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Low carb diet and Type 1 Diabetes

Hya,
im type 1 and im low carb but not in the sense of doing it on purpose,i have never eaten loads of carbs so just eat healthily which does tend to be under 100 gms a day some days a lot less, this seems to work for me
 
Diabolical I could but I think I gonna let it run :lol:

As all insulin users will know that there is some form of restriction of carbs... How this is arranged with depend on the regime being used....

The insulin user will need to take some factors in concideration before making major changes to there eating habbits....

First is the regime that you are on... Does it lend itself to reducing carbs? Premixed insulin regimes will need consultation with your HP to achive a safe reduction of carbs and insulin ratio's

Do you understand the different carbs and how they should asorb in the body
Do you understand the relationship between carbs and insulin?
Do you understand other factors that might effect your control i.e stress, physical activity etc

These are the main points that you really need to understand before making reduction or drastic reduction of carbs so that you do not put yourself in to a position of causing a nasty hypo...

But once you get your head around all this, you can then proceed with caution to the changes that you want to make...

I don't follow a low carb diet, I lay around the 80g-100g of carbs a day on adverage... But I do eat all types of foods.... Just not large amounts of any one item...
 
Low GI is better I think. I can't be bothered with all the math regarding grammes of carbs. However I've never been told about it by my DN or anyone so it might be a lot easier than I think. However the low GI doesn't always mean lower carbs... just a slower release of glucose into the body thus achieving more regulated BS levels.
 
My own experience has been that a low carb lifestyle has been my salvation.
I eat around 30g carbs per day, sometimes less, and that has allowed me to use very small insulin doses. Yada yada, you've heard all this before, I know.
The point is it has got me a non-diabetic HbA1c, the weight of my teenage years, no complications and no hypos (well much much fewer anyway).
I can't think of a situation where it wouldn't benefit everyone to be honest and I imagine that once the health professionals eventually take their heads out of the sand it will be recommended to everyone. Just as it was before the current dietary advice was cobbled together.

All the best,

fergus
 
Unfortunately Fergus

The ultra low carb diet has not been used in the UK for long enough yet to form an accurate opinion of whether it will keep diabetics healthy and free of complications long term. Like most things in life, you win way but lose on the other.

I have always kept to the golden rule of feeding my insulin some food (carb included) every 2-3 hours which was the advice given out in the 60's when I became type 1. I have never gone along with eat what you want, when you want. I make sure that I bolus fasting acting insulin every 5 hours during the daytime so that I always have insulin working for me along with the effect of the basal.

Like Jo, I eat some meals low carb when I want to at home, but other meals are higher if I go out to friends etc.

Like yourself, I have fairly good health and continue to enjoy life :mrgreen:
 
Hi iHs, I'm glad to hear you're healthy and happy.

The problem with waiting for definitive proof of what constitutes the most healthy diet is that none of us have that long to wait! The current approach to healthy diet advice is really only based upon hypotheses which themselves seem extremely resistant to proof by clinical trials.

I doubt there will ever be convincing evidence emerging from clinical trials because there are simply too many variables involved for clear unambiguous conclusions to be drawn. If, for example, you reduce saturated fat in your diet, you have to replace it with something else of equal calories to judge any effect. But is the effect down to less saturated fat, or more of the replacement?

Anthroplogical studies do consistently show an absense of diabetes, heart disease and obesity in populations eating a primitive diet without refined sugars and starches and I think that is pretty powerful evidence of the influence of such carbs on health.

Such evidence as there is on this and other fora do seem to consistently show significant improvements in all measureable criteria with sufficient carb restriction. It's been true for me and ultimately that's really the only evidence I need to see. If all risk factors are reduced, I can't think what other evidence I would need.

But, as ever, the decision on what is right or wrong will always be down to the individual.

Continued health and happiness to you and yours,

fergus
 
I am on pre-mix insulin. Didn't ask DSN about low carb and adjusting insulin, just did it myself although I was very careful about it and tested 10 times per day (still do) it's the only way to safely run BS in the 4's without coming to grief on pre-mix. I now have an excellent idea of what foods will do what to my bs levels. Haven't had a hypo at all for many many weeks. Since low carbing I now feel "normal" again.

Caitycakes x
 
Whether you low carb or not, you still need to know how the foods affect your blood sugars...

Low carb may help your HbA1c to be in the non-diabetic range... but i've had my fair share of HbA1c's in the non-diabetic range as well and i personally am not a low carber... i typically take about 250-300 carbs a day... this isn't specifically to *avoid* a low carb diet... i just eat the foods i enjoy which tend to be carby... pasta and potato mostly!

I do still eat a lot of veg and fruit as well so the my diet is also pretty well balanced... perhaps that helps!?

Im all for people trying low carb if it works for them, but typically i tend to avoid this subject because it tends to get heated!

I would try low carb... but i think i would miss my favorite foods too much, and i know that i can acheive good A1c's without the low carb thang.
 
I'm with StuBoy on this one.
However, there's an article in todays Daily Mail regarding Eddy Shah (he of the Today newspaper). Eddie is a type 2 diabetic, who when he hit 19st, went on the Atkins diet. All well and good until he developed a severe case of Gout. What I'm trying to say is low carb may be very good for diabetes, but the body is very complex, and what is good for one condition may start various others.
I personally would be very sceptical about the whole 'low carb' argument, but like politics and religion, I try not to get embroiled in arguments.
There is a specific forum dedicated to low carb, which is where I feel it should be kept (I'll probably get shot down in flames for that one).
 
Low carb for a diabetic is not the same as the Atkins diet!For one thing most of us eat lots of veg which.IIRC is not in the Atkins diet.We also eat some carbs not no carbs .However everyone is different and if you are predisposed to gout then probably not a good thing.
 
Sue,
Using the Atkins diet was an analogy, you missed my point. What I'm trying to say is what works for Diabetes may (and ONLY may) have a knock on effect for other disorders, whether metabolic or otherwise.
 
uh oh it's happening again!!! lol

Note to self... do not get involved in politics, religion or LOW CARB discussions lol
 
Well ,I can only speak from my own perspective.Since low carbing i have lost 2st 10lbs.Today i had to walk home because I couldn't get a taxi and i had quite a lot to carry.I managed to walk up a fairly steep hill without getting breathless and having to stop like I usually do.My BS level usually stays in the 5's unless I do eat more carbs than I usually do but even then it is never over 7.That to me is a result which I am happy with.If I can pass on the info and someone else can benefit from it all well and good.however ,as you said ,it does not suit everyone.But restricting the amount of carbs is something all diabetics need to do,whether that is low(<50) or 150 is up to them.
 
Oh, here we go again....
Listen guys, however anyone gets their non-diabetic blood sugars is entirely up to them. If that means playin' the ukele on a monocycle in a bobble hat, then go for it.
The simple truth is that the vast majority of diabetics have seriously high blood sugars most of the time and the only way to reliably reduce them without excessive medication is to reduce their carb intake. By however much is necessary.
However scarey that prospect might seem, the alternative is infinitely scarier.
I can well understand why people might rather not hear it but the fact is that there are more people every day who would benefit hugely from some uncomfortable truths.
I do start to lose the will to live when I hear it suggested that lowering carb intake somehow heightens the risk of all kinds of other disorders. We've had warnings of scurvey and all sorts and quite frankly these are stories that even the old wives have tired of by now.
Good health and happiness to you all,

fergus
 
Posted a long post here and then for some reason it disappeared!!

Anyway, fergus, I'd be interested to hear how long you have been on low carbohydrate diet, and how you first learnt about it. This has probably been discussed elsewhere but I'd also like to hear what you eat on a typical day...I am going to have to do a lot of research on this before I know whether it is going to be suitable for me. I do suffer from certain problems (some of them not related to diabetes) and if I can make myself feel better by changing my diet then I will, and won't look back.
 
You can read Fergus' article here
 
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