I take 2 units for a bowl of porridge so not a tonne like you say, I also eat bread, potatoes etc and manage very well thanks x
Hello Kaylz91, I hope that you are very well.
I was very reluctant to write this because, I can already feel the diabetic community coming after me to shred me into pieces.. I was debating with myself if I would ever be allowed to say this openly because I am very afraid of the action that it can cause... I decided to take a deep breath and say it...
There is a fairly recent study (still not very widespread amongst the diabetes community - neither amongst diabetes physicians).
Here’s something interesting. There’s actually growing evidence that diabetes – long toted as the sugar disease – might actually be linked with too much meat. Yes… I am not kidding you now.
Doctors from the George Washington University have been researching (since 2003) plant-based treatment of Type 2 diabetes for many years with very persuasive results explaining that diabetes rates were much higher in Western countries than many developing countries whose diet is traditionally high in carbohydrates, the food group often blamed for diabetes.
Take Japan – traditionally on a diet of rice, diabetes rates were 1.4% before 1980 - when fast food arrived, and dietary fat began to shoot up as carbohydrate intake fell. By 1990, diabetes was at 11-12%. Western cultures have very high meat consumption. Some doctors start to suspect that there is a pretty strong association between diabetes and meat consumption (and meat/dairy products).
One can argue that this may be the case for Type 2’s and not for Type 1’s like us but, humour me please and hear me out.
Doctors actually tested a vegan diet against the American Diabetes Association’s recommended diet for diabetics, which reduced carbohydrates and calories. They found that though both diets reduced glycemic and lipid control, the improvements were actually greater with a low-fat vegan diet than the one the health organisations are promoting.
Spurred on by this, they looked further and further through every study of diabetes and plant based diets and they found that EVERY SINGLE STUDY shows the same thing – a plant-based diet, even one with carbs, will improve your diabetes.
How?
It mostly comes down to fat.
Glucose cannot get into our cells without insulin. It’s like a key that attaches to cell receptors to let glucose into the cell. Since meat products are much fattier than grains, veggies and legumes, a meat eater’s high dietary fat dumps more of this intracellular fat into the cells and ‘clogs’ the receptors so insulin can’t open them up.
However, when you adopt a plant-based diet, your intramyocellular lipid concentrations drop and you become more insulin-sensitive. Visceral, or belly fat has also been linked to insulin resistance. This is down to increased inflammatory cytokines from visceral fat cells. Eliminating meat /dairy etc from your diet reduces visceral fat and improves insulin sensitivity compared to a regular diabetic diet (usually Ketogenic one/Paleo and the likes).
I honestly believe that a diet rich in plant carbohydrates and fibre, based on legumes, vegetables, fruits and whole cereals, may be particularly useful for us because of its multiple effects on many risk factors. But the resounding problem is how to change people’s minds with the powerful nutritional marketing of the meat industry in the last decades. Meat is so embedded in our culture that it will take a lot to break through these habits.
The reason why I truly believe this is because, I switched to a plant based diet a year ago. I don’t eat dairy or dairy products and I allow for only 60 grams or meat/fish/poultry per day. I am also on a relatively low carbs diet or 30-40 grams of carbs for every meal (I don't count vegetable carbs).
I was on 24 units levemir a day and 1.5:1 Novorapid ratio when I started a year ago.
I am now on 14 units levemir a day and a 1:1-1 Novorapid ratio. On days that I exercise (mild jogging, yoga, ballet) I can eat 20-30 grams of carbs with my next (post exercise) meal and not inject any Novorapid and I won’t spike above 7.0 mmols.
And I am not lying, I am telling you the truth.
I honestly believe that despite what the diabetic community believes all these years, our problem is not handling healthy/plant based carbs… Our problem is meat/dairy (particularly when combined with carbs). Judging from my own experience, I am convinced that it is meat and diary that has done the initial damage and because of this reason, we cannot tolerate carbs.
I am not advocating that we can reverse our condition, not us Type 1’s (Type 2’s can, I have seen it happening with a family member). But, for me, being a Type 1 on 5 injections every day, it is a big deal finding a way to control my blood sugar, while escaping an injection here and there without spikes and elevated bg levels and, at the same time, minimizing the risk of clotted arteries, and future heart diseases from too much cholesterol.
Regards
Josephine