A low GI diet may not help your blood sugar.

AnnieC said:

Another example of good and bad do we know enough or done LCHF long enough to know if that is true or not

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I have no doubt in my mind that low carb has increased my health by shed loads!
I was really ill. Couldn't cope with everyday life, it was a drudge.
All my tests and readings were causing my docs to issue warnings that my health was suffering. Now over a year later, all repeat all my readings are very repeat very healthy, better than thirty years ago! I cannot eat other than very low carbs. I have my life back, why would I want to go backwards again.
Carbs are poison! Wheat and spuds my enemy, sugar my nemesis.
I won't be convinced otherwise!
In the NHS some docs think that because a certain low level of supposedly high fibre- low digesting grains are good for your heart that it doesn't matter what it is doing to your other organs and visceral fat which is a major reason behind insulin resistance is discounted!!
My family has a very bad history of heart problems as well as diabetes.
I told my brother, who was told to eat grains and carbs for his heart because of a leaking vein near heart, my mother had the same. To try low carb for a month, he did. His heart results were positive and his BP is measurably better. When he told his specialist, he immediately dismissed my brother that low carbs were a direct positive on his health. My brother still low carbs!
I cannot recommend enough!

AnnieC said:

Just another example of good and bad about something but do we know enough or done LCHF long enough to know if that is true or not we do it but we don't really know

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Annie plenty of people have done LCHF for 6 years or more! They know LCHF does not give an increased risk of heart problems or weight gain. How long do we have to wait for the NHS to finally agree? Or more importantly how many diabetics have to die prematurely while they are waiting? The only reason you don't really know is because you haven't done it yourself. Now I fully accept your reasons for not doing it and I don't have a problem with that, you have made the right choice for you. My feeling though is that it is wrong for dieticians to continue giving wrong advice based on old science.

I've done increasingly low carbs since I was 17. I'm now 47. The reason I am over weight and developed type 2 is because every now and then I tried to eat 'normally' or 'low calorie' or 'low GI', or decided to eat cake for a while. Or tried a yoyo diet. They all made me gain weight (in the long run/rebound).

The only way of eating that makes me feel well and helped my weight, is Low Carb, and the more fat I have eaten, the better things have got.

30 years - that's a long enough test period to convince me.

Given it's Christmas and I'm struggling to keep on track, I decided yesterday that if I was going to treat myself it was going to be with something healthy. So given this time of year is the time for all the nice fruits to be in season, I had a lovely big bowl of fruit salad ... lychees, cherries, red grapes and strawberries .. with a dollop of FF plain yogurt and some macadamia nuts. Surprising results ... 5.5 before, 6 2 hours after, only a rise of .5 Usually I would have blueberries with the yogurt & nuts and get a rise of nearly 2. Food for thought.

stuff

Lesleywo said:

You can wade through all the diet guff in the world, but at the end of the day it comes down to those four little words 'EAT TO YOUR METER'. Then you can personalise your diet to suit your own needs and see what works best for you.

I also think it's important to remember that when 'testing' carbs that you will get a higher reading if you've been doing a LCHF diet, so it would be hard to tell what your BG rise would be initially. So whatever the GI/GL is of a food, you won't really know it's effect until you eat it and test after. As someone said earlier (Phoenix I think), watermelon might be High GI but has so little carbs it really doesn't matter ... again more confusion!

On the Diet Doctor website I saw a picture of a 'mid morning snack' served at a conference that he was impressed by - it was a chunk of Brie and some Salami. I mean ... really? Wouldn't half a sliced apple, some carrot and celery sticks and a piece of Brie have been a better choice?

We are more than diabetes .... we should be eating as many healthy, anti-oxidant & phytonutrient dense carbs as our blood sugars will allow. No point having the best blood sugars in the world but dying of bowel cancer cos of a ****, low fibre diet is there -)

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Vegetables and fruit are unique in their vitamin and mineral make up so if we only eat leafy greens and berry fruits we are not getting the full quota that our bodies need so at some point we may become deficient

zand said:

Annie plenty of people have done LCHF for 6 years or more! They know LCHF does not give an increased risk of heart problems or weight gain. How long do we have to wait for the NHS to finally agree? Or more importantly how many diabetics have to die prematurely while they are waiting? The only reason you don't really know is because you haven't done it yourself. Now I fully accept your reasons for not doing it and I don't have a problem with that, you have made the right choice for you. My feeling though is that it is wrong for dieticians to continue giving wrong advice based on old science.

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Just my point Zand 6 years of doing something is nothing in the medical world we will have to do it a lot longer that that to find out if there are any adverse long term affects that we just don't know about yet The truth is we are doing something that is controversial that no one knows a lot about except that it lowers BG. I eat vegetables and fruit because I don't want to deprive my body of the natural vitamins and minerals they contain they are natures medicines but I try not to eat stuff with refined sugar in as these are the enemy not just for diabetics but for everyone

Lesleywo said:

Given it's Christmas and I'm struggling to keep on track, I decided yesterday that if I was going to treat myself it was going to be with something healthy. So given this time of year is the time for all the nice fruits to be in season, I had a lovely big bowl of fruit salad ... lychees, cherries, red grapes and strawberries .. with a dollop of FF plain yogurt and some macadamia nuts. Surprising results ... 5.5 before, 6 2 hours after, only a rise of .5 Usually I would have blueberries with the yogurt & nuts and get a rise of nearly 2. Food for thought.

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Sounds yummy and I think that proves that natures own sugars are not bad for you

AnnieC said:

stuff

Just my point Zand 6 years of doing something is nothing in the medical world we will have to do it a lot longer that that to find out if there are any adverse long term affects that we just don't know about yet The truth is we are doing something that is controversial that no one knows a lot about except that it lowers BG. I eat vegetables and fruit because I don't want to deprive my body of the natural vitamins and minerals they contain they are natures medicines but I try not to eat stuff with refined sugar in as these are the enemy not just for diabetics but for everyone

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But 6 years is a long time where our own health is concerned. How many of us can afford to wait while medical science catches up with us? LCHF doesn't just help our BG's, it can often lower cholesterol, improve kidneys and liver and help lose weight too. We already know that 'they' got it wrong about saturated fats and that's the bit that most people worry about.

I don't think there are any nutrients in fruit you can't get from other food. The low fat high carb diet is an experiment that has proven to be a failure.

Lesleywo said:

You can wade through all the diet guff in the world, but at the end of the day it comes down to those four little words 'EAT TO YOUR METER'. Then you can personalise your diet to suit your own needs and see what works best for you.

I also think it's important to remember that when 'testing' carbs that you will get a higher reading if you've been doing a LCHF diet, so it would be hard to tell what your BG rise would be initially. So whatever the GI/GL is of a food, you won't really know it's effect until you eat it and test after. As someone said earlier (Phoenix I think), watermelon might be High GI but has so little carbs it really doesn't matter ... again more confusion!

On the Diet Doctor website I saw a picture of a 'mid morning snack' served at a conference that he was impressed by - it was a chunk of Brie and some Salami. I mean ... really? Wouldn't half a sliced apple, some carrot and celery sticks and a piece of Brie have been a better choice?

We are more than diabetes .... we should be eating as many healthy, anti-oxidant & phytonutrient dense carbs as our blood sugars will allow. No point having the best blood sugars in the world but dying of bowel cancer cos of a ****, low fibre diet is there -)

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LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE!! i am def "EAT to METER" we are ALL DIFFERENT!

beatdise said:

LIKE LIKE LIKE LIKE!! i am def "EAT to METER" we are ALL DIFFERENT!

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Yes I do that too alongside LCHF.

Paul59 said:

Blood sugar requires insulin to process it. When there is too much sugar in your blood, eventually the pancreas, the organ that makes insulin, gets tired and stops responding. This creates a condition called insulin resistance. Blood sugar that cannot be processed gets stored as fat and that can cause unwanted weight-gain.
consider foods with a glycemic load under 10 as the best choice. Foods that fall between 10 and 30 are not bad, but you should eat them with caution.

Foods above 30 should be eaten sparingly. It’s a good idea to replace these foods with protein.

Low GI diets have been associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, depression, and several cancers.

Another benefit of eating foods with a low GL is that you will naturally lose fat and get a leaner, slimmer body. This way you can be bathing-suit-ready all year round.

Here's 1 list of many to help you choose what's best to eat.
http://tbinet.org/dsm/files/Sauder GI.html, but personally I use GI GL Counter, by Winnie Chan, a very informative little book that's easy to take out & about.

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Great response Paul. Useful reminder!

zand said:

Yes I do that too alongside LCHF.

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Yep and I am LCHF but highish fats rather than high. a tweak here a nip and a tuck there...what ever works to keep the numbers in the best place.

NoCrbs4Me said:

I don't think there are any nutrients in fruit you can't get from other food. The low fat high carb diet is an experiment that has proven to be a failure.

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Cancer council recommends 9 serves of fruit and vegetables per day .... if you don't eat fruit that's a heck of a lot of vegetables to chow through. You would probably get the same nutrients in vegetables as you do in fruit but you certainly wouldn't find them in any other food.

As for your second statement, I agree. As a society we have been brainwashed into thinking that fat is bad for us. I think some health professionals are gradually moving on from this though .... I saw a GP recently and he spoke of 'resistant starch' and how "fat is not as bad as we once thought'. I was most impressed.

I think the use of the word "May" in the title gives it away, These types of research projects become meaningless if the promoters of such research use such weasel words. It only works for me if it says IT WILL or IT WILL NOT. Definition of May : "used for showing possibility"
I want PROBABILITY. I only accept possibility when all else is lost and I am clinging to straws otherwise of course EVERYTHING is POSSIBLE. ..that doesn't help focus or differentiation...DIDDLY SQUAT

nomistheman said:

Well my lipid profile has improved since reducing carbs and having more 'healthy' unprocessed / manufactured fat in my diet.

Of course, I'm just a n=1 experiment so it's not a big study!

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But that is THE most important study for YOU and the only one that REALLY matters!!

nomistheman said:

Well my lipid profile has improved since reducing carbs and having more 'healthy' unprocessed / manufactured fat in my diet.

Of course, I'm just a n=1 experiment so it's not a big study!

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Make that an experiment of n = 2. My lipids improve on each test I take.

N=3 here

n=4 here

zand said:

n=4 here

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n=5 looks like we have a statistically significant result that MAY work for others...

Of course, we also need n minus figures from the LCHF nay sayers.
Possibly they would have attempted it properly with
blood tests, before and after .
and possibly failed to see the other benefits associated with the LCHF lifestyle.

I suspect most nay sayers could struggle to provide this - because (from what I have seen) don't bother to research the diet and try it properly before expressing their disapproval.