Is this basically true?

[LouiseK]

I live with my long-term boyfriend and he is a diabetic who injects insulin.

The problem is that he is quite happy to live his life exactly as he wants and leaves everyone around him to do the worrying for him (ie, me and his parents)

He isn't HUGE by any stretch of the imagination - but he is inactive, medically fairly into the obese BMI range and eats pretty much whatever he wants... mainly lots of bread, lots of cheese, lots of crackers, shop bought sandwiches...

We recently urged him to have a full health check done privately, even though he is only 33, in the hope that they would say something that would hit home the fact that he needs to take more care of himself.

I actually think they made him worse.

They told him cheese was a good diabetic snack and that dry meats such as salami were good, regardless of how much saturated fat they contain...

They also showed him a chart that basically indicated that a third of diabetics would NOT get any health complications due to diabetes no matter what they ate and another third WOULD get health complications no matter how well they looked after themselves.

So, this translated to him as saying "why bother because what will be will be"... Is this true?

Thanks

 

[timo2]

Hello LouiseK,

Regular exercise is very important for ALL diabetics. I'd love to say exercise is
optional, but it isn't.
If your boyfriend doesn't keep good control then he can expect complications sooner
rather than later. Keeping good control may even stop diabetic complications completely.

They told him cheese was a good diabetic snack and that dry meats such as salami were good, regardless of how much saturated fat they contain...

Saturated fat isn't really the enemy, it's the high levels of insulin used to deal with the excessive
consumption of carbohydrates that's causing the world's growing problem with obesity and heart health.

All the best,
timo.

 

[lionrampant]

Or so goes one side of the argument.

Right now it's a battle over whether blood pressure or overall glucose levels are more important in long term diabetic care. If his BP is fine, and his glucose levels run steady at a good level, he's doing fine.

shop bought sandwiches

Blargh. Unless they from Marks & Spencer, such sandwiches are usually horrible.

medically fairly into the obese BMI range

I know people like that. Looking at them you'd just go "oh he's built quite heavy".

 

[hanadr]

Fat is NOT the enemy for diabetics and very likely not for anyone. It's carbohydrate that does the damage if you eat too much of it, which for many of us is any wat all.

 

[DiabeticGeek]

They told him cheese was a good diabetic snack and that dry meats such as salami were good, regardless of how much saturated fat they contain...

This is certainly true. Cheese and dry meats are very low carbohydrate, and won't have much impact upon BG. Saturated fat is certainly not a problem for diabetics (in fact it isn't anything like as damaging for anyone as many people would have you believe - that is a different topic, though).

They also showed him a chart that basically indicated that a third of diabetics would NOT get any health complications due to diabetes no matter what they ate and another third WOULD get health complications no matter how well they looked after themselves.

Hmm... I'm not sure about this, I would certainly like to know where those figures came from. It certainly isn't true for T2s. If they keep BG under good enough control, then there really is no reason why they should ever develop complications. With T1s the situation is somewhat different, in that there is a lottery element and even well controlled T1s sometimes develop complications. However,the chances of this happening are dramatically reduced by keeping a low and stable BG.

So, this translated to him as saying "why bother because what will be will be"... Is this true?

Complacency is probably the greatest danger facing diabetics. If you control your BG well enough then you may still be unlucky and get complications, but then you may be run over by a bus! If you don't control BG tightly then you will get complications - and they are far more likely to be sooner rather than later. Given all of the hugely promising research that is going on, and a whole plethora of new treatments that are just over the horizon, the important thing at the moment - for any diabetic - is to stay healthy for long enough to be able to benefit from them when they arrive.

 

[moggi10]

Hi,sounds like he cant be bothered at all. Why are you bothering?

 

[timo2]

According to Leonard Cohen,"There's nothing pure enough to be a cure for love"