Mediterranean diet disaster

[Beechnut]

Hi all

I was diagnosed prediabetic last year and my GP said to eat a Mediterranean diet lots of veg, fruit, fish, beans and lentils with wholemeal bread, pasta and brown rice. This was very similar to what I had been eating and I was overweight and sluggish. Research on prediabetes brought me to this forum where I learnt about low carb.

I started low carb and almost from my first meal I felt better. At my next review with GP I told him what I was doing and he told me it was dangerous and couldn't be sustained long term. He insisted that the Mediterranean diet had been proven to prevent diabetes. (I now know the difference between prevention and treatment). So, scared out of my wits by stories of heart attacks strokes and more I complied and what a disaster it's been!

I found that lots of beans and lentils, oats and brown rice and entire meals based on wholemeal pasta really spiked my blood sugar unsurprisingly. Anyway the consequences of this have been disastrous- weight gain, over a stone, extreme fatigue, dizziness, sickness after eating and drenching night sweats.

I feel a total mess, overweight and too tired to do anything. So it's back to low carving for me and I'm trusting my own experience this time as well as the experience of so many on this forum

Thank you all for your inspiration. I think it's sad that there is so much bad advice from some medics out there on a diet that if of such benefit to so many people.

 

[Pipp]

Sorry you have met such resistance from your GP, @Beechnut .
Perhaps you could consider educating him /her with some info from other GPs? The suggestion I made to mine was that these more progressive doctors have reduced the amount of diabetes meds for patients with T2 , and saved money. There are plenty of resources they could read.
Here are a few:

https://res.cloudinary.com/grohealth/image/upload/v1664285482/David_Unwin_Diet_Sheet.pdf

Freshwell Low Carb Project - Home

lowcarbfreshwell.com

Commission the NHS-approved Low Carb Program

Benefit from cost savings in medication and improved patient health in as little as 3 months.

www.lowcarbprogram.com

 

[Melgar]

Hi @Beechnut , I follow a Mediterranean diet. That for me means lots of seafood, meats, fresh salads, nuts , beans, olives and olive oils, soups and fruits etc. I do like Italian food , I just can’t have the pasta. I do like true Italian pizzas , which means very thin crusts and then piled high with fresh produce, not those dreadful pizzas we often see at these chain pizza restaurants.
For me, my Mediterranean diet is more Turkish, Middle Eastern , North African foods. I cannot tolerate very low carb diets , I feel rotten and depressed, my body cannot tolerate the high fats, so I lose too much weight. It’s not for everyone, but if you feel great on it, fantastic.
My own Dr, who is young and progressive recommends the Mediterranean diet, he says it’s nutritionally balanced. That said, he is not opposed to very low carb diets.
I do cut down the carbs, such as the rice. I rarely eat bread as I have coeliac and the gluten free breads just don’t do it for me. I simply cut down the foods high in carbs , but still maintain the fundamentals of the Mediterranean diet, that is: fresh vegetables, fruits, fish , nuts, seafood and olive oil and absolutely no highly processed foods.

 

[Resurgam]

I had the same thing for almost half a century - between leaving home and being diagnosed type 2.
I told the HCPs it didn't work, but I was always told I was the one in the wrong - a couple of years after diagnosis I saw one of the older GPs and I think he'd have been happier if I'd taken up satanic rituals than getting my HbA1c below diabetes range by diet alone - though the morris dancing might have had a bit to do with it.

 

[KennyA]

Hi all

I was diagnosed prediabetic last year and my GP said to eat a Mediterranean diet lots of veg, fruit, fish, beans and lentils with wholemeal bread, pasta and brown rice. This was very similar to what I had been eating and I was overweight and sluggish. Research on prediabetes brought me to this forum where I learnt about low carb.

I started low carb and almost from my first meal I felt better. At my next review with GP I told him what I was doing and he told me it was dangerous and couldn't be sustained long term. He insisted that the Mediterranean diet had been proven to prevent diabetes. (I now know the difference between prevention and treatment). So, scared out of my wits by stories of heart attacks strokes and more I complied and what a disaster it's been!

I found that lots of beans and lentils, oats and brown rice and entire meals based on wholemeal pasta really spiked my blood sugar unsurprisingly. Anyway the consequences of this have been disastrous- weight gain, over a stone, extreme fatigue, dizziness, sickness after eating and drenching night sweats.

I feel a total mess, overweight and too tired to do anything. So it's back to low carving for me and I'm trusting my own experience this time as well as the experience of so many on this forum

Thank you all for your inspiration. I think it's sad that there is so much bad advice from some medics out there on a diet that if of such benefit to so many people.

Congratulations, and well done on persistence. I have been living on around 20g carb/day since 2019, so I guess the "can't be sustained" argument falls.

I do think one of the issues is that some people hear "mediterranean diet" and assume they know what it means. I spend a fair amount of time in Italy and what people there actually eat is a lot different to what the standard UK idea of a mediterranean diet is. It's definitely not all carbs. Food is very fresh and unprocessed, and there's often alcohol (a glass or two of red is typical) at every meal, including breakfast. I'd really like to know why Italian bread (baked that day) doesn't shift my BG while UK bread is rocket fuel.

I got talking to the cook in a restaurant in Tuscany and asked him what he fried meats in - "Lard, like normal people" was the reply. Olive oil gets used for vegetables and added, but for flavour mainly.

Best of luck. Stick at it.