Low-carb diets support thread

Slinky_Malinky

Hi, I have also recently been diagnosed as insulin resistant. I too think low carb is the way to go - I saw the diabetic nurse at my health centre and she was recommending eating a diet pretty heavy in carbs. Lots of breakfast cereal etc. so I am going to read up on IR and do my own thing i.e. cutting right down on carbs rather than follow her advice.

I have read a few posts by Eric P who has done remarkly well in both weight loss and his general health so tbh I have far more repect for any advice or links he gives than i have for the advice given to me by the nurse. The low carb thread on here is huuge, will take a month of Sundays to read it

niceday999

Slinky_Malinky wrote: »

Hi, I have also recently been diagnosed as insulin resistant. I too think low carb is the way to go - I saw the diabetic nurse at my health centre and she was recommending eating a diet pretty heavy in carbs. Lots of breakfast cereal etc. so I am going to read up on IR and do my own thing i.e. cutting right down on carbs rather than follow her advice.

I have read a few posts by Eric P who has done remarkly well in both weight loss and his general health so tbh I have far more repect for any advice or links he gives than i have for the advice given to me by the nurse. The low carb thread on here is huuge, will take a month of Sundays to read it

how did you know you had it ? pm me if you want to

Mojisola

Slinky_Malinky wrote: »

Hi, I have also recently been diagnosed as insulin resistant. I too think low carb is the way to go - I saw the diabetic nurse at my health centre and she was recommending eating a diet pretty heavy in carbs. Lots of breakfast cereal etc. so I am going to read up on IR and do my own thing i.e. cutting right down on carbs rather than follow her advice.

I have read a few posts by Eric P who has done remarkly well in both weight loss and his general health so tbh I have far more repect for any advice or links he gives than i have for the advice given to me by the nurse. The low carb thread on here is huuge, will take a month of Sundays to read it

To learn how your body reacts to different food, it's really worth buying a blood testing monitor. The test strips are expensive but you only need to use them a lot at the beginning. Try certain foods and test before and at one and two hours after eating and see what happens to your levels.

By eliminating the foods that cause your levels to rise, you'll soon be in control and you'll have the empirical evidence to explain to the nurse/GP why you're not following their high carb advice.

margaretclare

Slinky_Malinky wrote: »

Hi, I have also recently been diagnosed as insulin resistant. I too think low carb is the way to go - I saw the diabetic nurse at my health centre and she was recommending eating a diet pretty heavy in carbs. Lots of breakfast cereal etc. so I am going to read up on IR and do my own thing i.e. cutting right down on carbs rather than follow her advice.

I have read a few posts by Eric P who has done remarkly well in both weight loss and his general health so tbh I have far more respect for any advice or links he gives than i have for the advice given to me by the nurse. The low carb thread on here is huuge, will take a month of Sundays to read it

Yes, it's a huge subject, and much that you discover actually contradicts conventional advice. For example, I went to the weight loss clinic run by the nurse practitioner at our local surgery, and she talked about 'free foods' i.e. 'oh you can eat as much as you like of....' mainly carbs! If I had eaten the kind of things she said I could eat as much as I liked, I'd be twice the size! My DH has been Type II diabetic since 1981 and I have worried about developing this myself, especially since I've seen other women of my age-group developing this out of the blue, no warning (obviously they will have been pre-diabetic but ignored it). DH says that the advice given by Diabetes UK may be wrong. They advise a plate divided into thirds - one-third should be carbs. He doesn't agree.

For the last 7 weeks I've been doing the Dukan Diet and DH, although he can't do this with me because he's an insulin-user, has been cutting down on the carbs. He ate the last potato we had in the house and won't buy any more. He eats wholemeal bread but nothing like white pasta or white rice. It goes without saying that in this house we have no biscuits, cakes, crisps, ice-cream, anything like that. The Dukan Diet is in phases, and on the later phases I'll be able to eat fruit except for 4: bananas, grapes, figs and cherries, because these are all very high in natural sugars. Sugar is easily-digested, a 'spike' in blood-sugar occurs which triggers an insulin response. Insulin results in the body laying down food as fat, not using it as fuel for daily activities. A vicious circle. Cut down on the sweet, easily-digested, easily-absorbed carbs and the amount of insulin in the body stays at a stable level.

DH says he must be doing something right, because he went to see his diabetes nurse practitioner yesterday and his recent blood test for HbA1c was 6.5 which is excellent. This test is an average of blood glucose levels over the last 3 months, and this is the best it has been for a very long time. He doesn't miss potatoes or any of the other things and he's extremely supportive of my efforts. In addition, he's losing weight! Insulin is a growth hormone so once you get on to injecting yourself with insulin it gets more and more difficult to lose weight. Now he's eating less carbs he's using less insulin, so is losing weight!

NB: NEVER eat so-called breakfast cereals! Start the day with protein of some kind. A boiled egg with wholemeal toast is fine. I've just had grilled bacon with an egg, no bread, DH had the same with wholemeal bread.

Eric_Pisch

Slinky_Malinky wrote: »

Hi, I have also recently been diagnosed as insulin resistant. I too think low carb is the way to go - I saw the diabetic nurse at my health centre and she was recommending eating a diet pretty heavy in carbs. Lots of breakfast cereal etc. so I am going to read up on IR and do my own thing i.e. cutting right down on carbs rather than follow her advice.

I have read a few posts by Eric P who has done remarkly well in both weight loss and his general health so tbh I have far more repect for any advice or links he gives than i have for the advice given to me by the nurse. The low carb thread on here is huuge, will take a month of Sundays to read it

I was pre diabetic, my insulin was hitting 19+, i would often pass out on eating a high sugar meal, and fasting it was just on the max not to be diabetic, my GP reckoned i had about 6 months before going full blown type II. Now it peaks at 5.8

Primal is all about eating the foods we are evolved to eat, and when you do your body reverts to its natural weight very quickly and your health becomes turbo charged, what baffles my GP the most is that my cholesterol is 4.3 when 50-60% of my diet is fat, and mostly animal fat

Because you still eat a lot and a lot of protein you loose very little lean muscle mass or any at all.

Oh and your never hungry which is handy

murphydog999

We need to be a bit careful here.

Firstly, it's generally not a good idea to go against medical advice.

Secondly, without knowing any details about anyone's lifestyle, and full medical history, it's not advisable to just say 'do this......' What works for one person may not work for another and cause even more problems.

Finally, carbohydrates are such a big subject, yet they are being talked about in the singular. There are simple and complex, starchy and sugary, intrinsic and extrinsic, and they all react in the body in different ways - some good, some bad. With carbs - as all foods - comes a very useful - but often confusing - aid, their Glycemic Index value (GI) which can be altered by changing the Glycemic load (GL, which relates to quantity) and/or adding protein to a meal. It is too complex a subject to be lumped into one 'nasty carbs' topic.

For example, if someone has a full-on highly active job a 'low-carb' diet is not the ideal thing - they will be a necessity. So what needs to be sorted is the choice of carbs, when they are eaten, how much and what with, which is key.

I would advise the OP to take on board what people are saying due to their own experiences, but a lot of surgeries now have diabetic specialists and it would be good to seek their advice. You could also find someone who works privately to analyse your diet and lifestyle requirements and advise on an eating plan and nutrition.

Mojisola

murphydog999 wrote: »

Firstly, it's generally not a good idea to go against medical advice.

Secondly, without knowing any details about anyone's lifestyle, and full medical history, it's not advisable to just say 'do this......' What works for one person may not work for another and cause even more problems.

I would advise the OP to take on board what people are saying due to their own experiences, but a lot of surgeries now have diabetic specialists and it would be good to seek their advice. You could also find someone who works privately to analyse your diet and lifestyle requirements and advise on an eating plan and nutrition.

This is true which is why I'm glad I took the decision to pay out for a monitor and blood test strips. I now know which foods make my blood sugars go too high and am controlling them through diet alone.

The standard advice by the "diabetes specialists" is still to have a lot of carbs. If I had followed their advice, I would have been on medication for several years now.

Learn what your body needs - that's the best way to go.

niceday999

just found this book on amazon after reading about it in woman magasine
has anyone read it ?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Syndrome-Complete-Nutritional-Program-Resistance/dp/0471398586/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316153905&sr=8-1

margaretclare

The standard advice by the "diabetes specialists" is still to have a lot of carbs. If I had followed their advice, I would have been on medication for several years now.

I agree with this, from what I've learned from observing DH and listening to him. Most 'specialists' do NOT differentiate between the different types of carbs. Although, he will listen to a diabetic nurse specialist more readily than to anyone else. He used to go to the consultant at the hospital diabetic clinic and he (the consultant) said that he (DH) knew more about it, how it affected him and his lifestyle, than he (the consultant) did.

When I was told I could eat as much as I liked of 'free foods', I knew that there was no differentiation between them. Pasta, rice, potatoes, bread were all lumped in together.

In addition, not all 'medical advice' is the same. Someone with specialist knowledge and expertise in this field is one thing, someone with a general medical qualification is quite another. DH has had many arguments as to 'what you were prescribed'. 'Do you take the same amount of insulin that you were prescribed?' Well, no. Depends on what the blood glucose results were and what the meal is going to contain, also time of day, all these variable factors.

cagneyfan

Hi there,

I'm a bit confused. I'm reading the Atkins book and from what I can gather, the induction phase has a 2 week plan. However, I really don't like a lot of the stuff on it. My question is: is this just a guide or do you have to eat what it says for that 2 weeks?

I'm confused because I've read various things on the net and I get the impression from some places that you can eat other stuff.

I'm getting really hacked off and starting to think what's the point before even starting!