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Fergus - Sweet magazine article

IanD

IanD

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,429
Location
Peterchurch, Hereford
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
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Carbohydrates
3½ years ago Fergus contributed a number of posts relating to low carb diets, & in his case for the control of type 1.

I'm reposting scans of his article in Sweet magazine. You should be able to enlarge & read them - I had to reduce them to fit the forum, but I could send the actual scans by email.

If you are still around, Fergus, we'd love to hear from you. I'm a T2, but you restored my active life & reversed my symptoms.
 

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My letter to Sweet:


Fergus Craig & his Reduced Carbohydrate Diet
My Experience

I am 69, type 2 for 8 years, controlled by diet & Metformin.

I was please to read Fergus' success story, as I have got to know him through the Internet forum where he is a moderator: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-forum/

I was however surprised & disappointed to read the comment by Azmina Govindji who in effect said, “Don't try this at home.” There is obviously a concern that increasing proteins (as in the “Atkins” diet) to compensate for a carbohydrate reduction could cause long term health problems, but that is not what we are talking about.

In my experience, this diet change has resulted in a very rapid improvement in general health & reversal of diabetic complications that were ruining my life. I strongly recommend that it is given professional consideration. “Sweet Magazine” could usefully organise a readership trial to get very wide experience.

I joined the forum in April this year, when I began to experience intense muscle pain that threatened my mobility & even my driving. I felt that my active life was over, especially as I have been playing tennis at club standard. The pain was particularly intense when I was getting out of bed. My doctor prescribed quinine for cramp, but this had no effect. I think he hoped it wasn't diabetic neuropathy & would go away. I also had the beginning of retinopathy.

I needed to do something, or accept that the progressive nature of diabetes was taking its toll. The doctor considered that my diabetes was adequately controlled with HbA1c of 6.7. My diet was then the recommended low GI, complex carbohydrate diet as recommended by the NHS & Diabetes UK. My wife, as a heart patient, was recommended to follow the same diet.

In May I started a reduction in my carbohydrate consumption, simply reducing them to a small portion – about 1/3 of my previous amount, while increasing my vegetable consumption & to a lesser extent, protein. I ceased to have a supper cereal (Weetabix or Shredded Wheat.) I eat nuts & cheese as snacks.

Immediately my overnight fasting sugars dropped from around 6.7 to around 5.7, my muscle pain started to improve & my weight began to drop. In three months I was fully active again. The pain has gone & my tennis is up to the standard of much younger players, though I won't reach Chris Hooshyar's standard. Driving now presents no problems.

Over those three months, my weight dropped from 13 st to 12 st, my chronic tiredness greatly reduced. Blood tests in August showed a reduction in cholesterol from 5.4 in January to 4.3 & improvements in the lipids profile. My cholesterol at diagnosis was 7.6, so diet alone has reduced the total by 40%. Surprisingly the HBA stayed at 6.8, but that may be early days, with my body using the lost weight to replenish the blood cells. My blood pressure dropped from 135/75 to 125/75. I take no medication for cholesterol nor blood pressure. I have reduced the metformin from 3x500 to 2.

There is an internet forum where this is discussed & both scientific considerations & experience are reported. Health professionals make their contributions. There is wide agreement on the forum that the standard advice from Diabetes UK & the NHS is in fact wrong in recommending a diet based on complex carbohydrates. This is proved by experience & regular measurements.
 
Ah, it was all going so well until I read the dietician's comments at the end - starchy carbs this, low fat that...did she actually read Fergus's story at all?
She's basically just poo-poo'd the whole thing and stuck to standard NHS advice. And telling poeple to consult their doctors before taking this kind of approach....that's what's got most of us in a mess in the first place!
I'm actually quite angry that she was banging on about having complex carbs such as cereal for breakfast - if I do that I'll be above 10 after brekkie. I don't know how they can talk about having a carb based diet and losing weight in the same breath - lots of insulin leads to weight gain, duh! Although I can inject to cover such a breakfast, I find I don't need to inject at all if I stick to an egg/meat/cheese based breakfast. Plus bacon and eggs is so much more yummy!
 
Didn't we build a wall to keep his sort out? :twisted:

You need to bear in mind that this article is from back in the days when suggesting eggs for breakfast was considered blasphemy. And suggesting a spot of cream in scrambled egg was held akin to setting fire to the pope's favorite hat - while the pope was still wearing it.
 
Cream in scrambled eggs - how I love thee.

My all time favourite breakfast (Saturday morning treat) is Scramled Duck eggs w/cream, and Oyster Mushrooms fried in butter, vane side down until crispy.

Heaven.
 
Azmina Govindji has a glorious record of stomping on low-carbing. From Head of Nutrition at DUK, to Editor of Sweet Magazine, to Media Spokesperson for the British Dietic Association, to co-author of Anthony Worral Thompson's stupid Diabetic Cook Book, she certainly made a buck or two out of our plight.
 
borofergie said:
Azmina Govindji has a glorious record of stomping on low-carbing. From Head of Nutrition at DUK, to Editor of Sweet Magazine, to Media Spokesperson for the British Dietic Association, to co-author of Anthony Worral Thompson's stupid Diabetic Cook Book, she certainly made a buck or two out of our plight.
Click to expand...

Know your enemy.
 
Thanks for this, it is certianly a very interesting story. I still don't see how low carb can help but for some people it is obvioulsy a better option than their previous diets. I don't want to be flamed but i do think that a lot of the time people who start Low carb diets will also at the same time increase their exercise and watch what they eat more. So the benefits of this get wrapped up in the low carb sucess story. OK i am sure many of you will testify to it's effectiveness and i would say whatever works for you but i am finding that a high veg/fruit diet with high fibre, low fat, 45g max protein and complex carbohydrates the best way.
 
borofergie said:
Azmina Govindji has a glorious record of stomping on low-carbing. From Head of Nutrition at DUK, to Editor of Sweet Magazine, to Media Spokesperson for the British Dietic Association, to co-author of Anthony Worral Thompson's stupid Diabetic Cook Book, she certainly made a buck or two out of our plight.
Click to expand...

Well to be fair low carbing will always be associated with a fat man who died of a heart attack. In short it isn't the best add for the diet.

Now i know i will get flamed for that but if you read Stephen Walsh's "Plant Based Nutrition" you'll see scientific evidence that high protein and high fat just aren't good for you. In fact it has been shown that Osteoperosis for example is a condition more of too much protein rather than too little calcium.

The fact that some of you do so well on low carb diets is obviously testament to its sucess for you but i do think you need to recognise that it does go against the scientific evidence available and for most of us that is the most important thing.

Good luck to you all however, we are all in the same boat afterall!
 
The fact that some of you do so well on low carb diets is obviously testament to its sucess for you but i do think you need to recognise that it does go against the scientific evidence available and for most of us that is the most important thing.
Click to expand...

There have been a number of studies that have shown significant health benefits of low carb diets -such as lowering HbA1c, triglycerides and blood pressure.

When a low carb diet contains plenty of vegetables and a minimum of processed foods, I think it is a lot more healthy than the diet of the average British citizen.

Benedict
 
Thanks for your comments, Klang. I write as a T2, so obviously have no direct experience of T1.

Since starting this, I note Benedict's post & fully agree. My first change of diet was to reduce carbs & increase veg.

I was playing tennis several times a week, until neuropathy set in, over a short period, which meant that exercise was impossible. Gym classes (heart rehab) were also near impossible & I sat out sometimes. Fergus convinced me that I should try low carb, & that change of diet restored my active life. It took aboult 7 1/2 years with the DUK/NHS high carb diet to become debilitated, & 3 months low carb to be restored to health. 4 1/2 years on I am still well, active & free from comlpications. I am about to go out & play tennis under flood lights.

I am a professional scientist (retired) & have read many papers on diet, some of which I have critiqued on this forum. In particular, the Position statements - Low-carbohydrate diets for people with Type 2 diabetes (Mar 2011) & a number of its references.

Also Evidence-based nutrition guidelines for the prevention and management of diabetes (May 2011).

On a forum like this, we can only discuss our own experience & point to on line studies. In my case & Fergus' low carb has been highly beneficial. We did find that diabetes was progressive until we changed diet to low carb. I cannot prescribe but I can suggest you eat to your meter & look for results both with BG readings in the short term, & HbA1c & improved health in the longer term.
 
benedict said:
When a low carb diet contains plenty of vegetables and a minimum of processed foods, I think it is a lot more healthy than the diet of the average British citizen.

Benedict
Click to expand...

Yes i agree with you there. I get people lecturing me all the time about how my vegan wholefood diet can't be good for me when their very average processed food diet must be. I don't get how having many more than 5 a day of fruit and veg can ever be seen as unhealthy but fine, i guess some people think a Big Mac is nutritious!

I guess i am quite ignorant of the low carb diet but i can see how for a T2 it could work well. For me i am extremely healthy, active and take in a lot of veggies and fruit and complex carbs all covered by an appropriate bolus so low carb would be pointless for me. However i can see from Ian's comments (thanks for these) that it has worked very well for you and i wish you the very best with it and congrats of course.

I guess there is no one size fits all but all i would stress is that any diet type done badly is a bad diet and that goes for low carb, vegan, high carb or any other diet.
 
benedict said:
There have been a number of studies that have shown significant health benefits of low carb diets -such as lowering HbA1c, triglycerides and blood pressure.

Benedict
Click to expand...

I haven't seen any such studies but i am not doubting you. I have seen plenty of studies to suggest that protein is not healthy in large amounts (over 50g a day) and that is where my confusion about LC comes from as i see a lot of people having a very protein rich diet.

if LC can be done without really high protein and still get fibre then i am sure it can be healthy, it is my lack of knowledge of LC that stops me from seeing if this can be done.

On a side note i do think that meat and diary is not ethical for animal welfare, environment and indeed people reasons but i guess that is another story and not necessarily directly oppossed to LC :)
 
Studies -please note I am deliberately cherry picking studies just to highlight one side of things and would say it's best for others to check out both sides of the spectrum -and always be aware of how the studies have been designed and the methods used before drawing conclusions.

Comparison of low fat diet with low carb diet (2003)
79 participants selected as being 'severely obese' (mean BMI of 43)
6 month study
Low carb diet resulted in improved weight loss, triglyceride levels and insulin sensitivity
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa022637

Low carb as an intervention diet (2008)
16 intervention participants, 15 control participants, all participants selected as being obese and having type 2 diabetes
22 month study -follow up after 44 months
Significant improvement in HbA1c levels (8.0% at start, 6.1% at 6 months, 7.0% at 12 months, 6.9% after 22 months, 6.8% after 44 months), some participants also came off or reduced medication during the study
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/5/1/14

Low carb, Ketogenic diet vs low fat diet (2004)
120 participants
24 weeks study
Improved weight loss, triglyceride levels and HDL ('good cholesterol') on low carb, keto diet
http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=717451

Low carb diet as intervention in type 1 diabetes (2012)
48 participants
4 year study
Lasting improvement in HbA1c in those that adhered to the low carb diet (7.7% at start, 6.4% after 4 years)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22650646

People on low carb diets will often significantly increased their intake of fat -particularly saturated fat. In the studies above, the participants will have significantly increased their fat intake to compensate for the lowering of daily carbohydrate intake.

When considering potential dangers of protein, it's useful to look at whether it's protein from a processed or unprocessed meat source. The increased risks of type 2 diabetes, cancers and heart disease associated with red meat, for example, are much higher for processed meats than for unprocessed meats.

Also worth noting that some studies (eg Harvard) have included some processed meats (eg hamburgers) as unprocessed meats which arguably unfairly raises the risks associated with unprocessed red meat. Don't ask me why Harvard chose to do this.

It would be interesting to see some of the studies mentioned in Stephen Walsh's 'Plant Based Nutrition' book.

I commend your personal reasons for not wanting to have too much protein for animal welfare reasons.

Benedict
 
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