Dietician advised me to eat at least 270g of carbohydrate!

Odd advice is putting it much too kindly Aoife. Medical negligence would be nearer the mark :evil:
Sticking to your guns is a very smart move.
She's right about the ability of protein to convert to glucose however. It is much slower and a whole lot less than the glucose released by starchy carbs though, so it's not too difficult to accommodate in a lower carb diet. As much as 50%, even 60% according to some sources, will convert to glucose in the absence of carbohydrate.

All the best,

fergus

Hi Aoife,

That might be a reasonable guess, but as they say, your own mileage may vary. Remember also that it will release more slowly than carbohydrate, so be careful with the rapid insulin. Some find insulins such as Humulin R more closely match low carb meals including significant protein.

fergus

OMG Aoife! It's scary to think that if I / we had never come across this forum we'd still be taking that advice. I spent the first few months of being diabetic trying to eat as many carbs as possible, before I found out about the benefits of low carbing. It's so worrying that there are people out there (newbies and old timers) who have never been given the advice that we have, and are struggling with their glucose levels, I really feel for them.

Jessie.

Aoife said:

jessie said:

OMG Aoife! It's scary to think that if I / we had never come across this forum we'd still be taking that advice. I spent the first few months of being diabetic trying to eat as many carbs as possible, before I found out about the benefits of low carbing. It's so worrying that there are people out there (newbies and old timers) who have never been given the advice that we have, and are struggling with their glucose levels, I really feel for them.

Jessie.

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I know. Its hard enough even when you ARE equipped with the right information- let alone trying to manage with a dubious set of rules and guidelines!

I really do appreciate my diabetes team, and have learned useful things on this carbohydrate counting course, but...I was sooooo surprised when the dietician said that things like chocolate etc will absolutely not cause blood sugar to rise, so long as you give enough insulin corresponding to the amount of carbohydrate on the wrapper.

I'm sorry, but my body clearly hasn't read the same books as she is reading! Sugary foods give me a soaring blood sugar for ages after I eat it, unless I've had a really active day.

She did say, yeah it could rise if you eat sweet stuff if your background insulin isn't right- but surely its madness to basically structure your background insulin around a diet of chocolate and cakes?!! Is it not far better to minimize the background insulin, and eat well, eat clean foods that work WITH your body-instead of against.

Leaving out people with diabetes, its nuts for anyone to be consuming loads of sugar regularly...

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Completely agree with both these comments!

The bit in bold is particularly pertinent I think. Yes you can carry on regardless and allow the meds to take control for you (with the numerous side effects that that involves) or you can do what your body is telling you and feed it foods it needs to stay healthy!!!! I choose the latter.

I've heard sooooo many examples of this sort of advice being handed out to diabetics. It terrifies me. It might be forgiveable if it was the odd case of a particularly ill-informed HP since there examples of that in any profession.
But it's not. This seems to be standard advice given to most, if not all - base your diet on starchy carbohydrates. No alternative, no support if you deviate from that advice, no recognition that if it doesn't work for you, it might be the diet, not the patient, who is at fault.
Jessie and Aoife, you're very lucky you slipped through the net.

fergus

All too common, not only for dieticians but nurses and doctors too.

They mean well, they have been indoctrinated into the idea that if you eat fat you will instantly drop dead of a heart attack, and if you eat protein it will wreck your kidneys.

Unfortunately as 21st century dietary research shows, excess carbs are converted into - wait for it - saturated fat! And due to the excess amounts of insulin required to process the excess carbs (far more if you are insulin resistant) the fat is stashed as body fat, after lurking in the blood for a while wrecking your lipids. You're better off eating the fat in the first place, without the insulin it is much easier to stop when you've had enough. Eating the carbs and generating more carb cravings you will actually end up with MORE fat than if you'd eaten the fat in the first place.

Fat can be metabolised as fuel, and technically you can generate all the glucose you require from protein, which is a slower and less peaky process and also more lossy than eating carbs. You'll probably find it easier to eat *some* carbs than none, but a whole lot less than that.

When diagnosed I was scared by the Drs & dietitians into eating what amounted to over 300 g carb per day. The complications prophesied arrived & I have reduced carb drastically to try to control both sugar levels & complications.

I saw my PCT diabetes dietitian for the first time on Friday. She said that I had done brilliantly in the 5 weeks since diagnosis to lose 20 pounds and to get my BG readings down from 13 fasting to 4.5 - 6.5 over all. She asked me what my daily carb target was and I said 50g, she then asked me to increase it to a min of 150 !! She is obviously missing something.... :roll:

Bluenosesol said:

I saw my PCT diabetes dietitian for the first time on Friday. She said that I had done brilliantly in the 5 weeks since diagnosis to lose 20 pounds and to get my BG readings down from 13 fasting to 4.5 - 6.5 over all. She asked me what my daily carb target was and I said 50g, she then asked me to increase it to a min of 150 !! She is obviously missing something.... :roll:

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Don't be fooled by the results my boy! Low BG numbers and weight loss can never be healthy. Get them carbs down ya!!!!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Bluenosesol said:

She is obviously missing something.

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Yes, more than a few brain cells!

Dennis said:

Bluenosesol said:

She is obviously missing something.

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Yes, more than a few brain cells!

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That's actually something I'm not alone in noticing: how aggressive and angry the anti-low-carbers often are, and not just here.