I am pre- diabetic with a reading of 46. I’ve been following the LCHF diet since October 2018. I’ve lost some weight and recently bought a monitor. However I’m confused as the Diabetic UK web site encourages pasta rice etc albeit in small portions whereas this site completely discourages all the carbs. Why are the two sites so different but fighting the same corner?
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Confused
- Thread starter Tux 56
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Resurgam
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What we are discouraging are high blood glucose readings - that doesn't require us to discontinue all carbs - just the ones which are not tolerated by an individual.
The difference between the advice to eat small portions of grains and to eat only what you can cope with is rather like hope over experience.
The difference between the advice to eat small portions of grains and to eat only what you can cope with is rather like hope over experience.
Guzzler
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Well said.
Guzzler
Master
- Messages
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- Poor grammar, bullying and drunks.
Hello and welcome to the forum. Tagging @daisy1 for the info pack offered to all newcomers.
While I hear that some people are eating a low carb diet on the other site the Dietary Guidelines (NHS Eatwell Plate) seems to be more popular probably because that advice comes from professionals whereas a LCHF diet although now endorsed by the NHS hasn't really captured the notice of many over there.
Have a look at the Testimonials and Success Stories part of this forum if you would like to know how we over here acheive great improvements on a range of diets including one based on lowering carbs.
While I hear that some people are eating a low carb diet on the other site the Dietary Guidelines (NHS Eatwell Plate) seems to be more popular probably because that advice comes from professionals whereas a LCHF diet although now endorsed by the NHS hasn't really captured the notice of many over there.
Have a look at the Testimonials and Success Stories part of this forum if you would like to know how we over here acheive great improvements on a range of diets including one based on lowering carbs.
zauberflote
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,476
- Location
- VA, US
- Type of diabetes
- Prediabetes
- Treatment type
- Diet only
- Dislikes
- okra. Cigarette smoke, old, new, and permeating a room, wafting from a balcony, etc etc. That I have so many chronic diseases. That I take so very many meds. Being cold. Anything too loud, but specifically non-classical music and the television.
American medicos the same. I am not yet dx, but am probably going to be eating LCHF forever to avoid that dx as long as possible. Next labs mid-Feb.
If I’d followed the cheat sheet given me by my PCP when he told me my HbA1c was 6.5/48, I’d definitely not be at an estimated HbA1c of 5.59/38 right now. I’d be at least preD, if not remaining at T2 level. I found y’all here randomly, and the food is so good and the company so copacetic that I had to stay. Try LCHF, lose 20 lbs and watch bg trickle downwards - best of both worlds!
Cheat sheet included 1-2 servings of fruit (bananas, apples, pears, berries etc), brown rice and other grains, oatmeal (oh I do miss my daily oatmeal made with orange juice and soy milk!), and sugary desserts on occasion. Any kind. Would not have worked for me, and he would have cheerfully put me on metformin bc that’s how to “manage it”. No thank you.
Anyway, high-percentage chocolate turns out to be exactly what I was looking for all my life! Anything of a desserty nature (with the exception of a local brand of gelato in Chocolate Decadence) is just sickeningly sweet. My tastebuds and brain seem to have “re-set”. I walk down the cookie aisle, and have no desire at all. Cheese case is another story lol.
If I’d followed the cheat sheet given me by my PCP when he told me my HbA1c was 6.5/48, I’d definitely not be at an estimated HbA1c of 5.59/38 right now. I’d be at least preD, if not remaining at T2 level. I found y’all here randomly, and the food is so good and the company so copacetic that I had to stay. Try LCHF, lose 20 lbs and watch bg trickle downwards - best of both worlds!
Cheat sheet included 1-2 servings of fruit (bananas, apples, pears, berries etc), brown rice and other grains, oatmeal (oh I do miss my daily oatmeal made with orange juice and soy milk!), and sugary desserts on occasion. Any kind. Would not have worked for me, and he would have cheerfully put me on metformin bc that’s how to “manage it”. No thank you.
Anyway, high-percentage chocolate turns out to be exactly what I was looking for all my life! Anything of a desserty nature (with the exception of a local brand of gelato in Chocolate Decadence) is just sickeningly sweet. My tastebuds and brain seem to have “re-set”. I walk down the cookie aisle, and have no desire at all. Cheese case is another story lol.
rmz80
Well-Known Member
As far as I can tell; type 2 diabetics have to resort to low carb diets; especially keto because oral diabetic medicines are so imprecise at controlling bg levels. If fast insulin was made available then carbs could be managed using carb counting instead.
daisy1
Legend
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@Tux 56
Hello and welcome to the Forum
Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it both interesting and helpful.
BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS
Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.
A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 235,000 people who are demonstrating this.
On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.
The role of carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.
If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.
The bad news
Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.
The good news
People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.
Controlling your carbs
The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.
The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.
Choosing better carbohydrates
The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.
Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.
Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.
Eating what works for you
Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.
To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.
The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:
Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.
You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.
Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.
Hello and welcome to the Forum
Here is the Basic Information we give to new members and I hope you will find it both interesting and helpful.BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEW MEMBERS
Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.
A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you'll find well over 235,000 people who are demonstrating this.
On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.
The role of carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.
If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.
The bad news
Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.
The good news
People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.
Controlling your carbs
The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
- Reduce your carbohydrate intake
- Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.
The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.
Choosing better carbohydrates
The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.
Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes.
Over 145,000 people have taken part in the Low Carb Program - a 10 week structured education course that is helping people lose weight and reduce medication dependency by explaining the science behind carbs, insulin and GI.
Eating what works for you
Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.
To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.
The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:
Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
- Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
- structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
- self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education
Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to blood glucose testing supplies.
You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic.
Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Take part in Diabetes.co.uk digital education programs and improve your understanding. Most of these are free.
- Low Carb Program - it's made front-page news of the New Scientist and The Times. Developed with 20,000 people with type 2 diabetes; 96% of people who take part recommend it... find out why
- Hypo Program - improve your understanding of hypos. There's a version for people with diabetes, parents/guardians of children with type 1, children with type 1 diabetes, teachers and HCPs.
HSSS
Expert
Are you suggesting insulin is the better way to control type 2 if only it were available as a first step?
Us type 2 have too much insulin already and we aren’t responding efficiently to it anyway. Adding more is kind of just trying to force it to be more efficient by hoping that eventually we’ll overcome the glucose by sheer force. Yes it does sort of work, for some time, but does nothing to address the insulin resistance causing the problem in the first place or the high insulin levels we end up walking round with and the ensuing problems that causes, weight gain for one which makes the resistance worse etc etc.
Last edited:
M
Member496333
Guest
Diabetes UK are a menace and should be ignored.
britishpub
Well-Known Member
To be clear, the advice given regarding Low Carb, and LCHF is not the only advice given on this site, and there are plenty of differing opinions.
PS. To properly understand the different advice given by the two sites you should examine how each are funded, and who they are associated with.
Resurgam
Master
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- Type of diabetes
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I think you have that the wrong way round - I eat low carb so as not to need any medication and if offered a pill which would 'restore' my ability to eat carbs without my blood glucose rising, I would have to refuse it, as my metabolism is set up to stash away carbs as fat.
Every time I have been put on a diet which was sure to make me thin, I started to put on weight because I have all the insulin I need and then some - if I eat carbs and try to walk them off I go pale and floppy because of the insulin effect.
I did not have to resort to a low carb diet, I leaped back into that way of eating with shrieks of delight because it is such a pleasure. I also burnt all the diet sheets in the back garden on the day after diagnosis.
Daphne917
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- Type of diabetes
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I prefer not to take diabetic meds whilst I can control my T2 with diet which I do. I do not eat a keto diet and eat approx 120g per day which is probably higher than many diet controlled diabetics but still low carb. My brother is coeliac which means he has to eat a gluten free diet and I see my low carb diet as no different as to deviate from either diets has consequences for our health particularly for him.
