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Dr advising against Keto Diet

S

superdave220

Member
Messages
13
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Long time Type 2 diabetic (almost 20 years), new to the forum, first post.

My doctor threatened to put me on insulin in March (2018) because my A1c was 8.4%

I’ve brought my average BG down from 194 (3 month avg) to 136 (1 month avg) with exercise and diet. I started out my diet by limiting carbs. In the past week I shifted to a Keto Diet.

I sent my BG numbers to my doctor and he was impressed. But he still urged me not to do a Keto diet. He said that fat promotes insulin production and increases insulin resistance. This completely contradicts all the Keto literature that claims that high fat diets reduce insulin secretion and insulin resistance. He went on to recommend a DASH diet which includes high fiber foods like whole grains, whole wheat, and oats.

Frankly, I’m flabbergasted. This is the same advice I got when I was first diagnosed with diabetes 20 years ago. I ate whole wheat bread, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, and oatmeal for over a decade and it wrecked my BG. I continued to increase my medication to adjust over the years. Now I’m maxed out on oral meds.

Does anyone else have experience with a doctor who is against a diet that is working to bring your BG levels down?

Any thoughts about Keto vs DASH? Has DASH actually worked for anyone out there?

Help!
 
The doctor is incompetent. I say that because he has his facts wrong about the insulin response to fats.
 
What @Guzzler said. Sorry to hear your GP is confusing you on this - you are right though a keto diet is meant to lower insulin response, and your experience speaks for itself - you tried the wholegrain approach and look where it got you. I looked at the wholegrain etc options for diet when diagnosed and knew there was no point - it was the diet I'd been on my whole adult life which had just led to weight gain and a type 2 diagnosis - stick to your guns!
 
superdave220 said:
He said that fat promotes insulin production and increases insulin resistance.
Click to expand...
Sounds like he has read this somewhere and picked it up wrong.

He has got it back to front our own body fat promotes insulin production and increases insulin resistance.
Not the fat we eat.

There are some Keto experts on here that can share there success stories with you and give you any advice you need, there like buses you wait around and suddenly 3 appear at once.
 
There is a tiny flicker of a response to fat, but insulin release reacts most strongly to carbs, it is very simple, I don't understand why it seems so hard for HCPs to understand.
It is almost as though the doctor is trying to force you into poor results so you have to rely on extra insulin - which will need to be massive doses as you will be so insulin resistant having been eating high carb foods.
It is just not logical.
 
I agree with @Guzzler . The food with the lowest insulin response (zero) is butter. Your doctor needs to check his facts.

The DASH diet is for reducing high blood pressure. It is not for reducing high blood sugars. You only need look at the recommendations for fruit intake.
 
Dont know about DASH vs keto but DASH is usually reccomended for hypertension rather than diabetes, although both issues are frequently present together with T2
 
Thanks everyone! This forum is awesome! I'm realizing I need a community to help manage this disease. Please keep the comments, thoughts, and words of encouragement coming!

Interesting comment about body fat (not ingested fat) triggering insulin.

Overall I think it's pretty ironic that my doctor was pressuring me into going on insulin a month ago, and now he's warning me against LCHF because he thinks it will increase my insulin levels.
 

Ask as many questions as you like and have a wander around the forum.

Doctors get very little training in nutrition (it can be equated as a matter of hours).
 
That argument has been promoted by various vegan doctors. It may be that your doctor is vegan so is happy to promote an unproven hypothesis. It may of course be that they have been taken in by the propaganda that promotes these ideas.
I'm a very well controlled Type 2 who follows a keto way of eating (and who loves bacon).
 
superdave220 said:
Overall I think it's pretty ironic that my doctor was pressuring me into going on insulin a month ago, and now he's warning me against LCHF because he thinks it will increase my insulin levels.
Click to expand...

Exactly! In any event, how does he know your pancreas isn't producing enough insulin of its own? I doubt he did the relevant tests for this, so he needs to retire. (before he kills someone)
 
superdave220 said:
Frankly, I’m flabbergasted. This is the same advice I got when I was first diagnosed with diabetes 20 years ago.
Click to expand...
Poor boy. Normally we all look at the Doc as to god - he saves our life. But as you can see (and measure for yourself) this is not the case with diabetes. It is like some bad magic - plain logic is in denial. How you can problem of carbs metabolism cure by adding more carbs to your diet? Your body cannot handle carbs - so the cure is to remove carbs from your diet - plain and simple and logical.
 
I've noticed there is a little war between vegan and keto folks. I'm not sure if that's what's happening here. I do think there is a lot of misinformation out there about how carbs affect Type 2s. Inspiring to hear you are controlling your Type 2 well with keto. I'm giving it go!
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Exactly! In any event, how does he know your pancreas isn't producing enough insulin of its own? I doubt he did the relevant tests for this, so he needs to retire. (before he kills someone)
Click to expand...
I went back to my medical records after reading this post. You're right that they never tested for insulin. Sounds like a no-brainer that they would test for this in Type 2s. I'm going to ask my doctor if he can track this along with my A1c.
 
When I was first diagnosed 20 years ago my doctor told me I got it through a mix of genetic and environmental factors. I laughed, "That just about covers everything then huh?" He laughed (nervously) too. I knew it right then. He had no idea how this disease works.
 
Probably more an ideological schism than a war and there are some ketogenic WFPB eaters but I think it is quite a hard road to trek down. The problem has mainly been a few main US based Doctors who have decided that WFPB eating is the way to go and cherry pick studies (and on occasion just blatantly lie) to support their theories.
 
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