you should consume to get better results and to avoid future complications and finally believe only - your meter.
It really deserves to give it a shot...
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