Low Carbs versus NHS recommended diet.

Do you test your blood glucose levels? I would go by what your meter tells you. It's your health at stake, not your GP's

I saw a dear friend stick religiously to the NHS guidelines. Her BGs weren't well controlled even though she eventually ended up on insulin. She became just another statistic and lost a leg.

No I'm not following the NHS guidelines.

I was diagnosed on 31st May and given the usual info. sheets about diet. Every failed diet I've ever tried since I was a teenager looked like that. I would spend weeks feeling as if I was starving on restricted calories to lose a few pounds which would all (and more) go straight back on when I returned to anything like a 'normal' calorie intake for my height.

I did a lot of reading around and found this forum and, like you, I am doing a low carb (around 80g per day) and healthy fat diet now. After the first 3 months my HbA1c test came back at 39.

In the six months since diagnosis I have lost weight, I am eating less calories to lose weight because I'm very obese, but the difference this time is that I'm not always feeling as if I'm hungry, I eat three decent meals a day with snacks if I feel I need them. My diabetic nurse now agrees that I'm doing 'something right' and has expressed her delight with my progress.

I bought a meter about 6 weeks after diagnosis despite being told I didn't need to test if I'm a type 2. I feel no angst now about not following the advice on either testing or my diet, but I agree it felt 'difficult' at first. I'm just delighted I've found something that works well for me.

I very much doubt it... in my humble opinion that would be impossible and why so many of us get quite angry at NHS advice.
After my diagnosis (by practise nurse rather than GP) I went to see the GP in charge of diabetes care for the surgery. His ignorance about recent research into ways to treat Type 2 was, to me, completely amazing. Also he apparently had absolutely no interest in educating himself and was not even curious as to how I had brought my blood glucose down. After those 5 minutes I had no worries about completely ignoring his advice and following the way of eating I had been introduced to on this forum. I believe it has saved my eyes and feet. I worked out that diabetes was mine to control and not the doctors.. I would rather take advice from a well controlled Type 2 than someone with "qualifications" obtained 30 yeas ago.
All the best
Mark

I have to stay around 20 grams carb per day to keep my blood sugar under control and often eat even less than that in a day. My A1c has come down from 10.4 to 5.8 in 6 months.

There may be a few people who can control their diabetes with the NHS guidelines. I would suggest though that these people had a really awful diet before and that even the NHS one is a vast improvement for them. Just my thoughts.

I can only get into the lower and about normal level if I restrickt my carb intake to like 80 gram and now I think I'll have to be even more strickt on my proteins as well as my numbers seem to creep upwards

Have a look at this page from Diabetes UK: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-t...ith-diabetes/What-is-a-healthy-balanced-diet/

At least they are honest in saying 'Working in partnership with Tesco'.

Don't forget to try a baked potato with beans .... see how high your meter can go.

The recommended UK diet hadn't worked for me in all the years before diagnosis, where I was overweight to the point of obesity, sitting there thinking it was all my fault.

Turned out it was years of insulin resistance, followed by T2D, that was helping me pile on all that weight. I ignored the standard NHS advice as eating like that had not done me any favours. I found this site and went LCHF. Best decision I made.

After diagnosis I did start with what I was told, low fat and high carb, I was given a meter and told to test. When I went back and said it wasn't working I was told to go low GI, That didn't work for me either. I then went back with my spreadsheet showing that when I had lower carbs for a day my readings were a lot lower. The reply from my GP was "Oh good I'm pleased you found that out" which I took to mean I could could continue.

I think a lot depends on which diabetes meds people are on. The stronger the meds the more carbs they can eat. So then it is a question of which you prefer. More carbs and more meds, or less carbs and less meds. It's a no-brainer for me. I am med free and hope to stay that way for as long as possible, so I eat to my meter, which tells me I need to keep to around 30g carbs a day and which ones I can or can't eat.

Up to last week I followed the NHS Doctor who confirmed my T2 back in March and have lost 40kg.

On joining this forum I've just started BG monitoring and have noticed a few spikes on this method which I'm now reducing by lowering my carbs over the whole day and individually meals.

My point is all diets work differently for every single person, but I focused on ensuring I was always in deficit from calories in to calories out. Find a life style that allows you to maintain a weight and a diet to reduce your weight by over 15%, may be more or less depending on your starting weight/BMI

We all need to work out our personal fat threshold point to reverse this T2 and remain long term below this weight by life style changes. I really recommend that you read Professor Roy Taylor - Newcastle University research as seems to be the UK expert in this field.

These are only my experiences to date with some success , but I'm very new to T2 and I'm sure I'm making a few mistakes

I have a guitar buddy who is T1D and on an insulin pump. He has had a terrible time trying to control his bgl going by NHS advice, amd we have even had him hypo halfway through a song. We have had to pull out of gigs because his bgl was either too high or too low.
Back to Topic. I recently introduced him to LCHF and gave him a copy of my 'rulebook' which he has used. He was reporting needing much less insulin, and was getting stable results at last. However a couple of weeks ago he had his annual checkup wih his consultant who immediately ordered him to stop his nonsense and start eating carbs again. He was recommended to eat a minimum of 250 g of carbs a day, and at least 2000 calories a day. He was told to stop carb counting and go back to bolus by calorie value, else face being dropped by the Consultant and his team.

Since then we have missed 3 rehearsals, and our next gig is this Thursday. He is in a terrible state, but is fearful of having his care being withdrawn, I have pointed out that his Consultant does not need to know how he eats etc, so don't tell him. Do what he now knows works for him. But the seeds of unease have been planted in his mind, and I dread this next gig.

I'm not diabetic so can't speak from that point of view, but I am obese with numbers too close to the prediabetic range for comfort and I find the NHS dietary advice, frankly, bizarre and counter intuitive. Carbs, ALL carbs, turn into glucose in the blood. Why on earth would someone with a metabolic disorder like obesity or diabetes consume them at every meal? Makes zero sense. Keep the little devils to a minimum works for me. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd suspect the cereal and sugar lobbies have far too much influence over the guidelines.

Oldvatr said:

I have a guitar buddy who is T1D and on an insulin pump. He has had a terrible time trying to control his bgl going by NHS advice, amd we have even had him hypo halfway through a song. We have had to pull out of gigs because his bgl was either too high or too low.
Back to Topic. I recently introduced him to LCHF and gave him a copy of my 'rulebook' which he has used. He was reporting needing much less insulin, and was getting stable results at last. However a couple of weeks ago he had his annual checkup wih his consultant who immediately ordered him to stop his nonsense and start eating carbs again. He was recommended to eat a minimum of 250 g of carbs a day, and at least 2000 calories a day. He was told to stop carb counting and go back to bolus by calorie value, else face being dropped by the Consultant and his team.

Since then we have missed 3 rehearsals, and our next gig is this Thursday. He is in a terrible state, but is fearful of having his care being withdrawn, I have pointed out that his Consultant does not need to know how he eats etc, so don't tell him. Do what he now knows works for him. But the seeds of unease have been planted in his mind, and I dread this next gig.

Click to expand...

I don't have T1D so cant comment specifically. As a T2D I eat to my BG meter results every time, as its my health at the end of the day. Some people like me seem to be luckily at the moment and can tolerate a moderate amount of carbs which has made my life style changes a lot easier. Over time I'm learning the carb's my body doesn't like and trending toward lower carbs each day for a lower steady state overall BG within the normal range as a target.

The British Nutrition Foundation is the main organisation that the Government uses for nutrition advice. Have a look at the list of Corporate Members and then wonder no longer why the Eatwell Plate is what it is..

Corporate Members

ALDI www.aldi.co.uk/

ASDA Stores Ltd www.asda.com

British Sugar plc www.britishsugar.co.uk www.sugar-bureau.co.uk

Calbee UK Ltd www.yushoi.co.uk

Cargill Inc (Truvia) www.truvia.co.uk

Costa Coffee www.costa.co.uk

Dine Contract Catering Limited www.dine-contract-catering.com

Ella's Kitchen www.ellaskitchen.co.uk

Farrington Oils Ltd www.farrington-oils.co.uk

General Mills www.generalmills.com

Greggs plc www.greggs.co.uk

HJ Heinz Ltd www.heinz.co.uk

Ingredion UK Ltd www.ingredion.com/

Kerry Foods Ltd www.kerrygroup.com

KP Snacks Limited www.kpsnacks.com

Marks and Spencer plc www.marksandspencer.com

Mars UK Ltd www.mars.com

McCain Foods (GB) Ltd www.mccain.co.uk

McDonald's Restaurants Ltd www.mcdonalds.co.uk

nabim www.nabim.org.uk

National Farmers' Union www.nfuonline.com/home

Nestlé Nutrition www.smahcp.co.uk

Nomad Foods Europe www.iglo.com

Ocean Spray www.oceanspray.com

Quorn www.quorn.com

Slimming World www.slimmingworld.co.uk

Solazyme Inc www.algavia.com

Tata Global Beverages Ltd www.tataglobalbeverages.com

The Co-operative Group Ltd www.co-operative.coop

United Biscuits (UK) Limited www.unitedbiscuits.co.uk

Volac www.volac.com

Waitrose Ltd www.waitrose.com

Warburtons www.warburtons.co.uk

Weetabix www.weetabix.co.uk

Wm Morrisons Supermarkets plc www.morrisons.co.uk



Sustaining Members

Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board www.ahdb.org.uk

Associated British Foods www.abf.co.uk

Coca-Cola Great Britain and Ireland www.coke.com

Danone Waters and Dairies UK Ltd www.danone.co.uk www.h4hinitiative.com

DuPont Nutrition and Health Division www.danisco.co.uk

J Sainsbury plc www.sainsburys.co.uk

Kellogg Europe www.kelloggs.co.uk

Mondelez International www.mondelezinternational.com

Nestlé UK Ltd www.nestle.com

PepsiCo UK Ltd www.pepsico.com www.walkers.co.uk www.quakeroats.co.uk www.tropicana.co.uk

Tate & Lyle www.tateandlyle.co.uk

Tesco www.tesco.com

Unilever plc www.unilever.com www.flora.com www.floraproactiv.co.uk/proactiv

Sustaining members agree to provide a donation to BNF for at least three years to support our wider charitable work focussing on consumer education, and engagement with the media, government, schools and health professionals.

I live in Spain, and the guidelines here are very similar to those issued by NHS. When I was first diagnosed, I was put on two Metformin a day, and this same ridiculous diet. I had to change from Metformin to glibenclamide as I was allergic to the Metformin, and was told to take two 5mg tabs per day. Although my overall figures were good, I spent each day either way too high, or way too low. Forttunately I was issued with a meter, but only enough strips to test a couple of times a week, so I bought strips, and worked out which foods put me high, and which I could eat confidently. I also discovered the glycemic index which helped. Within a couple of weeks, I was able to cut meds down to 2.5mg per day, and keep my HbA1c just within normal range. Unfortunately that was 11 years ago, and things have progressed to the stage where I am now on insulin, (things started to go a bit haywire a couple of years ago) but I am totally convinced that this would have happened a lot sooner had I kept to the "healthy recommendations" made by the local health carers. I still eat low carb (around 50g per day most days) and dread to think where I would be otherwise.

Oldvatr said:

However a couple of weeks ago he had his annual checkup wih his consultant who immediately ordered him to stop his nonsense and start eating carbs again. He was recommended to eat a minimum of 250 g of carbs a day, and at least 2000 calories a day. He was told to stop carb counting and go back to bolus by calorie value, else face being dropped by the Consultant and his team.

Click to expand...

That would be an interesting approach, given that the NHS Mantra is counting carbs, and that's what DAFNE preaches. For him to be on an insulin pump, in the majority of places, ability to count carbs and adjust doses is a pre-requisite, so I suggest your friend finds himself a new consultant.... The 250g of carbs I can understand being a recommendation, but given we have no idea about the physiology of the chap involved, 2000 calories sounds like a weight loss program (it's less than recommended, regardless of how you eat). Which hospital is he under if that's the message he's getting? I'd like to get them reported for poor practice in relation to type 1....!