NoCrbs4Me
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- Type of diabetes
- I reversed my Type 2
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Thanks for your imput Paulus 1
There seems to be a wide-spread bias in this Forum in favour a low carbs diet to control glycemia . You go as low as recommending 50-70 g /day!
I don’t know on which medical grounds people can make this recommendation, unless they are prompted by an unbounded faith in hear-say and popular wisdom and a corresponding wide-sweeping mistrust in the medical establishment , which indeed warns against an indiscriminate low CHO diet..
I am sure some will say “ Well , it works for me..”.
I’ll only say that even if glycemia were to improve with a low CHO diet in one or more individuals, it is difficult to establish a an uncontrovertible causality link, because there are too many complex variables of which the layman, as compared to health professional, may not be aware..
First, according to Diabetes Canada, formerly the Canadian Diabetes Association,(http://guidelines.diabetes.ca/fullguidelines/chapter11#sec1 , the current recommended minimum intake for CHO is not less than 130 g/day, to provide glucose to the brain, a far cry from 50-70 g/day !
This can be outright dangerous ,as according to D.C. , the long-term sustainability and safety of CHO-restricted diets (mean CHO from 4% to 45% of total energy per day) may not ensure sufficient vitamin, mineral and fibre intake. While these low CHO diets may improve A1C and triglycerides (TG), they do not improve total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) or body weight compared with higher-CHO diets over the short term.
D.C. recommend that the percentage of total daily energy from CHO should be no less than 45% to prevent high intakes of fat, which are associated with higher risk of chronic disease for adults and I see no reason to question their opinion.
Secondly, speaking of “low” CHO ( and 50-70 g /day at that!) without further qualification is problematic , without considering the glycemic index ( G.I.) of the carbs.
According to D.C, the key point is not an indiscriminate reduction of CHO, with the risk of going below the safe limit, or replacing them with other energy sources ( fats and proteins) which can be just as dangerous if taken in higher quantities, but to exchange high-GI CHO foods with low-GI CHO foods.
You can go to the D.C. website to read more extensively. I will only quote an excerpt from their recommendations:
QUOTE Meta-analyses of controlled feeding trials of interventions replacing high-GI CHOs with low-GI CHOs in mixed meals have shown clinically significant improvements in glycemic control over 2 weeks to 6 months in people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes .
This dietary strategy also leads to improvements in cardiovascular risk factors, such as TC, over 2 to 24 weeks improvements in postprandial glycemia and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) over 1 year (40) in people with type 2 diabetes, and reduces the number of hypoglycemic events over 24 to 52 weeks in adults and children with type 1 diabetes.
Dietary advice to consume a low-GI diet was shown to sustain improvements in glycemic control and HDL-C compared with a high cereal fibre diet over 6 months , and to improve beta-cell function compared with a low-CHO, high monounsaturated fat diet over 1 year (42) in people with type 2 diabetes.UNQUOTE
So the key point is not to drastically decrease the daily quantity of CHO intake in absolute terms, but to exchange high-GI CHO foods with low–GI ones.
Ittiandro
I'm in Canada as well. After I was diagnosed I met with a nurse specializing in diabetes care. She told me to follow the Canada Food guide (i.e. high carb/low fat) and exercise at least 150 minutes a week. She looked me in the eye and informed that if I follow this advice, my glycemic control will slowly deteriorate over time, I'll be be prescribed increasingly powerful diabetic meds until eventually I'll be put on insulin, then I'll likely die from diabetic complications. They know this will happen because that's what happens to every type 2 diabetic patient who follows their advice. Great advice!!
I decided to ignore her advice and now, 4 years later, I am on no meds and my blood glucose levels are normal. I no longer require expenditure of tax money on my diabetes. They can use the money on other people. And I'm as healthy as I've ever been in my life.
Although I consume much less than 130 g of carbs per day (probably around 10g from eggs and milk), I can assure you that my brain function is quite excellent. I have a highly technical career and have not been fired yet. I even got a raise last year. Why does Diabetes Canada believe we need to consume 130 g of carbs a day for proper brain function? I really don't know but they are patently incorrect.
Your blood glucose levels are worryingly high. Mine are normal. With all due respect I will not be following your advice.
I urge you to reconsider your approach. Do not be afraid to reduce your carb intake. Perhaps it will work for you as well.
You should ask yourself: "why do so many people on this forum favour a low carb diet?" Also do a little research on clinical studies of low carb diets with respect to type 2 diabetes. There is plenty of scientific evidence supporting what to me is quite obvious: type 2 is a disease where the principal manifestation is an inability to process carbohydrates properly and reducing carb intake is the principal way to treat it.