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Healthy eating

Niamh1

Well-Known Member
Messages
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What kind of food does everyone eat. I am confused i tend to eat whatever i want and carb count for the foods that i eat but but my sugars levels have not been that great. diagnosed with type 1 fo a year and a half . i have been told to eat a low carb diet. i don't have any discipline. any help would be great
 
With Type 1, there is no reason why your diet should be any different to someone without diabetes. The challenge is not with diet but in getting your insulin dose and timing correct.
Some people find a lower carb diet is easier for insulin dosing but take care. Very low carb diet means you will need to dose insulin for protein which can be more complex than carbs.
 
Your title is "Healthy Eating", hence why I feel it is ok to have a view. I am Type 2 but food ultimately affects us all in general in similar ways. If you eat in a manner that non-diabetics eat you are likely to get the results they get, both physically and mentally; at this stage using America as a proxy, most of the non diabetics are metabolically sick.

I eat meat / fish everyday, dairy, berries, nuts and low carb vegetables. This is essentially the Dr Richard Bernstein method many Type 1's use; in a trial they (Type 1 Grit) averaged out at HbA1c's of 5.7% with flat glucose graphs. Alternative ways of eating by recent posts on this forum endorse spikes above 9 mmol, covered by insulin and variances in glucose up to 4 mmol - it is my view this is not healthy.

Dr Ian Lake, Dr Troy Stapleton Dr Keith Runyan, Dr Sheila Cook, Dr Jake Kushner, Andrew Koutinik, , Jessica Turton (dietician), RD Dikeman (Phd) all provide real world accounts of the low carb / keto method of eating as applicable to Type 1's (and which in my view can "work" for anyone). David Dikeman is a young man who presents a compelling anecdote for this way of eating.
 
Hello @Niamh1 To be honest it's about your body and what works for your control, we can eat carbs but we need to balance the right insulin with it to make sure our bodies can manage the glucose.

Personally I avoid carbs like the plague for breakfast as experience has taught me that I cannot manage with the high numbers that can last till lunch, so it's low carb with livilife bread or greek yoghurt and blueberries for breakfast so i don't spike above 10, then apple/almonds to snack on, soup for lunch and low carb evening meal so salads, omelette, green veges etc, I do this as I prefer to keep my numbers in check, I can tolerate carbs mid afternoon as racing about from work to shops to school and this is where I more than likely to run low so will have a bag of crisps. All this being said if we do have pizza for tea then i will split my bolus and eat it, but only 2-3 slices rather than a whole one as I know more than that will throw me sideways, so I certainly don't restrict myself and more so when eating out, I always have what I fancy, however would certainly consider myself to be a healthy eater now vs when I was non diabetic as I didn't have a clue about food then, and now I know what my body needs, carbs and nutrient wise.

That's why it's finding a balance that works for you, knowing your body and what your daily readings look like, when to eat carbs, when to avoid and how to bolus correctly for them, if you need help with carbs then the 'carbs and cals' app is useful as a guide.
 
I think that a year plus in, you're following the usually scanty advice given and wondering why it is so hard to get good blood sugars.
Why not experiment a little? I assume you have a freestyle libre and can therefore see how your body reacts to different combos of carbs, proteins and fats e.g. some meals have same carb count but will cause a steeper rise in your blood sugar or a slower rise that goes on for longer (the latter is the pizza effect).
My own personal solution is to go for a max of 30g carb per meal which means I focus on meat, fish, eggs, dairy and nuts more. I am happy with that because I do not worry about my cholesterol and these foods are nutrient rich. You may have different views or not want to give up bread/pasta/rice etc.
My exception to this rule , which generally gives me a much flatter line of blood sugars, is chocolate. I don't want to give it up but have accepted that if I doo eat it my sugars will rise steeply and there's not much I can do to get ahead of the curve. So that's a Friday treat for me. But then the next day I might skip breakfast or have zero carbs plus a long walk.
This is for life so you've got to decide what you personally are willing to do both to enjoy your food life whilst avoiding complications or feeling rubbish because you are going on a blood glucose rollercoaster! Once your basal dose is fine btw it becomes a lot easier to sort out a bolus or mealtime strategy.
 
Although some T1s can have any amount of carbs and insulin for them, I'm one of those who can't. If I have too many carbs my BS will sky-rocket so I do need to keep them under some control. You need to reduce your carbs until you find an acceptable level. The lower the carbs and the lower the insulin you will have fewer spikes.
 
The lower the carbs and the lower the insulin you will have fewer spikes.
Until you reach the point when your body is not getting the glucose it needs from the carb and breaks down the protein. Then, if you only bolus for carbs, you get a spike from the protein and have to start working out how (and when) your body reacts to protein.
 
What kind of food does everyone eat. I am confused i tend to eat whatever i want and carb count for the foods that i eat but but my sugars levels have not been that great. diagnosed with type 1 fo a year and a half . i have been told to eat a low carb diet. i don't have any discipline. any help would be great
 
Confused for me is an understatement I never know to eat, I mainly eat the food they tell you to eat but doesn’t control my BS that well I’m fed up with it all, and fed with experts.
 
Although some T1s can have any amount of carbs and insulin for them, I'm one of those who can't. If I have too many carbs my BS will sky-rocket so I do need to keep them under some control. You need to reduce your carbs until you find an acceptable level. The lower the carbs and the lower the insulin you will have fewer spikes.
I can't either. Plus if I exercise a few hours after eating I drop like a stone if I've got insulin on board. I'm not too bad with carbs for breakfast but lunch needs to be low carb
 
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