Type 2 and feeling lost

[ButtterflyLady]

It depends on how you view it. Jenny Ruhl for instance thinks obesity is totally irrelevant when it comes to to type 2 diabetes, and for me that is totally irresponsible and goes against all research about diabetes. She also says there is no cure for diabetes type 2, its all genetics, you did not to cause it, and the ONLY way for you to control it, is to go on a lowcarb diet., but you cannot cure it.

I disagree with all of that really, compared to how I see the current scientific literature on diabetes type 2.

She also bashes Roy Taylor of Newcastle university a lot because he used to think that diabetes is a progressive disease, despite the best treatment given in a large scale uk study. Well now Roy Taylor thinks diabetes is curable http://www.ncl.ac.uk/magres/research/diabetes/reversal.htm

And Jenny Ruhl thinks its not http://diabetesupdate.blogspot.no/2011/06/idiotically-dangerous-diet-reverses.html

This for me illustrates how she never really updates her understanding of diabetes, and her webpage is really out of date as well.

Jenny Ruhl is also not a type 2 diabetic in the traditional sense, but got a rare genetic variant of the disease, so what works for her, is not really applicable for the average type 2.

In short diabetes type 2 is curable, but you have to lose weight in order do to it, and this is much more important than cutting carbs, but Jenny Ruhl just tells people that genes did this, they cant cure it, and lowcarb is the answer for everything, I think she is wrong, and people must be robust in opposing her, even if she spreads a message that is quite comfortable to hear.

I think you are misunderstanding and misrepresenting her views and subtly insulting those of us who have benefited from her information. I'm not going to spend the time finding things she has said that demonstrate where you have got it wrong because it's not worth it. People can read her website and decide for themselves. She provides ample research citations to back her statements.

 

[catherinecherub]

Would you please get back on track to help the OP rather than arguing about a website. This was not the purpose of this thread.

If you feel the need to praise or ridicule a website then please start another thread

 

[seadragon]

To the OP - don't panic - there is life after diagnoses. I completely understand about feeling upset when you see other people who are overweight but have no sign of diabetes (that darned genetics at work again). It seems so unfair that some people can eat what they want, do no exercise, get fat and never suffer from diabetes. Others of us are not so lucky but we can do something about the hand we have been dealt and get in control and then we don't have to suffer from the unpleasant consequences that uncontrolled diabetes can have.

With a low carb high / fat lifestyle you can enjoy a full and healthy life. I have managed to largely avoid any spikes above 7.8mm (sorry don't know offhand the American equivalent) at which there is evidence to show damage can start to occur. And if it does then I simply go for a 15 minute walk which usually drops it fairly fast. My daughter (non diabetic) has spiked higher than I have recently but her body deals with it better (she is an hourglass type figure whereas I am more of a straight up and down type).

I believe my personal fat threshold is just far lower than usual so I am pre-diabetic with a BMI of 23. If that hadn't been flagged up early then quite likely the insulin resistance and glucose intolerance would have contributed to me gaining weight fast. Then by the time I was 'diabetic' people could say it's because I was overweight but the problem started way before any weight gain. That's not to say everyone is the same but it's my story.

Read around the forum and you are bound to come across people with similar stories to your own and don't forget to read the success stories thread.




Edited to remove references to debates about other websites.

 

[siren6214]

Hello all,
Again I cannot tell you enough how thankful I am for your feedback AND healthy debate. Whether the sugar 101 website is accurate or not -- at the end of the day I am going to take charge of this and that's really all that matters. In fact, after 2 weeks I went in for my 2nd a1c test to "officially" stamp myself as a diabetic or not, and unfortunately I still was. Fortunately I was able to bring my a1c down from 7.3 to 6.8 in 2-weeks which I think is a good thing? It gives me hope to know that since the instant I found out I changed my diet and it is resulting in progress, which for years had not been the case when it came to my weight. I likely did not help my situation enough to avoid diabetes over the last 5-10 years...I will definitely admit to that. There is a reason family and friends were always offering weight loss advice and asking me to go on hikes with them. However, the most comforting fact I had to look at to get over my self-brought on guilt, was realizing that just because you ARE overweight or obese doesn't mean you earned diabetes otherwise every overweight person out there would have it. I look around at how everyone else eats now without rose tinted glasses, and I know that use to be me and I am shocked I use to load my body with so much sugar and carbs without thinking twice. I have already lost 10-pounds since diagnosis and that is still with trial and error of being a 'noob' lol. Eat a banana -- find out it's a poor choice later, eat low-carb sushi without rice, find out the tapioca wrap is a carb trap, buy healthy grain cereal -- realize cereal is not a great choice. I am sure I will have many more of these days.

Sadly I am also sure no one is going to properly tell me how to use my glucose meter at the hospital today. From what I read I have to prick myself before a meal and 2-hours after the same meal? How many times a day? Also, and most importantly, I have my appointment with my dietician in 1-week. Everyone on this forum says low carb high fat diet. Everything on the ADA website and health blogs say low-carb low fat diets. If I have high cholesterol isn't low-fat the way to go? I remember someone saying that if my nutritionist says that, I should walk out of the office. I'm not sure telling them "people on a forum told me to do it" will help my cause against their medical degree knowledge, even though I trust the opinions of those who HAVE this disease with me over those who just want to treat me. I already have tons of questions but I want to be able to back up my point when/if they tell me low-fat is the way to go. The most confusing/frustrating issue I am having at current is knowing what I can and can't eat. It seems for every article out there that says eat this! there is a matching article saying "no way don't eat that!" I love meats, but apparently too much can result in kidney damage. So no sugar, no carbs, limited protein, that mostly leaves vegetables only -- which I don't hate, but let's be honest it gets a little boring. Eating out with my friends was also a huge part of my social life, and now it's so limited because I'm not preparing it, which makes me worry extra sugars/carbs get added in the kitchen in the sauces/marinades. I've been picking mostly chicken casesar salads but I don't want to burn out on 1 thing. I am also deciding not to take the metformin. Want to see what I can do on my own first.

 

[ButtterflyLady]

Hello all,
Again I cannot tell you enough how thankful I am for your feedback AND healthy debate. Whether the sugar 101 website is accurate or not -- at the end of the day I am going to take charge of this and that's really all that matters. In fact, after 2 weeks I went in for my 2nd a1c test to "officially" stamp myself as a diabetic or not, and unfortunately I still was. Fortunately I was able to bring my a1c down from 7.3 to 6.8 in 2-weeks which I think is a good thing? It gives me hope to know that since the instant I found out I changed my diet and it is resulting in progress, which for years had not been the case when it came to my weight. I likely did not help my situation enough to avoid diabetes over the last 5-10 years...I will definitely admit to that. There is a reason family and friends were always offering weight loss advice and asking me to go on hikes with them. However, the most comforting fact I had to look at to get over my self-brought on guilt, was realizing that just because you ARE overweight or obese doesn't mean you earned diabetes otherwise every overweight person out there would have it. I look around at how everyone else eats now without rose tinted glasses, and I know that use to be me and I am shocked I use to load my body with so much sugar and carbs without thinking twice. I have already lost 10-pounds since diagnosis and that is still with trial and error of being a 'noob' lol. Eat a banana -- find out it's a poor choice later, eat low-carb sushi without rice, find out the tapioca wrap is a carb trap, buy healthy grain cereal -- realize cereal is not a great choice. I am sure I will have many more of these days.

Sadly I am also sure no one is going to properly tell me how to use my glucose meter at the hospital today. From what I read I have to prick myself before a meal and 2-hours after the same meal? How many times a day? Also, and most importantly, I have my appointment with my dietician in 1-week. Everyone on this forum says low carb high fat diet. Everything on the ADA website and health blogs say low-carb low fat diets. If I have high cholesterol isn't low-fat the way to go? I remember someone saying that if my nutritionist says that, I should walk out of the office. I'm not sure telling them "people on a forum told me to do it" will help my cause against their medical degree knowledge, even though I trust the opinions of those who HAVE this disease with me over those who just want to treat me. I already have tons of questions but I want to be able to back up my point when/if they tell me low-fat is the way to go. The most confusing/frustrating issue I am having at current is knowing what I can and can't eat. It seems for every article out there that says eat this! there is a matching article saying "no way don't eat that!" I love meats, but apparently too much can result in kidney damage. So no sugar, no carbs, limited protein, that mostly leaves vegetables only -- which I don't hate, but let's be honest it gets a little boring. Eating out with my friends was also a huge part of my social life, and now it's so limited because I'm not preparing it, which makes me worry extra sugars/carbs get added in the kitchen in the sauces/marinades. I've been picking mostly chicken casesar salads but I don't want to burn out on 1 thing. I am also deciding not to take the metformin. Want to see what I can do on my own first.

My approach to HCPs who give dietary advice that I disagree with is to smile and nod, basically keeping my thoughts to myself. They mean well and are only doing what they have been told to do. I never mention forums or anything I learned online, unless it is official in nature, ie guidelines or a journal article, for example. Research supporting LCHF is on the way, and one day we will be able to discuss it with them without them looking at us strangely, lol.

Try to keep things simple. For me, the purpose of testing is to see what effect a certain food has on my body. I do a day of testing at every meal, every now and then. How often you test is up to you - use it to gain info, and if you don't need the info, don't test. At the start I tested a lot as I was learning but after a few weeks I didn't need to test as much.

You can still eat out with friends, just choose the lowest carb options and do your best. I don't worry about too much meat causing kidney problems... I think a portion of protein-rich food at each meal is fine. There is lots of info in the low carb area of the forum with food and recipe ideas to make it interesting and tasty.

You're right, there is a lot of conflicting advice about which foods to eat. I cut through the confusion by using my meter to tell me which foods increase BG. It gets easier. You'll have the hang of it in no time

 

[seadragon]

I think you'd find a low carb and low fat diet pretty hard to stick to. If you are not getting calories from carbs (which will raise BG ) then you need to get them from good fats (butter, cream, fatty preferably organic meats etc. plus olive oil, virgin coconut oil) .

The low fat diet was touted as being good due to the belief that fat in the diet directly caused heart disease. Much of the original research has been recently discredited for cherry picking results to fit the hypothesis and disregarding the rest and as you'll see from the low carb diet threads many people find their cholesterol levels go down on a low carb high fat diet.

You will lose weight on both a low carb/ high fat and a low fat/ higher carb diet but the low carb/ high fat is generally easier to stick to so weight loss is easier and you will avoid the spikes that carbs cause (even low GI carbs).

There's a lot of info on diet and research on it out there but it's hard to compare them easily as you will often find they are compared to the Standard American diet and so it can be easy to say for example that a low fat/higher carb diet is better for diabetics than the standard American diet but they omit to mention that a low carb/high fat diet seems to be even better than that for most of us.

I've been following lc/hf now for several months and have lost weight easily, don't 'get the BG spikes from carbs and never feel hungry. And i've discovered how lovely veggies are when smothered in butter or served in sauce of creme fraiche with little mustard and peri peri spice so I eat way more veg than i ever did before which has to be good.

I try not to worry to much if I'm eating out but always try to go for a walk after and then if anything has spiked I can walk it off and get BG level down quickly.

 

[chri5]

Hello all,
Again I cannot tell you enough how thankful I am for your feedback AND healthy debate. Whether the sugar 101 website is accurate or not -- at the end of the day I am going to take charge of this and that's really all that matters. In fact, after 2 weeks I went in for my 2nd a1c test to "officially" stamp myself as a diabetic or not, and unfortunately I still was. Fortunately I was able to bring my a1c down from 7.3 to 6.8 in 2-weeks which I think is a good thing? It gives me hope to know that since the instant I found out I changed my diet and it is resulting in progress, which for years had not been the case when it came to my weight. I likely did not help my situation enough to avoid diabetes over the last 5-10 years...I will definitely admit to that. There is a reason family and friends were always offering weight loss advice and asking me to go on hikes with them. However, the most comforting fact I had to look at to get over my self-brought on guilt, was realizing that just because you ARE overweight or obese doesn't mean you earned diabetes otherwise every overweight person out there would have it. I look around at how everyone else eats now without rose tinted glasses, and I know that use to be me and I am shocked I use to load my body with so much sugar and carbs without thinking twice. I have already lost 10-pounds since diagnosis and that is still with trial and error of being a 'noob' lol. Eat a banana -- find out it's a poor choice later, eat low-carb sushi without rice, find out the tapioca wrap is a carb trap, buy healthy grain cereal -- realize cereal is not a great choice. I am sure I will have many more of these days.

Sadly I am also sure no one is going to properly tell me how to use my glucose meter at the hospital today. From what I read I have to prick myself before a meal and 2-hours after the same meal? How many times a day? Also, and most importantly, I have my appointment with my dietician in 1-week. Everyone on this forum says low carb high fat diet. Everything on the ADA website and health blogs say low-carb low fat diets. If I have high cholesterol isn't low-fat the way to go? I remember someone saying that if my nutritionist says that, I should walk out of the office. I'm not sure telling them "people on a forum told me to do it" will help my cause against their medical degree knowledge, even though I trust the opinions of those who HAVE this disease with me over those who just want to treat me. I already have tons of questions but I want to be able to back up my point when/if they tell me low-fat is the way to go. The most confusing/frustrating issue I am having at current is knowing what I can and can't eat. It seems for every article out there that says eat this! there is a matching article saying "no way don't eat that!" I love meats, but apparently too much can result in kidney damage. So no sugar, no carbs, limited protein, that mostly leaves vegetables only -- which I don't hate, but let's be honest it gets a little boring. Eating out with my friends was also a huge part of my social life, and now it's so limited because I'm not preparing it, which makes me worry extra sugars/carbs get added in the kitchen in the sauces/marinades. I've been picking mostly chicken casesar salads but I don't want to burn out on 1 thing. I am also deciding not to take the metformin. Want to see what I can do on my own first.

Hi, yep it`s a leap of faith all right. All that any of us can really do is to tell you of our own experiences and you must make up your own mind. For instance, I was diagnosed T2 about 10yrs ago with bg levels of 24, I was put on metformin (4 a day) and given the standard NHS advice about diet which I duly followed. After a while my bg levels were gradually worsening and I was put on gliclazide. To cut a long story short, I read about lchf on this forum and decided to try it, 2 yrs later I got my Hba1c results (2 days ago) 5.7 , good cholesterol , 30 pounds lighter, no more gliclazide and my metformin dose halved. All I can say is that I found trying lchf very beneficial. Anyway, whatever path you choose you will find loads of support on here, good luck!