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Books that help so much...

anna29

anna29

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
4,789
Location
Preston Lancashire
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Cruelty to Animals/Children
Liars/Manipulators/Bullying
Hi All.
I have just recieved 'think like a pancreas' in the post yesterday.
Cant put it down - its packed with great info and facts about diabetes, mechanics of the pancreas,liver, etc plus loads of
great pointers, tips, advice.
I have already read bernsteins book few months ago and it wasnt any where near as brilliant as 'think like a pancreas' .
Its so easy to read and grasp, even though the author of the book is an american his way with words and expression
of things is so well written,humourous and encouraging.
My bernstein book ended up at a local charity shop, this one is staying put in my home!
Anyone read any other good books that have helped them ?
Anna.
 
  1. Richard K Berstein - Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution - I agree that it's not the clearest book, but it was the one that I got first and the one that changed my life.
  2. (Jenny Ruhl - Blood Sugar 101 - much more accessible and less hardline than Bernstein, Ruhl makes sense of the research and the numbers.
  3. Gary Taubes - What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie - not a book, but an extensive NYT article. Shook my world.
  4. Gary Taubes - Why We Get Fat - I don't believe all of it, but woah the boy can write.
  5. Gary Taubes - Good Calories Bad Calorie - Heavy going in places, but covers much more ground than WWGF.
  6. Phinney & Volek - The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living - The science behind the low-carb diet, I love this book and back to it all the time.
  7. Lyle McDonald - The Ketogenic Diet - an in depth study of ketosis and exercise. Answered almost every question I wanted answered.
  8. Nestle & Nesheim - Why Calories Count - what I expected was a debunking of the Taubes stuff, but in the end I got a great review of the science and politics of calories.

There are plenty of others, but these are the ones that helped me most.

The book I liked least was the Atkins Diabetes Revolution, which was vastly inferior to all of the books above, and read like the book version of an American infomerical.
 
Hi.
Think with me its how I am wired upstairs in the brainbox !!!
Found bernsteins treatment careplan too rigid for myself, think like a pancreas has optional own choice of therapy
and careplans to consider.
Plus it explains how the body does what it does as a diabetic, bit like looking through the glass at just what goes on.
A real treat to read as we live via numbers on a meter and the HbA1c collective results.
I had ordered the insulins users edition being an insulin user and it is sooooo helpful and informative .
Am finding it so easy to enjoy and read without tooo many sciencetific or mathematical facts in it...!
I just get lost with all that and it feels kind off too much to take in then.
Both these guys are american's do we have any british authors well written 'diabetic books' anyone can recommend?
Similar to think like a pancreas... ?
Anna.
 
Pumping Insulin John Walsh.. A must for anyone starting to use a pump. I still think this book has taught me more than my doctors know... there's nothing like it in French
Ragnar Hanas :Type 1 Diabetes in Children Adolescents Picked this up secondhand from Woking library (I stock up on the ones they sell off when in the UK) thought it was worth reading but found it was the best overall guide to T1 I've read.
Gretchen Becker:The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes Bought this when I thought I had T2, A very practical guide.. good for understanding all the tests.
Think Like a Pancreas Gary Scheiner agree with Anna; great book on using insulin.

odd books with some relevance
Why Calories Count:tNestle & Nesheim - : agree with Borofergie. It's an interesting book put a lot of things I'd already read about together in one place.
Catching Fire: R Wrangham How cooking made us human; nothing to do with diabetes but a lot to do with the type of foods paleolithic man may have eaten and why. There is an epilogue on modern processed foods and health.
 
phoenix said:
Catching Fire: R Wrangham How cooking made us human; nothing to do with diabetes but a lot to do with the type of foods paleolithic man may have eaten and why. There is an epilogue on modern processed foods and health.
Click to expand...

This one is going onto my reading list. Thanks Phoenix!
 
Phoenix wrote :
Catching Fire: R Wrangham How cooking made us human; nothing to do with diabetes but a lot to do with the type of foods paleolithic man may have eaten and why. There is an epilogue on modern processed foods and health.
Click to expand...

Borofergie wrote :
This one is going onto my reading list. Thanks Phoenix!/quote]

+1 :thumbup:

Just reserved online with my library.
Don't you just love the internet :D

Geoff
Click to expand...
 
librarising said:
+1 :thumbup:

Just reserved online with my library.
Don't you just love the internet :D

Geoff
Click to expand...

I love it until I see my bank balance at the end of the month :(
Bloody "One-Click" button, I don't know why I don't just pay my salary direct to amazon.
 
Sounds like you've enjoyed reading Think like a Pancreas :thumbup:
 
Using insulin and Pumping insulin by John Walsh

Are probably my two favourites as these are totally based on how to control your diabetes, without dictating to you...

I've read various other books about nutrition non-diabetic related due to having studied nutrition and nutritional needs of various different medical conditions.. So can't name them all.

I have read Bernstein but felt that it was dictatorial, and used palaeolithic man etc to underpin 'why' we must do as we told! I also belong to Bernstein forum, where apparently a lot of people don't do as he tells them if you consider the issues that they have with control!

Haven't read Taubes book only bits and pieces that is available on the internet as I've not managed to find a copy in our local library, and even though I dallied with the idea of downloading it onto my kindle, but not keen due to the cost!
 
Hi all.
Am 'loving' think like a pancreas its so easy to read and I so 'get' it too ... :thumbup:
Jopar I agree bernstein does restrict on options to use and choose from .
It is 'his' ways only is how it came across to me as I read it.
Using insulin and pumping insulin by john walsh ? Is it heavier on pumping insulin?
Am asking this question, due to not being a pump user .
If its not - ? then I might try ebay getting hold of one of these.
Anna. :)
 
I've read Bernstein, and Ruhl, and Diabetes: the First Year, with interest. I found Bernstein too strict, and didn't like his recommendations of American foods that we can't get over here, that are dificult to find substitutes for. It's also written more for Type 1s than Type 2s. It doesn't matter for me whether I eat carbs at every meal or not, which obviously it does for TYpe 1s.

I differ from Borofergie about Atkins Diabetes Revolution (Vernon and Ebberstein), but then I already understood Atkins before I became diabetic, so this one was building on something I'd already come across. I think it explains Type 2 diabetes very well, and it deals with nutritional info and the science behind diabetes well and simply. It's easy to dip into.

Yes, it's American; these ladies write rather better than Atkins himself, and you can always skip the case histories :lol: We're all different, and we all have likes and dislikes about information presentation. I think it's a good introduction to both Type 2 and low-carbing.

Viv 8)
 
anna29 said:
Hi all.
Am 'loving' think like a pancreas its so easy to read and I so 'get' it too ... :thumbup:
Jopar I agree bernstein does restrict on options to use and choose from .
It is 'his' ways only is how it came across to me as I read it.
Using insulin and pumping insulin by john walsh ? Is it heavier on pumping insulin?
Am asking this question, due to not being a pump user .
If its not - ? then I might try ebay getting hold of one of these.
Anna. :)
Click to expand...

They are very similar to 'Think like a pancreas' but John Walsh Using Insulin is injection specific and his Pumping insulin is pump specific... Even though a lot of the injections theory is also Pump theory, separating off into standalone books really helps on the pumping side enable greater expansion of information.

viviennem said:
I found Bernstein too strict, and didn't like his recommendations of American foods that we can't get over here, that are dificult to find substitutes for. It's also written more for Type 1s than Type 2s. It doesn't matter for me whether I eat carbs at every meal or not, which obviously it does for TYpe 1s.
Click to expand...

No T1's don't have to eat carbs at every meal, I certainly don't I often partake in an omelette etc that doesn't contain carbs, due to having just a cheese or meat filling...


The worst book I've ever read, was the then Diabetic Association's 'The complete Diabetic Guide' Scaremongering or what :shock: And in the 20 plus years I've owned it I have never picked enough courage to read the 'Heart Disease' chapter And it's still being published by the DUK :shock:
 
Thanks jopar.
Think I will try and find John Walsh Using Insulin , order it and read it when have finished 'think like a pancreas' .
It helps to get good feedback and other persons recommendations with books.
Sort of points me in the right direction and will save me wasting my money, like I DID with bernstein !!!
That ended up at my local charity shop , someone got a good find with that book it was still like brand new and was a hardback one too !!!
Others may get some benefit from reading it, but it just WASN'T reading or sitting 'right' with me... :thumbdown:
Anna.
 
Jopar posted:

No T1's don't have to eat carbs at every meal, I certainly don't I often partake in an omelette etc that doesn't contain carbs, due to having just a cheese or meat filling...
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, something new to learn every day . . . I think I'd just sort-of assumed it, from what Bernstein says about spreading the allowed carbs over the day. I don't know enough about Type 1.

Viv 8)
 
Hi

I have read quite a few now but my favourite and most informative was
'The low starch Diabetes solution' by Rob Thompson M.D.

He is a doctor who was diagnosed about 10 years ago and it's about his journey to lower his blood sugar and get his diabetes under control. It explains many things including the basics, how metformin and the other common diabetes drugs work, insulin resistance. I found it an easy read, it also has a section and low carb recipes by Dana Carpender.

The only downside was he's American and blood sugar levels are in mg/dl

Ren
 
Hi all,
How come all the best books seem to be by american authors ????
Latest update is my mother who tries her best to grasp things 'diabetic' with me,
wants to read "think like a pancreas" when I have finished it...
Will LEND it out to her as I 'do' think it would help to educate her more about my diabetes.
She does things like stares :shock: at me when I state firmly and do my own educated choices with my foods,diet,
[very low carbs] calculating things up [as you do!!] activity AFTER doing my insulin shots [in public never a loo if out]
All kit n kaboodle I carry around with me, and finding my handbag weigh's heavier than hers!
She is 80 years old next week... :D Hopefully after she has read the book , she will understand more WHY I do
what I do !!!
Anna.x
 
Picked up the following book from the library on Saturday :
(I thought it had been recommended here, and was going to thank the person, but after a search am concluding that I'm thinking about another book.)

Life Without Bread, How A Low-Carbohydrate Diet Can save Your Life by Allan & Lutz.

Firstly, it's NOT about bread. It's about BREAD UNITS, a measure of carbohydrate content in food :

"The term ... was introduced in Vienna at the beginning of the nineteenth century for diabetics. At the time, it was already known diabetics needed to restrict their intake of carbohydrates."

It has a chapter on diabetes, and also discusses, among other things, heart disease, fat, and cholesterol.
It doesn't push ultra low-carb, and is happy that a level of 72 grams a day will improve so many things.
It's also happy if that level is approached slowly.

Like others have said, my diabetes diagnosis was the best thing to happen to me. It's spurred me on to research nutrition, and a healthy way of living and eating.

So, for those of you out there who are frightened off going low-carb, or don't fancy it, this gentle book might persuade you otherwise :)

Geoff
 
What If It's All A Big Fat Lie ? Gary Taubes - NYT article - life changer
Good Calories, Bad Calories/The Diet Delusion - Gary Taubes - convinced me but heavy going
Why We Get Fat - Gary Taubes - the more accessible version
Escape The Diet Trap - Dr John Briffa - reading atm jury still out
Waist Disposal - Dr John Briffa - written for men but clear, concise, anyone could pick it up, skim read and grasp the principles of low carbing -wish I'd read it years ago, would have made my life easier !
Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser - plain scary..

Eagerly awaiting book by Dr Robert H Lustig MD of Sugar: The Bitter Truth YouTube fame (2m + hits)
 
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