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Keto Diet and no Fast Acting Insulin


Hi
I'm sorry that you have felt accused in other posts I the past. Please understand that if low carb/Keto supporters share their positive experience it does not mean they are accusing other approaches. They are just simply sharing what worked for them and low carb diet is definitely not about cowardice
 

G'day Scott-C,

My apologies if my post came across as over-exuberant.
I'm just taken aback by the speed at which I began to obtain such positive results, the likes of which I've never experienced in over a quarter of a century of living with this **** disease.

I'm really not the type who jumps on the bandwagon or fixates on every new treatment fad.

From your comments, you seem to have achieved a really good level of control using cgm.
I'm not sure of how long you've been diabetic, but did you ever have to survive without a cgm?

I think this is the key point of difference between us.
I would argue that I and, at the moment, the majority of diabetics (of all types) don't use cgm (for various reasons which I won't go into now).

The Law of Small Numbers is all about managing risk and is a conclusion I arrived at myself several years ago (long before I'd ever heard of Dr Bernstein).

If I'm taking 18u to cover a hi-carb meal and I get the carb count 50% wrong (extreme I know, but bear with me) then not being on cgm I'd suffer one of two outcomes:
(a) if I'd consumed 50% more carbs I'd be looking at a period of hours or even days of very high BG which would leave me feeling unwell/tired and having to take extra insulin to try and correct, do extra blood tests on the hour, etc etc
(b) on the other hand, if I'd consumed 50% less carbs....well that there is a guaranteed ride in an ambulance.
Now just to be clear, waking up in the back of an ambulance, for me, is one of the most embarrassing, demeaning and depressing experiences I have ever had the misfortune to endure. Fortunately it's been over a decade since my last one.
But the point is, they represent absolutely bloody 'rock bottom' to me.

Now, if I'm only taking 4u to cover a meal (a small number) and I'm 50% wrong....at worst I'd suffer a mild hypo which I could easily treat myself without anyone noticing.

And that is the basic premise of the book.
There's lot's of other good stuff in it though.

Get it from a library - I challenge you to read it and not find something you didn't know about diabetes.
Knowledge is power and all that!

As I said above, I'm not trying to pontificate. The Bernstein approach just seems to work for me, and may do for others.
But it's not the only approach.

Even though Dr Bernstein has been T1 since childhood, he is now in his eighties and is in surprisingly good health - I hope we all manage that.

All the best,
RBG
 
I'm not sure of how long you've been diabetic, but did you ever have to survive without a cgm?

I've been in the game for thirty years, started out with colour changing strips.

I had a bit of a nostalgia trip a while back back and bought a packet of them off that new internet thingy. I'd forgotten how much blood they need - almost an armful! Puts meters into context - forget about decimal points, just focus on whether that colour is kinda 5 or 6'ish.

Cgm has been a revelation, have probably learned more in the last year than the previous 29! Being able to see a moving target like bg in more or less real time instead of strip snapshots makes it a much fairer game.

I'm glad we can have discussions like this. I think some posters view any sort of disagreement as disrespect. It's not. It's just a difference of opinion.

One of the things which troubles me is that low carbers often assume it's a binary situation: if you're not low carbing, you must be stuffing your face with doughnuts.

Not true. Most of my meals are surprisingly low carb. Baxters do a nice range of soups, Scotch broth, Highlander broth, about 28 g per tin, pad it out with some chestnut mushrooms fried in goat milk butter and rosemary, slice of toast to dip in 15g, a punnet of raspberries, 8g, the whole show is about the 50g mark, which I cover with about 9u.

Yet low carbers will still say, ooh, that's too much, the hunan body can live without carbs, they have no nutrional value.

I would be very cautious about having the 18 u on board which you mention, but 9 u, not a big deal. Carbs do have nutrional value in terms of minerals, vitamins and fibre, yet they are too quickly written off.

Surprisingly, some grains like barley in the broths, and brown rice actually stabilise my levels a lot. Buckwheat too - nice with some lardons of ham, mushrooms and samphire.

Yet some low carbers not only don't eat these things and leave it at that - they demonise them as being some sort of satanic food industry conspiracy.

I'm tired of this site - it seems intent on needlessly steering people into eating disorders and fear of insulin.

I holiday once in a while in Krakow, Poland. One of the most beautiful medieval cities anywhere - a Polish prince married an Italian princess centuries ago, she brought some Italian architects with her and glammed it up a bit. They've got a couple of national dishes. Golonka is a brilliant piece of ham hock, the meat just falls of the bone. That with some coleslaw would suit any low carber. I love it, but it would be plain rude to visit Poland and not try pierogi - think gyoza or tortellini on steroids. Low carbers would have a fit just looking at them, but it is perfectly possible to eat them without difficulty. Not low carbing gives me the flexibility to do that without risk. I just feel that low carbing imposes unneccesary limitations on enjoying the world.
 
@Scott-C . Sadly my friend until the day you get DR before your name and M.D after your name, write a book, attend a conference and do a YouTube presentation, you will always be " just a diabetic."
Fortunately I find advice from you and certain other members on the forum ( we know who they are ) far more apt, constructive and helpful for living with diabetes in the real world.
Unfortunately the direction of the forum recently has seen us lose some truly great members.
For the sake of diabetics out there who want an alternative we have to keep strong.
 
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