Help For Type 2 Diabetes

[Schlep]

In the last month I was diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. I knew I needed to lose weight and eat better so I started too walk 3 miles a day at a 4mph pace and I started the low carb diet.

I am down about 14 lbs and with medication have my blood sugar right where it should be with the odd spike.

Here is my problem, I went to the diabetes clinic today and they are telling me that a low carb diet is not good for me. They want to put me on a diet where I will be taking in 180 too 200 carbs per day.

I know I will gain weight and probably get worse but on the other hand I am not a proffesional who deals with this on a daily basis.

Are there others out there with type 2 diabetes who have tried different diets that can tell me about their success and failures?

[Schlep]

I strongly suggest you get a second opinion - putting an insulin resistant person (and that is the underlying reason for Type2 diabetes) on a high-carb diet looks like a complete misunderstanding to me... Unless they want all your carbs to come from low glycemic index food. Still, I'd get another opinion.

Plus, Atkins distorts results of some sugar tests... Sugar curve, I think. For some of them, you need to be on a "normal" diet for at least 4 weeks for the results to register normal. I think it was the sugar curve test. Check carefully in the book, because perhaps your problem is not as severe as they think?

Spoke to my doctor today and his comment to me was tha I should do what ever works for me.

So I guess low carb is where I stay.

[PamelaD]

I have my husband on the Atkins diet to help his diabetes, which was out of control, even on meds. I got a call from his dietician with the same lecture about it not being safe. Bull.... Please read this exellent article from MensHealth magazine.
Hmmm, well, I cannot seem to get away with pasting the address for this article. It says "error" and something about spam filter. This article is so exellent that I really would like you to be able to read it because I think you will find it helpful and perhaps you can print it off and give it to your dietician. I am doing that for my husbands dietician. Anyways, if you email me I will send you the address in your e-mail. If you are interested that is. My e-mail address is pinkypam45@yahoo.ca

[daffodyllady]

You may wish to look for a Doctor of Osteopathy... they tend to be a little more open-minded. At least that is my experience. My Dr told me to stick with Atkins, because it has been proven recently to be more healthy than previously thought.

[libertino]

I'm pre-Diabetic. Have been doing low carbs - although not as strict as some Atkins dieters. And my blood glucose level has been PERFECT. For months I have been resistant to do low carb, but after my blood glucose has gone back to normal, I am sold on this diet.

[Analog6]

In the 1920s before the discovery of Insulin, banting (low carb) was the prescribed treatment for Diabetes, type 1 and 2 - because there was nothing else. However, from about the 1950s the drug companies have turned conditions - obesity etc into diseases - so they could prescribe a drug to treat them.

In wester countries the idea of food as medicine has been a controversial topic in recent years. For decades Robert Atkins and his low-carb acolytes had to fight the mainstream medicine - and as we know here on this forum it has been as vitriolic as a religious war. There are food cures for everything and doctors talk about diet as a part of basic good health all the time. But talk to them about a diet instead of drugs to stop an infection or treat a tumor and most would be visibly alarmed, and in many cases, they would have good reason to be. A decade ago most doctors held the same contempt for keto. And Atkins is being used tp control epilepsy on young children for whom modern drugs can do nothing (read full article here). I had read other cases of young epileptics' seizures being halted by a low carb diet, this is just the latest one. An Atkins-like diet that worked as well — and often better — than antiepileptic drugs? Common sense suggests that’s crazy.

Food as part of disease treatment is slowly being accepted by more doctors. But it is not new. During the first half of the 20th century, the impact of food on our bodies was one of the hottest scientific fields. Insulin was discovered in 1921, and its commercial production meant survival for diabetics. In the 1930s, three scientists won a Nobel Prize for discovering that a substance in raw liver cured pernicious anemia, a disease that was almost always fatal. Eight Nobels were awarded just for work related to vitamins. And, it turns out, the ketogenic diet was developed back in the early part of the last century, too, only to disappear from medical literature for two generations.

For you, if you cut all sugars and refined carbs from your diet (so no fcarbs from any grains that are processed, flour, rice, oats, millet etc) and exclude legumes, then your blood sugars will probably be perfect and you will never have a sugar spike. But modern nutritionists are slow to accpot this - they have been schooled on low fat-high carb=good, and it is hard to change the mindset you have been imbued with. Just accept the diet sheets, and go on doing what you're doing, your body is telling you via your blood sugars and weight loss that you are doing it right.

And if you want a really startling story of low carb curing disease, have a look at this story of a lady who went 65 years suffering schizophrenia with voices and hallucinations who, after 8 days on a low carb diet, stopped hearing them and they have never come back. Peace finally at 72 years of age.

__________________
Odille
F 57 / 170cms. SW 131 (288.4lbs) / Restart 121.2 (267lbs) / CW 121.2 (267lbs) / Lowest since 09/05 101.5 (223.5 lbs) / GW 70 - Atkins follower

[Serena]

Odille, thank you for posting the link about the woman's recovery through low carb. What a beautiful testimony to the truth of nutrition.

[Analog6]

It's a real eye opener, isn't it?

[Serena]

I had read some reports of ketogenic diets helping folks with bi-polar, Alzheimer's, and other mental challenges, so the story wasn't new information, just a beautiful confirmation of what good or poor eating can do. I have read anecdotal reports of folks with Alzheimer's being given coconut oil and having symptoms lessen greatly. It's interesting what MCT's and ketones can do.

There is an interesting post at Emma's Failsafediet blog on GABA and bi-polar disorder, which might be of interest.

[leanone!]

Thank you for this bit of information as my mother is a diabetic, and has been low carb now for about 15 years, this is just the kind of article that will really give her a psoitive spin on a disease that's usually touted as worsening over time.

[snoringpuppet]

I had read some reports of ketogenic diets helping folks with bi-polar, Alzheimer's, and other mental challenges, so the story wasn't new information, just a beautiful confirmation of what good or poor eating can do. I have read anecdotal reports of folks with Alzheimer's being given coconut oil and having symptoms lessen greatly. It's interesting what MCT's and ketones can do.

There is an interesting post at Emma's Failsafediet blog on GABA and bi-polar disorder, which might be of interest.

I have also read tons of research articles linking carbs and refined sugars to diseases like alzheimer's and bipolar. Diabetes also runs in my family so I should be really careful. My cousin urges me to go keto by sending me all these news articles and I think I may soon have to make the switch. He literally doesn't eat any carbohydrates except for nuts and a few other things with minimal amounts of carbs.

He also makes all his meals in the morning so he can eat them throughout the day and also has a bunch of Quest protein bars in the back of his car to eat when he's in a rush.

[Tril]

Does he eat vegetables of any kind?