@tatterzombie It is said that the best diet is the one you can stick to
So @tim2000s asked if I could make a topic discussing a high carb low fat diet for diabetes type 2 control.
A disclaimer up front: I am extremely bad at dieting.. Most of the time I can't keep dieting for longer than a month or two.. I have been overweight/obese for all my life so I have tried all kinds of diets calorie counting.. low carb.. low gi.. weight watchers.. At some point I always need that forbidden stuff and then I think oh f*** it and forget about the diet..
Right now I am 1.5 weeks into the Newcastle diet and doing really fine (doing a vegan version with ~100 gr carbs, ~80 gr protein, ~8 gr fat a day)
Now that this is out of the way..
I was diagnosed with diabetes September 2014 when my fasting blood glucose was 150 mg/dl (8.3 mmol/l). Doc had me repeat the test, I wanted to cheat and restricted my carbs the day before and the result was 130 mg/dl (7.2 mmol/l). I didn't do a ha1c test as at the time I was kind of low on iron (due to 3 months of bleeding) and according to him this would flaw the test. I was to take 1 Metformin pill a day (850 mg) and eat low carb and low fat..
On this 1 pill "normal" vegan way of eating I could eat 150 carbs a day and my fbg remained under 100 mg/dl (5.6 mmol/l)
Enter a few months later the low fat high carb diet (yes, I am finally writing about the stuff you were actually here to read)..
I went heavy on the carbs, a lot of them coming from fruit, no oil.. (300- 400 gr carbs a day)
FBG went higher in the beginning of this, I suppose I just shocked myself with so many carbs.. but they came down to under 100 mg/dl (5.6 mmol/dl) after two weeks. Unfortunately I cannot find my diary from this time right now. I suppose it would be much better to start slower with the carb introduction..
Three months later I had my hemoglobin a1c done still on 1 pill a day it was 5.3 (I think the units were mmol/l) which was well in the normal range.
In conclusion:
FBG fall way faster than the weight does on this way of eating..
You cannot immediately start eating 20 bananas a day or 1 kg of rice (if that is what you fancy). This makes sense because according to the theory of the doctors who support this, diabetes type 2 is caused because insulin cannot do its work due to excess fat in the blood and around muscle cells. So it takes some time till no more fat from your food will lead to less fat in the blood stream..
Fat intake has to be really really low.. not the 30% fat low but the 10% fat low..
In the end, if you follow Dr Barnards suggestions for treating, "curing", diabetes type 2 this is still a form of calorie restriction through eating whole plant foods and almost no fat.. It makes eating too much almost impossible..
But as I said before.. fbg and post meal blood glucose readings normalize themselves way faster than the weight you drop might explain..
As for me.. soon after that a1c test I stopped the metformin and everything remained well.. till I got into my "stupid diabetes I will act as if you don't exist" phase and ate higher fat foods.. Still with all this I managed to keep my fbg in the prediabetic range for the past year on no pill, lot's of carbs and occasional binges on cookies, nuts and crisps..
Yes I am in no way somebody whose example you should follow..
Anyway, if you can take advice from somebody as flawed as I am.. and especially if you are vegan or thinking about it. Give it a try, high carb low fat is much nicer than having to think about whether you can fit one more cucumber into your carb allowance for the day.. (at least in my opinion)
@tatterzombie
Thank you for an alternative view on LCHF - at last!
Does this mean there is possible credence in the NHS mantra of 'lose and maintain a good weight, eat a very healthy diet' .... Which does include a 'balanced' eat well plate????
Does this also mean that that HCPs do actually have some knowledge of what they are talking about - perhaps contrary to some views held in here?
Retreating to my trench, donning the body armour and await the 'incoming'!
See the Blogs section? Later - sorry, I see this has already been suggested.Is there a place on this forum where one could keep a kind of diary about their progress?
Enter a few months later the low fat high carb diet (yes, I am finally writing about the stuff you were actually here to read)..
I went heavy on the carbs, a lot of them coming from fruit, no oil.. (300- 400 gr carbs a day)
FBG went higher in the beginning of this, I suppose I just shocked myself with so many carbs.. but they came down to under 100 mg/dl (5.6 mmol/dl) after two weeks. Unfortunately I cannot find my diary from this time right now. I suppose it would be much better to start slower with the carb introduction..
Three months later I had my hemoglobin a1c done still on 1 pill a day it was 5.3 (I think the units were mmol/l) which was well in the normal range.
I found this when I was trying to see how the claims for the Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) diet might work. and I too found no scientific evidence to back up their claims. I do believe that there were studies done recently on the Mediterranean diet, which is not a ketogenic diet and relatively high carbs. That one does seem to suit some diabetics quite well, but I think it atill needs to be meat / fish based, not pasta based. The Med diet is an improvement on Eatwell, and better than nothing, but I don't think I would benefit from it myself.Say what you will about LCHF enthusiasts, there are a lot of them, and they are always ready with evidence, anecdotes or data. I was looking forward, genuinely, to reading some valid testimonials from the high-carb alternative diets: it all just seems to have dissipated into the ether. Does the silence mean these diets didn't work, or what?
I use Low GI principles in my diet, but although it flattens the sugar spike a bit by delaying digestion, nonetheless the total glucose created remains the same and actually prolongs the high sugar level for longer since the delayed glucose misses out on the initial insulin rush that should get generated i,e, the Amylase buzz triggered by saliva when you start to eat a meal, not when it finishes.Low GI/ low GL didn't work for me.
After a few days of HCLF I decided it wasn't for me, at least not for now. It's just so hard to get the amount of fat right. I suspect the actual amount required differs from person to person. Maybe one day, but no in the foreseeable future.
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