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District Nurse recommends Low GI diet for Diabetes

The question from the OP was about the use of the low GI diet.
Here are some sources of information that may help.
http://www.glycemicindex.com/about.php
also on the same site the FAQs and the Newsletter are helpful. There is a data base of foods on the site.
This article explains the things that alter GI. If you know these you can make reasonably educated guesses of whether a food is likely to be higher or lower GI.
http://www.montignac.com/en/the-factors-that-modify-glycemic-indexes/
I really use it to make choices between different carbs in the same category . I still measure the portion size(ie weigh) So for example 20g of carbs in a portion of rice could be very very high GI (sticky Thai rice which can have a higher GI than glucose) or a wholegrain basmati cooked al dente (much lower )
All forms of legumes tend to be lowish GI ( and especially Chana dahl which David Mendosa who identifies himself as a low carber, writes about here: http://www.mendosa.com/chanadal.html )
 
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I love this forum but I sure am grateful I did not find my way here when I was first diagnosed.

All this talk of Low GI, Low Carb, Low Cal would have been far too confusing for me, as it clearly is for the original poster who clearly misunderstood references to low GI for Low Carb.

All this talk of the medical profession and the pharmaceuticals not knowing what they are doing and/or being corrupt and trying to destroy our health for their own profit would have been the last thing I would have wanted or needed to hear at a time when I was vulnerable and desperately needed to put my faith in my doctor. I expect this probably holds true for a lot of the newly diagnosed today.

I think I would have eventually have found my way through the confusion though. That is, if I stuck around long enough!

And what would have driven me away. The infantile intolerance shown by a number of posters to any view in any way different than their own, as once again demonstrated by this thread

Everyone is enamored with these wonderful labels Low Carb, Low Cal, Low GI. Everybody is absolutely convinced that it is their way or the high way.

And the biggest irony of all, we are all probably doing more or less the same things, just calling it by different names!

What do you get when you combine a Low GI diet with a strict daily calorie allocation of 800 - 1000 calories or so that say Douglas is on. Probably a daily carbs consumption that is actually lower in carbs than that of a lot of Low Carbers.

What is Low Carb anyway? Everyone seems to have a different idea as to how many grams we should consume as part of a low carb diet?

And so it should be.

We are all individuals, we are all different and we can all tolerate different quantities of different carbohydrates with varying effect on our glycemic control.

Why can we not just share our experiences, tell people what has worked for us, educate them on the importance of testing and reducing carb intake and then let them find what works best for them.

Why this insistence that everybody else should follow exactly the same path we did?

A little more open mindedness and respect for the opinion of others, irrespective of whether that is in support of low-carb, low-fat or low-I-do-not-know-what would go a long way in my opinion

Pavlos
 
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Always start amicably but usually end with personal attacks. Waste of time. Wish there was a button where I could filter or turn off these low anything threads.


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...............What do you get when you combine a Low GI diet with a strict daily calorie allocation of 800 - 1000 calories or so that say Douglas is on. Probably a daily carbs consumption that is actually lower in carbs than that of a lot of Low Carbers...............

Oddly enough, I've said exactly that several times before.
The only difference I can suggest is that I control fats as well.


All seem to work at the end of the day, and that's what matters.
 
I'll back up Pavlos here, I'm new to this and the doctors tell me about low carbs and low gi. I read it on here and am confused as hell! So much reading to get through to get my head around it all


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I guess the bottom line is that there are several methods which work, it's just deciding what works for you. In response to the OP , low GI and low carb are not the same thing. Many have had great success with low GI (Douglas99) and LCHF (Totto) amongst many others. If you post a thread asking for the difference then I dare say you will get lots of helpful responses. Good luck with whatever you decide to do! :)
 
I guess the bottom line is that there are several methods which work, it's just deciding what works for you. In response to the OP , low GI and low carb are not the same thing. Many have had great success with low GI (Douglas99) and LCHF (Totto) amongst many others. If you post a thread asking for the difference then I dare say you will get lots of helpful responses. Good luck with whatever you decide to do! :)


There are variations on the same diet. I don't follow Douglas but eat fats in moderation, some low carbers do not eat the same amount of fat as others, there are permutations on any diet and I do not push my diet on anyone. When I reply to confused newbies I stress the importance of testing because of an individual response and explain the importance of carbohydrates in controlling blood sugars.
If I explain G.I. to someone who is interested then there is always someone who will come along and want to tear it to pieces, exactly the same if someone explains a LC diet, it was ever thus since I came here in 2008.
The answer to getting along is a mystery to me as it is to others.
 
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Hi all,
I have opened a new thread asking for the difference between low GI and low carb. Am hoping that people will post responses to clarify for everyone what the differences are and what each diet entails. Hope this helps Diamond Ash and cdunbar86. :)
 
There are variations on the same diet. I don't follow Douglas but eat fats in moderation, some low carbers do not eat the same amount of fat as others, there are permutations on any diet and I do not push my diet on anyone. When I reply to confused newbies I stress the importance of testing because of an individual response and explain the importance of carbohydrates in controlling blood sugars.
If I explain G.I. to someone who is interested then there is always someone who will come along and want to tear it to pieces, exactly the same if someone explains a LC diet, it was ever thus since I came here in 2008.
The answer is a mystery to me as it is to others.
This is why I have opened a new thread so that everyone can explain what the differences and advantages are. Let's hope people respond positively - I like LCHF but know very little about low GI but am willing to learn! :)
 
The glycemic index value of an item of food provides an indication of how quickly, relative to consuming pure glucose, an equal amount of the food will cause blood glucose to rise. It is therefore a useful way of selecting between different foods particularly between different carbohydrate sources.

What it does not tell you is how many carbs the food contains.

Maintaining good glycemic control involve both the right kind and the right amount of carbs

That explains it better, thanks Pavlos, I was misunderstanding.
:happy:
 
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I use the GI index and also the GL (glycemic load) to work out a sensible portion of any particular carb I eat. If it's not a low GI food I don't necessarily avoid it, I just have a much smaller amount of grams to reduce the GL and make sure I eat it with some "no carb" food, which reduces the GL even further.
That makes sense... thanks
 
To the op.

If you do feel forced to re post it, put up a new thread in the diabetes discussion, or the type 1 or type 2 forums.
Anyone in the same position as your mum will see it on there and will advise.
thanks douglas :) I was aware that if it was in the wrong place the moderators would move it if they felt it necessary.
:)
 
That's great news, sounds like your Mum has a good district nurse there DiamondAsh :)
She is lovely.. but my mom being as she is, has been very rude to her and sharp tongued... So that's why I'm taking over the insulin duties and Sue will check on me every week. I really don't know what's gotten into my mom. She is almost blind and gets frustrated and now is showing signs of dementia. I just hope I can cope with it all.
 
Oh good grief. I'm gonna say it. Stop getting personal. Stop sniping each other's comments. I don't want to read anti low carb or anti Douglas comments anymore. Finished. Done.
Kettle's on Dom! ;)
 
Low G.I. does mean lowering the carbs to an amount that suits a good blood sugar reading. I doubt anyone could follow a low G.I. diet if they continued to eat the RDA of carbohydrates. Individuals have different tolerances to the amount of carbohydrates that they can eat so to follow this plan you have to be able to test frequently which is nigh impossible for any diabetic regardless of how they like to describe their diet if they do not have a meter and test strips.

As your relative is on insulin then I would think she has access to strips?
Yes, I can test regularly for her. Her sugar levels have been high lately so I am going to try the good carbs and then go lower if necessary. She done so well for over 30 years bless her. I wish I'd learned more about it years ago obut have only just started taking notice as Doc said my readings were high. Thanks for the good info :)
 
Hi all,
I have opened a new thread asking for the difference between low GI and low carb. Am hoping that people will post responses to clarify for everyone what the differences are and what each diet entails. Hope this helps Diamond Ash and cdunbar86. :)
Great. thanks Sandi, I will skip over there and check it out.
 
Nice to hear the nurse recommended lower BG levels.
Low GI, although better than the "eat plenty of carbs" **** usually advised, is not really Low Carb.....Possibly just better carb, if there is such a thing!! but diet is always a highly contentious issue on here, as I'm sure you know ;). I tried low GI a few years ago and found it totally confusing. However if you're going down that route with your Mum, it will be interesting to see what her BGs do.
I thought it was nice as I was expecting her to say 'eat what she likes'... ! I will try low GI first off and test to see what results we get. thanks :)
 
Diamond Ash, if you want to, look into glycemic load. For those who for some reason don't want to do the full-fat LCHF and when GI doesn't work, it might be worthwhile to explore GL. Every carb will be transformed to blood glucose anyway, but lowering the impact might work.

My mum´s DSN tells her not to eat cheese but bread with low-fat spread, while I tell her to skip the bread and go for cheese instead and that she is an adult and can do whatever she likes anyway. At 93 I think you should be old enough to make decisions.

By the way, high bg can lead to dementia. Even in the normal-high range.
 
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