Food - Life expectancy - CONFUSED!

[toner29]

This whole balanced diet thing is hard work...I have been trying to find out what is good for me and what isn't whilst trying to eat a high protein diet for a new fitness regime!

After doing some research yesterday discovered that type 1 diabetics lose 20 years of there life which means (going on national average) we get to 63! Obviously this scared the life out of me, so I want to try and be as healthy as possible whilst like I said previously eating lots of protein! I understand obviously fruit and veg are good, sat fats are bad, but in terms of actually coming up with a meal plan everytime I think something is good and try and include it as part of my diet someone lets of a land mine and tells me it will raise cholesterol or is bad for me.

Does anybody have any advice on what to do as different sources are giving me different information - Eggs are bad on one site then the next says they are good, I should avoid protein shakes according to one source then the next says they are low carb so they are fine...Oatmeal is great, no its causes blood sugar spikes...arrrgggghhhh! I'm seriously struggling!

Im a relativley new diabetic being diagnosed less than 2 years ago so any advice from people that have been here would be greatly recieved.

Thanks in advance

 

[phoenix]

First, the statistics, for type 1 they are reliant on old data. People who were diagnosed with type 1 in the past had very different treatment, from people diagnosed today. Before the eighties glucose testing relied on urine and insulin schedules were far less flexible. Even so I know of people who have had diabetes for 40-60 years and have no complications. Now though it is less down to luck and genetics we have the tools to get better control.
As to healthy eating, you will indeed find a multitude of opinions on the internet.
Personally I find a balanced using good quality fresh foods and choosing (for the most part)lower glycemic carbs works very wel for me. This is what I do.
By balanced I mean including food from every food group.I include mostly less refined and wholegrain starches, pulses, fruits and lots of vegetables. I tend to eat leaner meats and lower fat (but not necessarily extrememly low fat) dairy. I eat eggs, but not every day. I use mostly olive oil and occasionally sunflower for cooking but I also have some uncooked oil every day (olive/walnut) on a salad. I sometimes add nuts, pinenuts and seeds to dishes. Oh and I live in France so I definitely have a couple of glasses of red every day!
By good quality fresh, I really mean I tend to cook everything from the raw ingredients, I don't eat much that was manufactured in a factory.
By low GI, I tend to look for the lower gi of the food I want to eat. So for example I'll choose small new potatoes over old mashed ones. I'll choose heavy grainy breads rather than fluffy white. I try to include pulses like lentils and chickpeas on some days (low GI carb +protein). I eat porridge made with semi-skimmed milk for breakfast, usually with some berries and a few almonds but I choose the larger, less finely milled oats as they have a far lower GIs than the powdery stuff.(especially the quick cook packets which are really high gi)
There is lots of info on GI here http://www.glycemicindex.com/
Hopefully you are on MDI and use 2 separate insulins, a basal and a rapid. (you need different advice for mixed insulins)
With this type of insulin you can gain very good control but it really is important though to learn to count your carbs (and at least until you get used to it weighing your starchy carbs, I still do it at home) and learning to adjust your rapid insulin accordingly. The best way to do this is probably doing a DAFNE course but there is also an online course http://www.bdec-e-learning.com/
and there are 2 useful books (though American)
Think Like a pancreas Garry Scheiner
Using Insulin John Walsh.

And lastly, and in my opinion it doesn't get mentioned enough. Don't forget the third tool at our disposal EXERCISE. Everything ifrom gardening, housework and walking to spinning classes and weight lifting can help increase insulin sensititivy.

This is what I've done for almost 6 years and have had good HbA1cs so, for me, this type of regime hopefully gives me the best possible chance of avoiding complications and a premature death.

(as with so many things though, different things work for different people, if you don't like a way of life it won't work for you as you won't stick with it)

 

[toner29]

Wow thanks for that reply...I am fairly familiar with carbohydrate counting but I still suffer from high/low readings...however it is getting better.

I think what you said is probably right, I will have to dry and find a diet/excersice program that suits me as I will not stick to it if it doesnt. I think the statistics sent out the other day just shocked me about life expentancy and as a result I am panicking about everything lol.

Thanks again

 

[noblehead]

Excellent advice by Phoenix!

Nigel

 

[mikethebike]

Well done Diabetes UK!

You have finally convinced me NOT to look this site again.

After NOT suffering the numerous complications I supposedly should have, after managing to still be alive and in an OK condition after nearly FOUR & A HALF DECADES of being type 1, and after getting depressed reading all the false hopes of possible cures and the endless conflicting overload of information for the newly diagnosed (mainly on this site), I have had enough!

Yes you can say good riddance to this miserable .....whatshisface.
I know you are trying to help people BUT:-

The last straw was YOU emailing me to inform me that some statistical imbeciles have some news. My life expectancy is now supposed to be so shortened!

Its not news and i didnt need reminding thanks

FANTASTIC STUFF! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! :evil:

 

[jameshallam]

...anyway back on topic...

I still go on what my mum told me years ago:
"everything is good in moderation".

Personally, I don't think you want to cut anything out of your diet, nor do you want to overload on another type of food. A good, healthy balanced diet - some protein, some carbs, some fat.

I've found since I have had diabetes, I tend to eat the same as before (other than sugary drinks & fruit juice), but now I know what's in my food - from labels and experience.

Definitely agree about cooking things from scratch... pre made sauces esp. tend to contain all sorts of weird and wonderful ingredients to preserve them etc.

 

[MegaMan]

Life expectancy I wouldn’t worry about, doctors do get it wrong. My mum was told when I was born that I wouldn’t make it to 2 years old (not diabetic related) I’m 28 now. So this proves just because your told you may not make it to x amount of years does not make it so. Plus the treatment for diabetes is much better than it once was. Take control and stick two fingers up to diabetes

Hope you are keeping well

 

[donnellysdogs]

In all our lives, some are lucky and some aren't....unlike one of the previous posters, it is this website that has made me realise that our life expectancys are so much better than that what was expected when I was diagnosed 25 years ago.

Some of the websites for other diseases (fibromyalgia in particular) are so depressing that I can not go on to them. This website brings me good friends and a great support, and just a realisation that life ISN't necessarily full of complications and ****.

Our life's can be so much better, and this website is one of the best things to help us......

 

[HLW]

Bear in mind that all figures for life expectancy you will ever see will be out of date or an estimate, as you can only ever know life expectancy for people dying now eg if average age of death is 70, the life expectance for people born 70 years ago is 70, for someone born more recently it will be different.
Also life expectancy is stated as a mean, a mean average over everyone born, so it is taking into account deaths in childhood etc, so once you have reached adulthood you have already survived many things that adults don't tend to die of eg neglectful parents, measles, birth defects, being a typical teenager and not taking your insulin so you can loose weight, etc etc, so a life expectancy for a 30 year old will always be higher than the life expectancy for a new born.
so basically these figures always look worse than they really are!