Unbelievable

BrianTheElder

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In today's Times:
"You can eat sugar and carbohydrates and still lose weight, says a professor of nutrition at the University of Glasgow.
Mike Lean said that research had shown that people could shed pounds by following diets that allowed more foods such as grains, bread and rice, as well as those which cut them out."
Well, he is a professor of nutrition after all...
 

lucylocket61

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you absolutely can lose weight eating carbs if your calorie restriction is low enough.

you could live off 4 sugar lumps a day and lose weight.
 

Brunneria

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It is just a push back against the low carb publicity that has appeared lately.

In one way he is right - lots of people can lose weight eating carbs, or high carb low fat, or carbs with calorie restriction.
All sorts of different options available.

Some of us do better with lower carbs, and some of us do better with lower carbs and higher fat.

My personal view is that a heck of a lot of people who think they are 'fine' eating carbs are actually experiencing insulin resistance, and will go on to develop preD and type 2. Their bodies can only cope with carb overload and insulin resistance for so long before they start to develop the signs of metabolic syndrome which can progress to T2.

Kraft tested 1000s of people over decades, using insulin clamping and glucose tolerance tests, and demonstrated a very clear connection between the development of insulin resistance and later development of heart disease and type 2. Which means that the insulin resistance comes first - before the blood glucose goes wacky, and before the heart attacks.

But the article quoted above is about weight loss. And yes, sure, most people can lose weight eating highish carbs.
Doesn't mean that it will be good for their longterm health though.
 

lucylocket61

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I could not as I would to keep to it for long........
I meant the general 'you'

unfortunately english does not have different words for general and personal 'you'. I will try to use the word 'people' in future.
 

Robbity

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I do have to ask, what is wrong with non-type 2 diabetics eating carbs? isnt the idea of pushing low carbing to those not type 2 diabetic similar to those who are lactose intolerant expecting those who are not to stop drinking milk?
As I understand it, T1's have to count carbs to adjust their insulin injections for meals. If they're eating a large number of carbs, and they get their calculation/dose wrong, there's a bigger margin for error than if they were eating fewer and requiring much less insulin. Even small errors can have larger consequences if carb consumption is higher, so lower carbs would mean both less insulin and safer/more accurate doses. (Richard Bernstein's "Law of small numbers":
https://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/diabetes-resources/definitions/dr-bernsteins-diabetes-solution/ )

@Mel dCP

Robbity
 
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lucylocket61

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As I understand it, T1's have to count carbs to adjust their insulin injections for meals. If they're eating a large number of carbs, and they get their calculation/dose wrong, there's a bigger margin for error than if they were eating fewer and requiring much less insulin. Even small errors can have larger consequences if carb consumption is higher, so lower carbs would mean both less insulin and safer/more accurate doses. (Richard Bernstein's "Law of small numbers":
https://www.diabetesselfmanagement.com/diabetes-resources/definitions/dr-bernsteins-diabetes-solution/ )

@Mel dCP

Robbity
thank you. I rarely comment about type 1's as i know so little about their lives. I have a friend with type 1 and a friend with a husband and two sons with type 1, but living the life is different from looking on, isnt it. But I am awed by how careful and vigilant you have to be, and the consequences of error or even general life. I can understand how reducing the margins of error can help.
 
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LooperCat

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Thanks for the tag, @Robbity :)

FWIW, I’ve spent 20 years eating the standard diet they encourage - low fat, high carb. And over the years I’ve gained more and more weight, and my diabetes control was horrendous, even after doing the DAFNE carb counting course. I think they do you a great disservice by telling you you can eat what you want and dosing for it. Many T1s have wonderful results by pre-injecting up to an hour before carby food, and avoid the spikes we so often see after eating. Now, despite a pretty advanced science education, I was more than happy with the maths, calculations and general working it all out, but my body just doesn’t seem to cooperate. Sometimes the insulin worked quite fast, sometimes it could take over an hour - not very compatible with eating with the family if you’re waiting for the stuff to work before you eat.

I had a real scare in January when my husband had cooked the family a lovely pasta dish, and food was on the table before I was expecting it - so I ran to the kitchen cupboard, grabbed the pasta packet to read the carb content so I could inject (he’d weighed my cooked pasta, so I knew how much I was having) - and I mistakenly read the dry weight instead of the cooked. I ended up taking 50% more Novorapid than I should have, and we had to get the paramedics out to rescue me from the hypo.

So.... I joined this forum the next morning, and read about Bernstein’s “small numbers” theory for controlling diabetes. I ordered his book (while I think he’s great, he’s not god), and pretty much (mostly) follow the guidelines in it. Since then I’ve found my control has been so much better - no spikes after meals, very few hypos (those I do have are extremely mild, never less than 3.2mmol, and they come on so slowly that a two or three 3g dextrose tablets get me back into range in minutes). So small amounts of carbs means tiny or no insulin dose with food - I don’t eat any fast carbs like rice, bread or pasta, all my carbs are contained within the veg etc, so release so slowly I don’t need to inject. I have found I need a little insulin with prawns and white fish, due to the liver making the tiny amount of glucose certain functions of the brain and eyes require, in a process called gluconeogenesis.

It doesn’t suit everyone, and it’s quite restrictive especially when eating out, but it really works for me. Some T1s are able to manage a “standard” diet with their insulin regime; I’m not one of them! But when I get traces on my Libre sensor like this, all the inconvenience is more than worthwhile. Also, I feel a gazillion times better - no drowsiness after meals, some weight loss, shape change, mental clarity... plus all the benefits of an HbA1c of 43 instead of 94 :)

FFFCBE77-276D-41CB-B6E6-0AC23A30D9D2.jpeg
 

Resurgam

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Every diet I was on where the mantra was low calorie low fat, with starches galore on the list of acceptable foods, just small amounts of them, the result was the same, I went deathly pale, became faint and bewildered and eventually - under the constant encouragement to stick to the diet sheet, I would collapse - sometimes in the street or at work.
I would like to see that professor try to get me to lose weight eating sugar and starches.
 

KK123

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Well the sentence is not 'unbelievable', it's factually correct. You could eat 2 Mars Bars a day and lose weight but of course it wouldn't be healthy for anyone, never mind a low carbing diabetic.
 

BrianTheElder

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For those of you not able to view the whole article, my real concern is this snippet.
"The art, he stressed, was finding a diet that people felt able to follow and maintain. “To lose weight you have to have less calories one way or another,” Professor Lean said. “You can do that by putting someone in a cage or prison and giving them the right number of calories."
He is obviously of the CICO persuasion.
I think that approach has been thoroughly disproved.
 
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KK123

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For those of you not able to view the whole article, my real concern is this snippet.
"The art, he stressed, was finding a diet that people felt able to follow and maintain. “To lose weight you have to have less calories one way or another,” Professor Lean said. “You can do that by putting someone in a cage or prison and giving them the right number of calories."
He is obviously of the CICO persuasion.
I think that approach has been thoroughly disproved.
Hi Brian, thanks for posting this article, it is definitely interesting.
 

NicoleC1971

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Don't forget that Big Food would like us to think that Its All About The Calrories (stupid) to paraphrase Bill Clinton Ithink...This absolves them of the blame for the quality of nutrients and the impact those have on the metabolic health of most of us who either have a tendency to be intolerant of carbs. This is thought to be the majority of the population.
If you can say that a calorie from coke has the same impact as a calorie from a carrot whilst promoting exercise as a way to achieve calorie balance then you have successfully positioned your food as being somewhat benign as long as you eat it 'in moderation' (ignore the BoGoffs and Sharing packs then). I don't know this professor but many of our nutrition experts do have industry ties so I would not be surprised if this is part of a media campaign to counter recent mass media focus on eating less sugar by Hugh FW and Jamie Oliver et al.
 
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porl69

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I am a carboholic, eat around 250 - 300 grams of carbs a day. I have been 11stone since I was 21 years old (31 years now). Have never tried to loose weight. I guess I am very lucky and have a high metabolism :)
 

LooperCat

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I am a carboholic, eat around 250 - 300 grams of carbs a day. I have been 11stone since I was 21 years old (31 years now). Have never tried to loose weight. I guess I am very lucky and have a high metabolism :)
Ya can go right off some people, ya know ;)
 
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