CARBS

[Claire-Marie]

If you have no carbs in any of your meals do you still need to inject. If not then why can't Diabetics just eat zero carbs and be fine without injections or tablets.

 

[azure]

Yes, you'd still need to inject. Without any insulin, Type 1s would die.

Before the discovery of insulin, they tried to treat diabetes with a very low carb diet eg boiling cabbage three times to get rid of carbs. But people still eventually died.

If you're just talking about reducing your bolus amounts and keeping your basal, then reducing your carbs would mean you'd need less bolus insulin but you'd still need some.

 

[tim2000s]

If you have no carbs in any of your meals do you still need to inject. If not then why can't Diabetics just eat zero carbs and be fine without injections or tablets.

Insulin regulates a whole load of things, not just carbs. Ketones? Release of those into the bloodstream is controlled by insulin and without it goes uncontrolled. Gluconeogenesis - making glucose from Protein? happens anyway and is even worse without insulin to regulate it. Using amino acids to build muscle and other key body components? Insulin plays a part in that as well. It's simply not quite so straightforward as no carbs = no insulin need.

 

[Claire-Marie]

Thanks for your answers Azure and Tim. Wouldn't it be great if no carbs meant no injections for T1's. Didn't think it could be that simple!

 

[novorapidboi26]

The Liver........

even without carbs the blood sugar levels are kept topped up by the liver, so as your vital organs will always have fuel available........

so you would always need to inject for that regardless of carbs, and it the basal dose that deals with that output from the liver.......

 

[noblehead]

Thanks for your answers Azure and Tim. Wouldn't it be great if no carbs meant no injections for T1's. Didn't think it could be that simple!

It would be good, we would all be striving to eat a zero carb diet if that is possible

 

[donnellysdogs]

It would be good, we would all be striving to eat a zero carb diet if that is possible

Wouldn't that be a wonderful fix if it was possible for us T1's (and 2's!!!)

 

[CDM9]

Agree re all the above. I'm still injecting novo rapid for egg whites and turkey bacon!! So no carbs still means insulin for me.

I'd heard Halle Berry has type 1 and tried diet alone, not sure whether that's true or not but don't see how it would ever work!!!!

 

[azure]

Hmm, Halle Berry is a source of much confusion (some caused by her own comments). I read a number of years ago that she has Type 2 and my consultant, for what she knows about celebs, believes that too. I think Halle Berry has done work to raise awareness of the risk of Type 2 in certain groups too.

Then she was reported to have made a very confusing comment about being able to come off insulin and so now being Type 2 not Type 1 (because she had no insulin). That plays into the hands of the general public who still think being on insulin is the very definition of having Tyoe 1. I believe that's a major reason why the name was changed from Insulin Dependent to Type 1.

ETA - there was a suggestion she was misdiagnosed and so may have genuinely believed she had a particular kind of diabetes.

 

[phoenix]

It would be good, we would all be striving to eat a zero carb diet if that is possible

No it wouldn't . Can you imagine the quality of life you would have if you were restricted to only eating meat, fish, eggs and some cheeses?
You couldn't eat any veg, any fruit, any grains, any legumes or nuts.
There are lots of cheeses that would be forbidden to you, you couldn't eat yoghurt or put milk in your tea. Think, you could never eat a strawberry or even some of that wonderful asparagus that is in season at the moment . You couldn't look forward to a tomato freshly picked from the garden. As for that 85% chocolate ,sorry not allowed. You couldn't even eat liver (though for some people that wouldn't matter a lot!)
Your enforced lifestyle would mean that you could never eat with friends and presumably you'd have to take lots of supplements to try to ward off nutrient deficiencies.
You'd become what one French doctor described as a 'pariah at the table' and be condemned to what he called a life of 'l'ennui, la contrainte, la tristesse, l'exclusion' (boredom, constraint, sadness and exclusion) He was describing some of the diabetic diets in the past.

 

[noblehead]

No it wouldn't . Can you imagine the quality of life you would have if you were restricted to only eating meat, fish, eggs and some cheeses?
You couldn't eat any veg, any fruit, any grains, any legumes or nuts.
There are lots of cheeses that would be forbidden to you, you couldn't eat yoghurt or put milk in your tea. Think, you could never eat a strawberry or even some of that wonderful asparagus that is in season at the moment . You couldn't look forward to a tomato freshly picked from the garden. As for that 85% chocolate ,sorry not allowed. You couldn't even eat liver (though for some people that wouldn't matter a lot!)
Your enforced lifestyle would mean that you could never eat with friends and presumably you'd have to take lots of supplements to try to ward off nutrient deficiencies.
You'd become what one French doctor described as a 'pariah at the table' and be condemned to what he called a life of 'l'ennui, la contrainte, la tristesse, l'exclusion' (boredom, constraint, sadness and exclusion) He was describing some of the diabetic diets in the past.

No your quite right Phoenix it would be a miserable and unhealthy existence.