Heh. I expected this, you know. The moment I say that LCHF is not the only alternative, someone immediately reacts 'but you're on insulin'. Yeah. I am.
The levels of my C-peptid are too low, so my doctor thinks it's best not to go to diet only. Does that make me 'not typical T2'? And what exactly is a typical T2? An overweight gluton who caused diabetes to themselves by a bad lifestyle, like Bernstein says? Diet-only LCHF fan? Or is it just T2 on insulin that are 'not typical'?
That's not just UK. I checked several countries of the EU, and it's the same everywhere, including Slovakia - T2 are generally told they don't have to test, and receive very little support. I also receive only one pack (50 pcs) of test strips in 2 months for free, and even that's only because I am on insulin. Diet-controlled T2 don't get even that much. My doctor (we don't have 'nurses' but doctor specialising in diabetes here) was very open about that .
But I studied all I could find about diabetes, about different diets and methods of carb counting, and about nutrition, and in the end I came to the conclusion that my doctor's advice is still the best, because it's most balanced, easy to control, and easy to follow in long term. And that I'll finance my testing. So now I spend 1/6 of my whole monthly income for testing strips, needles, etc..
It does seems the treatments offered to diabetic patients are quite different in our countries. Here the doctors (we don't have 'nurses' or 'teams', we have doctors who specialise on diabetes) will set the number of carbs you're allowed to eat based on your individual situation - age, weight, lifestyle, overall health condition.... And they'll do it in grams. Slovaks generally don't like to use vague measures like 'half a cup' or 'one serving'. We believe in exact numbers.
First thing I got from my doctor was a chart showing how much grams of certain food has 10 grams of carbs. With a warning that it's not always exact - e.g. some apples can be sweeter than others - but knowing that for a snack you can have 70 grams of apple is much more reliable than knowing I can have 'one small piece or a quater of a cup'.
But, tbh I'm not sure how much I believe that all doctors in UK are uneducated, ignorant and intentionally giving patients wrong information, expecting them to get worse and become dependent on insulin. That's at least how it looks like from LCHF people on this forum - and it's actually the other main reason I'm so suspicious about LCHF. It encourages people to ignore medical advice (there are people who brag how they never visited their nurse, or haven't seen her for years), and to go on a very restrictive diet without medical supervision.
According to the article on this site, low-carb is below 100. With my 140-150 grams I'm not on low-carb, but on a
moderate carb diet - and one that includes all foods that are here recommended to avoid.
LCHF is NOT the only alternative to high-carb diet. There are several ways of counting carbs, and several diets. Controlled carb intake doesn't necessarily have to be extremely low carb (i.e. below 50 grams of carbs per day), or never eating bread, pasta, or rice.
But, as I said, the OP should choose the way that best suits him and his lifestyle.
