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Diabetes-specific nutrition book recommendations

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HairySmurf

Well-Known Member
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174
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi folks,

I have only recently become interested in controlled nutrition. Up to now I believed in variety, balance and moderation, though in all honesty I wasn't good at the moderation part. My thinking was that if you eat a wide enough variety of food your body will get all the micronutrients it needs along with beneficial doses of things like antioxidants, without having to think too deeply about it. Part of that thinking was eating plenty of foods like pineapple, for the enzymes it contains, and superfoods such as blueberries for all the good stuff those contain.

Since my diagnoses I'm having to rethink all that. I have to choose between excluding foods like pineapple and tightly rationing my blueberry intake, or probably having to accept a higher dose of medication for the rest of my life. It's a daunting prospect.

Are there any particularly good diabetes-specific books out there that address this topic well? Some kind of magic diet recipe which provides every element of every superfood but only involves eating 1g of carbs per day would be ideal Failing that, if you had to pick one nutrition book, which would you recommend?

**EDIT: After writing this post I started looking for what I'm after online, trying different language. While doing so that I discovered that the term 'superfood' is a discredited marketing term mostly used to sell more of something. Superfoods are practically a religion for the older members of my wider family. It goes to show how little we/I know about nutrition. Book badly needed!
 
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I see you like your research.
This is a free summit starting soon. American so can be a bit OTT in parts but full of interesting low carb/keto info... and nearly all the speakers have a book to promote!
No need to pay unless you want to download talks for keeps

The 11th Quit Sugar Summit | ENCORE WEEKEND: Jan 19th - Jan 21st, 2024

Welcome to the World's Largest Sugar Summit!
quitsugarsummit.com

I watched a whole one about 3 years ago. There are others too, just missed the 2023 Kick Sugar summit. Now I just watch a select few of the presentations
 
Many thanks for the reply and for the suggestion.

I'm a complete novice when it comes to all things diabetes and I want to learn as much as I can, so I decided to give your suggestion a fair shake. I started by skimming the list of speakers, looking for diabetes experts with the intention of googling them to check out their credentials. I decided that if I liked what I saw, and as I have some free time on my hands right now, I would watch the whole summit to learn what I could.

On the list of speakers I came across a woman named Cecelia Doucette. She has a YouTube channel, and this is the first video that was posted on her channel:


In this video she describes how she discovered the health dangers of WiFi. For a reasonably quick snapshot of this woman's early work I'd recommend watching from 5:48 to 11:47.

Now I'm no diabetes expert, I'm the opposite, but I do happen to know quite a lot about WiFi and a fair bit about microwaves. I know, not think, know, that a great deal of what comes out of this woman's mouth on the subject of microwave radiation is false. Some of what she says is ludicrous. Now I don't believe she's a liar, she clearly believes what she's saying, but I know she's mistaken.

My worry is that if this person in on the speakers list, who else on that list might be of the same low calibre in terms of their expertise. When technology is the subject I can tell fact from fiction quite easily. With health advice I don't have the expertise to tell the difference. I might come to believe something about my health condition that is as ludicrous as the things Cecelia Doucette has to say about WiFi.

I do thank you for the suggestion as I'm certain it was well meant, but I don't believe I can safely watch that summit at this time. There is clearly no quality control in their speaker selection process.
 
A good balanced one on nutrition I find is Zoe

ZOE Podcast: Long Episodes

Learn about nutrition and health in the full-length version of the ZOE Science & Nutrition podcast.
zoe.com
There is an emphasis on plants and I eat a low carb but fairly diverse diet including lots of meat and fish but a lot of I feel good nutrition info in these. Maybe start with the new year one it sums up strategies recommended by Zoe

Nb I've never taken part in a Zoe expensive diagnostic programme and they are advertised on Zoe podcasts but a free listen you do not have to pay for a Zoe programme

Another one who covers some nutrition is Dr Chatterjee such as his podcast at with Dr van Tulleken about ultra processed foods.

Ultra-Processed Foods with Dr. Chris van Tulleken / Feel Better, Live More Podcast

Dr. van Tulleken uncovers why ultra-processed foods are addictive and how to break free from them.
drchatterjee.com

Neither of above are s.specifically low carb but some interesting nutrition information
 
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I did say some could be very zealous. I hadn't heard of this woman. In the past they've had stalwarts such as the Unwins, Robert Muecke, Tim Noakes etc etc

The trouble with nutrition is there are as many proponents of one way of eating as another as deep down, no one knows the one right answer (if one exists) We are all still learning what is right for our individual bodies.

Generally I try to stick to low carb using meat, fish, eggs, dairy, nuts olives. Add in plenty of green veg and the occasional (say 3 times a week) very small portion of berries. I avoid seed and vegetable oils and processed foods.
But I also have a life and need to socialise so I don't beat myself up if I have the odd taste of something else. It's all about balance
 
MrsA2 said:
The trouble with nutrition is there are as many proponents of one way of eating as another as deep down, no one knows the one right answer (if one exists) We are all still learning what is right for our individual bodies.
Click to expand...
I put great trust in my glucose meter to tell me the right answer.
The complications from high blood glucose are well proven, while much of the other research on nutrition is biased, or based on data not suited to the research, or otherwise compromised.

My meter only tells me what is without bias. And I'm perfectly willing to put my money on healthy BG for the largest effect on my overall health instead of following any proponent of specific dietary beliefs that mean my BG is less stable.
 
Many thanks for this. I took your advice and listened to the 'How to eat in 2024' podcast.

There were a few elements I didn't buy, like 'an eating window gives your gut microbiome a rest' - but I did learn a few things - e.g. why fibre is much more than just stuff that keeps the bowel moving. I feel like I've made a small but important start
 
Pleased you got some useful info from them but also as @Antje77 says your blood glucose levels are the key thing to measure what works for you and getting your blood sugars down should be key guiding principle. For example I do agree with beneficial nature of an eating window for my bgs I tend to regularly only eat in a 6 hour window and avoid eating for 18 hours or 8 hours eating and 16 hour fasting. But we need to find what works for us all as individuals and best judge of if it's working is if your diabetic condition is being managed better.
 
Hi @HairySmurf , in this thread (https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/th...metformin-halved-my-hba1c.201214/post-2673996) you asked for lipids data from members who have done LCHF for a while.
I think it would be derailing to reply on that thread so I took it to one of your own threads, despite it being off topic here as well.
HairySmurf said:
I would be extremely interested in seeing lipid data from people who've been on a low carb, high saturated fat diet for a good number of years.
Click to expand...
I had my first diabetic hba1c (78mmol/mol) on 18 nov 2016, which triggered me to go low carb and not mind things like butter, cream, cheese, bacon, pork scratchings etc.
I wasn't aware of the early 2016 lipid results before that.

The initial sharp drop between november and februari was due to a short stint (one or two months) on a statin, haven't been taking them since.
So I've been on a low carb, high saturated fat diet for over 7 years, here are the lab results on my lipids:







Hope this helps!

Note: triglycerides says non fasting (niet nuchter) but they were fasting levels. I'm not expected to come in fasted for a blood draw but I like to be able to compare results over the years.
 
But if you listen to Dr Paul Mason and Dr Zoe Harcombe they say comsuming fibre makes symptoms like bloating, constipation and IBS worse. If you want to see his findings search Dr Paul Mason fibre on YouTube
 
I too like the output of Dr Paul Mason (MD) about Low Carb. His qualifications are quite impressive. Dr Paul Mason obtained his medical degree with honors from the University of Sydney, and also holds degrees in Physiotherapy and Occupational Health. He is currently a Specialist Registrar in the Australasian College of Sports and Exercise Medicine.

I haven't read any of Zoe Harcombe's books, but have watched videos of several of her presentations at Public Health Collaboration events. Zoe Harcombe has a PhD in Public Health Nutrition. Her demolition of the EAT Lancet paper is magnificent, exposing not only the undeclared biases of the authors, but also the clever manipulations of the data they use to claim for example that unprocessed meat causes cancer (when the cited studies only found that was the case for people eating at least 50gms per day of processed meat) etc.

I have no personal experience of IBS, but there is plenty of annecdotal evidence that grains (especially wheat) and lactose containing Dairy (for those with lactose intolerance) are problem foods:

5 Foods to Avoid if You Have IBS | Johns Hopkins Medicine​


hopkinsmedicine.org
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org › health › 5-foods-to-a...



Search for: What foods to avoid with IBS?

What foods are not IBS friendly?




To ease IBS and SIBO symptoms, it's essential to avoid high FODMAP foods that aggravate the gut, including:
  • Dairy-based milk, yogurt and ice cream.
  • Wheat-based products such as cereal, bread and crackers.
  • Beans and lentils.
  • Some vegetables, such as artichokes, asparagus, onions and garlic.

Of course it makes sense that fibre makes Bloating and Gas worse because they are fermented by our gut bacteria in the colon, where unfortunately we can absorb little of the nutrients from those foods (unlike ruminants).

A point both make is that bulking up a stool with fibre may help to keep moisture, but in most situations things flow better if you don't try to push a large volume through a small gap.

I also like that they are both somewhat sceptical of statins. With good cause since Nick Norwitz has just published the results of his n=1 crossover test of the effect of Oreo Cookies versus a Statin at lowering LDL. No surprises to normal weight Low carbers such as myself, the Oreo Cookies were twice as effective! Link to my post about this:

Dave Feldman's "CholesterolJoe" experiment

Dave says: Big thanks to @shawnbaker1967 for his mention of our work on @joerogan . #LEM/#LMHR/#LMHRstudy It has inspired me to go ahead with my most ambitious experiment yet... Demonstrating realtime LDL changes against a random number generator -- in this case, I'll be using the JRE podcast...
www.diabetes.co.uk

For balance, I'm unconvinced about Zoe Harcombe's stance on Covid , masks, vax etc. But people can't always agree on everything - what a boring world that would be.
 
This thread has gone some way off its original topic of “diabetic specific nutrition book recommendations” and has been heavily moderated to remove inappropriate and inaccurate posts. The thread will therefore remain closed to further replies.
 
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