Diet and Health FAQ

Tagged As: type 2 diabetic diet

Question:
Firstly, let me apologize for the length of this post and question. To summarize, I am looking for real-life experiences of Type-2 diabetics on a LC diet, specifically with anecdotal experiences as to glucose, blood pressure, cholesterol, and pointers to medical literature supporting the diet. My long-winded soliloquy follows. I first experienced the Atkins Diet about 20 years ago. At that time, I remained in ketosis for about 18 months and lost about 45 pounds. (My carb. max-point was 18-20 gm./day.) Overall, I found the diet easy, pleasant and effective. When I got stalled during the first year, I found that returning to the induction regimen sometimes solved the problem. When it didn't, bingeing on a couple pieces of toast, and then going back to the induction program seemed to kick-start my system. I quit the program after being stalled for the last 6 months, with no weight loss and strong ketosis. Besides, I really was Jonesing for a crunchy carbohydrate fix. I re-started the Atkins diet about 5 years ago, and basically had the same results. I lost 50 lb. and stalled for the last 4 months. During this time, my DW gave me endless grief about how unhealthy the diet was, and that I was going to permanently damage my body. Her diet plan is based upon calories..calories...calories + excercise. Her training in Nursing school was based solely upon the 3-food-group pyramid. When having a recent complete physical, my internist and I discussed the obvious fact that I needed to lose weight, and that my only success had been with a ketogenic diet. This disclosure met with a sour face and the pronouncement that ketosis is bad under any circumstances, and a ketogenic diet is just plain dangerous. He was unwilling to discuss the possibility that there was a difference between diabetic and dietary ketosis. When the blood-test results came back from the lab I was diagnosed as a Type-2 diabetic, and advised to start the ADA diet, take Glucophage, and other meds to get my BP and Cholesterol down. My visit to the dietician was very unpleasant. She repeatedly regurgitated the party line regarding 3/4 food groups, calories, etc., and was totally negative about a low carb regimen. Her solution was the only solution...period. It will not bother me a bit to fire the dietician, but I rather like the internist, and would prefer not to make a change. It, obviously, would be too expensive to fire the DW. I am convinced that the traditional dietary methods do not apply to me, as I am a classic carbohydrate-intolerant. I am looking for real-life experiences of other Type-2 diabetics as regards their experiences on LC diets. I have searched most of the web resources I can find as well as the archives of this NG. Any personal experiences,advice, or links to type 2 diabetic diet would be appreciated.

Answer:
I don't have any personal experience, but I have many family members who have been diabetics, both juvie and Type II. My dad was Type II for about 25 years, and he tried to do what the dietitian told him to do, but he felt like crap eating all those carbs, so he ate to feel good and regulate his blood sugar, and that meant plenty of meat. With all of my dad's other medical problems, the docs were amazed at how well he did for so many years being Type II, and I attribute that to his knowing what worked for him and ignoring their advice most of the time. One doc wanted his blood sugar to run about 60-80 all the time, and he said he felt like crap running that low, so he made some adjustments so he could run about 100-120, and he felt more energetic running at that level. YMMV. My ex sis-in-law was diagnosed with Type II in the last year, and she started out eating the recommended Type II diet, and her blood sugar was all over the map, she just could not get it stable. Her daughter, how has a nutrition background by education and job, recommend she cut back on the carbs because they were converting to sugar. So she modified the recommended diet, put in more protein, less carbs, and her blood sugar stabilized when she made those adjustments, and she's doing fine now controlling it with diet alone. TINMA (this is not medical advice), but I think people know their own bodies better than anyone else ever can. Listen to your docs, then find what works for you, what makes you feel the best. My mom complained for years that her heart was skipping beats and got ignored for all those years. Finally, to humor her, they hooked up one of those portable EKG thingies to her for 24 hours, and when they looked at it, they were shocked, she was missing a LOT of heartbeats. At one point, they said if her heart had missed one more beat, she would have went into cardiac arrest. She knew her body, she tried to tell them, and she was ignored until it was almost too late. After my dad's heart bypass surgery, he went home, and he felt like hell, my mom took him back into the hospital, and the intern was just ignoring everything she was telling him was going on, and she had to get right in his face and shout at him to get him to listen to her. Turned out my dad's gallbladder failed, and he had to have an emergency gallbladder operation. Had she not been rude and insistent, he would have died within 24 hours -- her rudeness gave us another 15 years with him. I'm not bashing docs here, just trying to say they don't know your body as well as you do. Monitor your blood sugar with that cool little gizmo, see how you feel and what the readings are after you eat carbs and after you eat protein, make notes, take your findings to your doc, show him. Scientific evidence you have gathered based on what your body does with food may be the only thing to convince your doc and your DW. Best wishes!!