Type 1 Diabetes complications

[TERRYBURGE]

I have been a type 1 diabetic for 27 years now & have not got many complications from it, hah, I still have my limbs, relatively good eyesight (the DVLA say I'm ok to drive)! But what I have got which only happened in the last 3 years is firstly I had a TIA (Whoa! Wake up call)! Then a heart attack 2 years ago. After treatment, 1 stent, I was put on a strict diet & exercise program & under the cardio dietician consultant told what to eat in my diet & what not to eat. After also getting some guidance from the BHF (British Heart Foundation) I am now following the mediterranean diet. I am very confused now however that especially on this forum Diabetes.co.uk there is conflicting information? Why do people say I can eat butter & salt! If you check out the BHF website you should not eat either! It is not good for your heart! I think both diabetes & heart websites should liaise with each other & not publish confusing & conflicting information. For that reason I am perplexed as to why even the recipes on this website include butter & salt! Sorry for the long rant but who else is also confused?

 

[Pinkorchid]

A lot of people here do the low carb high fat diet and they do eat a lot of saturated fat as in cream butter and red meat...I don't.. but it is not a diet for everyone because we are all different. As you have had a heart attack and are under a cardio consultant and dietician then you must go by what they say.We are not experts or medically qualified here so we can't say what is best for you. If the Mediterranean diet suits and your medics are happy with you then stick with it there is nothing wrong with that it is a good diet

 

[miszu]

To me it was told that yes as a diabetic I should be more careful with those, but I dont need to cut them off at all. I dont think that diabetics cant have butter or salt. Too much of them can be bad for anyone, with or without diabetes.

 

[therower]

Hi @TERRYBURGE . Welcome to the forum.
I think the most important part of your post is your confusion about this forum and conflicting information.
Diabetes as a word fails miserably to explain the condition.
On the forum you will find lots of different advice that is relevant to lots of different diabetics.
You are unique. Unique because of your diabetic type and other complications. That uniqueness demands unique information unique to you.
I'm T1 for 27 yrs and would gladly give advice prior to your TIA and heart attack BUT with the TIA and heart attack, I have no real life advice to offer.
For me in your position ( which I'm not ) I would follow advice of .........
A.The people who saved my life and are advising now.
B.People in a very similar situation to where you are now.
That would be it for me.
Any other advise,for me, would hold little value and would need backing up from extensive research or A or B above.
Ultimately there isn't one size that fits all with regards to diabetes, you'll have to find what fits you best.
Sorry it probably doesn't answer your question but it's the best I can offer.

 

[Guzzler]

There's a huge difference between a T1 and a T2 who manages their diabetes with diet alone. A T1 has little choice but to use insulin but a T2 on diet alone can in a lot of cases stay off of bg lowering drugs and insulin by making dietary choices. Understanding these choices is key to maintaing good levels and staving off complications. I doubt very much that people would advise you as a T1 to change your regimen to that of a T2 diet controlled (not intentionally).

The LCHF Diet has helped thousands of people and, yes, it means eating butter and cream and fatty meats but it also includes avocado, olives, olive oil etc. The salt issue really boils down to the fact that when you give up processed food which has a lot of hidden salt then you need to replace that. It does not mean mean eating great globs of grease laden with salt.

 

[himtoo]

Hi @TERRYBURGE
welcome to the forum
I totally agree with everything @therower has said.
we are all indeed unique people and generic advice for the majority does not suit in your individual circumstances.

I do hope you continue to join in on the forum and help by posting your personal experiences to hopefully help others in a similar situation to you.

all the best !!!!!

 

[TERRYBURGE]

Hi @TERRYBURGE
welcome to the forum
I totally agree with everything @therower has said.
we are all indeed unique people and generic advice for the majority does not suit in your individual circumstances.

I do hope you continue to join in on the forum and help by posting your personal experiences to hopefully help others in a similar situation to you.

all the best !!!!!

Thank you for the feedback but my point is that heart disease & stroke is a complication of diabetes whether 1 or 2? Surely everybody should be singing from the same hymnbook? Too much saturated fat (& that includes butter) clogs up your arteries & too much salt increases your blood pressure?

 

[therower]

Hi @TERRYBURGE. I would agree with you. A lot would not agree with you.
Perhaps a read around some other parts of the forum will give you an insight in how people manage there diabetes.
Type 2 is a different condition to Type1 and management is different.
Many T2's benefit from low carb high fat diets as do a lot of T1's. Are these people making sacrifices down the line?
Not for us to answer I think.
If you believe in what you're doing then there is no problem with singing it's benefits.
You will find though people will sing a different tune.
Ultimately this is just a forum for debates not directives.

 

[Daibell]

Hi. In my (personal) opinion, the BHF website diet advice is flawed. When I looked at it a few weeks ago it was still churning the 'low sugar, low-fat, low-salt' advice which is the standard mantra from all government departments and to some extent DUK but they have changed their advice a bit recently. Some of us would challenge the BHF style advice but you must make your own decisions and you must take the advice of your consultant or challenge it if you feel the need. Many of us diabetics find that carbs are the real problem for us and fat and salt are generally irrelevant with respect to the diabetes. A lot of research shows that the fat you eat only has a minimal impact on blood cholesterol, and hence artery deposits, whereas the liver produces much of it and this can result from carbs. Those who have very high blood pressure may well need to control salt intake but for the majority I am sceptical that it needs a high degree of control. These are my own views as an amateur

 

[donnellysdogs]

Have a look at Pioppi diet (no 3 in amazon bookseller list currently).

Aseem Malhotra is a leading cardioiogist and advocates low carb and higher fats and is leading the way in trying to get the world to think differently about fat, sugar.

Salt-you need some and if like me you dont eat bread, pasta, meat, cereal, rice etc or processed foods you can get too little salt.... its balance.. the current processed foods and awful fast food diets give people too much salt but if you remove these factors you could get too little.

Have a look at the pioppi diet. And Aseem Malhotra. Books in Tesco and other shops.

I am T1 and been low carb vast majority of my life. Adding more saturated fat in crucified my cholesterol lipid levels but adding in more olive oil, avocado, nuts helped... cream, cheese and butter didnt.

I know of other T1's have imoroved and others who got worse results with heavier saturated fat.

I do believe for me that mediteranean fats are good but we are all individual.

 

[librarising]

Too much saturated fat (& that includes butter) clogs up your arteries & too much salt increases your blood pressure?

You may like to get hold of a copy of a new book The Pioppi Diet, co-written by top cardiologist Aseem Malhotra and Donal O'Neill.
One of the chapter titles is : Saturated Fat Does Not Clog The Arteries
Here's just one of video of him from YouTube where he's addressing heart disease.

The demonisation of saturated fat was an error from about 4 decades ago.
Gary Taubes' Good Calories Bad Calories (aka The Diet Delusion) relates the history of this flawed diet-heart hypothesis which a growing number of people (including other cardiologists) are now rejecting.
My own road to Damascus experience came when I read in a book "saturated fat is good for you" (Dr John Briffa's Escape The Diet Trap). RUBBISH I thought. Much research later I decided sat. fat posed no risk to me or my heart, and I've embraced it ever since.

On salt he says that 15% of people are salt sensitive and that these, if they also have high blood pressure, should avoid excessive salt.

I would suggest a little research. Medical opinion is somewhat of an ocean liner, needing plenty of time to change course.
Geoff

 

[DCUKMod]

Hi @TERRYBURGE - As a T2, I wouldn't consider it appropriate to comment on your condition or how you manage it, but do feel I'd like to make a more general comment on a couple of remarks made on your thread.

Where individuals elect to adopt a reduced carb way of eating, that doesn't necessarily mean they eat a very high fat element. Many (I couldn't guess at any percentage) merely swap the low fat options for full fat, and usually try to avoid trans fats (usually the manufactured ones). Making those choices is often enough to balance out any energy deficit issues to maintain weight.

Of course, there are some people who take their dietary choices to the extremes, but my conclusion is they are likely in the minority.

Of course, diabetes is such an infuriating condition, in that one style of approach doesn't help everyone.

 

[Guzzler]

There is a very strong familial history of CVD/CHD in my family. I am the only one with T2 which heightens my risk above that as well. After much research my personal decision was to go the LCHF route but I did a lot of soul searching and a heck of a lot of reading. I will keep reading as new research appears but for now lowering my risk of a heart related problem caused by high glucose/insulin is my only weapon because there is nothing I can do about the genetic predisposition.
Ancel Keys and his dodgy research gave birth to 'the fear of fat' which has meant fifty years of a low fat diet being promoted by Big Food and Big Pharma and yet the incidence of CVD/CHD has risen steeply and now we have an epidemic of Diabesity, too. When you look at current data it, even with the untrained eye, it seems blindingly obvious that the modern (western) diet rich in carbs and low in fat carries the burden of responsibility.
In your place, I would follow the HCPs advice but I would still be doing my own reading and discussing this with them. Good luck, hope you make a full recovery.

 

[TERRYBURGE]

Thank you all for your advice

 

[donnellysdogs]

Also interesting for me that another person follws Aseem Malhotra and Pioppi Diet. ... thank you to OP for posting..

 

[TheBigNewt]

One key medication after a coronary intervention (stent) is a statin. Usually atorvastatin 80mg/d. That's in addition to dual antiplatelet therapy usually clopidogrel and low dose aspirin. And many times a beta blocker like metoprolol. But the statin is real important. I don't have enough time to read about all the millions of diets and supplements that have been recommended for people to prevent heart disease, but whatever you were doing it didn't work. Right?

 

[TERRYBURGE]

Hi TheBigNewt,

I was already on a statin long before my HA & Tia & I'm on Pravastatin? I'm still on the Clopidegrel but not the Aspirin after 2 years after my stent. My original point was that my consultants in cardio say I should stay away from saturated fat & salt but people on the LCHF diet seem to flought that rule & in my view eat unhealthy bearing in mind that one's diet could increase the risk of cardiovascular disease in diabetics?

 

[TheBigNewt]

I'd be taking 80mg of Pravastatin, the max dose. It's the least potent of the statins. Once you take a decent dose of a statin I don't think there's any data supporting/refuting any specific diet in someone with established coronary disease. Salt intake is only important in high blood pressure and heart failure, and not very important in most patients with the former. Most of the dietary recommendations are based on the diet of different populations of people and their incidence of various diseases compared to other populations nearby usually. Not really applicable to an individual with established disease. The reason we pimp Lipitor 80/d is because it's the most potent/powerful and is the best studied in patients with coronary disease. And it's just as safe as anything else in the drug class. The Squibb company (pravastatin before it went generic) put their drig up against Pfizer's Lipitor 80 in the only head to head statin trial and lost pretty badly as I recall. That was awhile back.

 

[Art Of Flowers]

Dietary fat does not clog up your arteries. This is a myth. What does cause your arteries to clog up is glucose spikes which causes inflammation of the arteries which then leads to heart attacks and strokes as when the inflamation is repaired it narrows the arteries. About 80% of people with CVD have diabetes, will get diabetes or have glucose spikes.

Dietary fat can help you have a low carb diet without glucose spikes.

 

[TERRYBURGE]

TheBigNews, I hear what you say but I can't really go ahead & take such a large dose can i without the advice from my gp can I? I only take 10mg as it is but I was on anverstatin & simverstatin before but had bad side effects so I was switched over.