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More fat the better??

donnellysdogs

donnellysdogs

Master
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Northampton
Type of diabetes
Type 1
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People that can't listen to other people's opinions.
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Hi

After reading a lot on this forum ref lower carb n higher fat, I realised I was in the low carb bracket- but not enough fat...

So, I changed and increased my fat content... And a few things changed dramatically.

1) my basal rates have gone up, but I'm not worried about that as they normally drop hugely during the summer. So wheras they used to drop to under 14 units a day they have just maintained at 18....have others found that their basal rates chang higher due to more fat?

2) I went through a bad time with slow colonic transit and horrendous bowel probs... This has completely reversed... I think this is a two fold reason... More fat and no jelly babies!
Has anybody else had improved guts n stomach from introducing more fat?

3) from having more fat and now seemingly not having slow colonic transit anymore my stomach is even more lean and slim. I think this is because of food now not bunging up in my bowel, but it is definitely flat without any roundness to it what so ever.

Can these improvements be down just to having more fat? Or am I kidding myself?

Nothing else has changed in my life, as far as I am aware.


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Definitely no surprise to me re. the extra fat fixing transit times - which is why I'm always amazed when people are told to have fibre and more fibre - fat and water will keep things running smoothly for most people. Wouldn't surprise me at all if the low fat fad is responsible for a lot of the modern epidemic of IBS.

There was an interesting article today about the bulletproof coffee and going too far with fat. It definitely can have an insulinogenic effect, though still far less than carbs and protein: http://authoritynutrition.com/3-reasons-why-bulletproof-coffee-is-a-bad-idea/
 
I will certainly be talking to my diabetic consultant about this as she always says to me that I look fabulous.. And yet has never asked about my diet (and I've never had a daphne course). I will tell her about me having more fat now and the benefits I've seen.. Just hope my cholesterol is finding its way to being balanced. My good cholesterol reading with less fat was too good!! My bad cholesterol was tipping edge of the high on the target levels set by nhs.

Even seeing gastro chaps .. They never asked about fat... It was all fibre n water and they couldn't fault my food... But no mention of fat at all....




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I think you already know that a high-fat diet can cause insulin resistance DD, time will tell if it's down to the higher fat content of your diet but it looks good so far.
 
noblehead said:
I think you already know that a high-fat diet can cause insulin resistance DD, time will tell if it's down to the higher fat content of your diet but it looks good so far.
Click to expand...
Does it? As far as I'm aware it's high carb that causes insulin resistance not high fat? Did you mean to say that?
 
Mainly cheeses, say before I would have had a stuffed pepper with couscous and veg, now it's stuffed pointy peppers with philadelpia and bacon. I have a 1" cube of cheese everyday. I have butter everyday and now I have single cream coffees x 3 a day. I used to have plain salad but now if I have salad I have a phili dip with it. Its not huge amounts but previously all I had was butter on my toast really and semi skimmed milk. Yes I thought that fat increases insulin resistance, but don't really understand why..


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Daibell said:
Does it? As far as I'm aware it's high carb that causes insulin resistance not high fat? Did you mean to say that?
Click to expand...

No high fat diets do also, there's been a lot of talk about it on the forum in recent times. This article from the Mendosa site explains what happens after the carbs in a meal have been digested:

http://www.mendosa.com/The-Fat-of-the-Matter-How-Dietary-Fat-Effects-Blood-Glucose.htm


There's been a few type 1's on the forum over the years who LCHF say that they have a high insulin usage taking into consideration the few carbs that they eat in their diet, this member found that removing saturated fat reduced his basal needs:

http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/saturated-fats.48599/#p438010

There's this and many more articles on the recent research that was carried out be the Joslin Institute:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130327190328.htm
 
Quote noblehead

I think you already know that a high-fat diet can cause insulin resistance DD, time will tell if it's down to the higher fat content of your diet but it looks good so far.

unquote

The STV program - discussed elsewhere on the forum - alluded to that but was condemned by many members. Do you have a link or reference to back it up?
 
There is a huge amount of evidence for the role of dietary fats in the development of insulin resistance. You may not agree with it but evidence based guidelines don't just come out of thin air.

Too little fat (replaced by refined carbs) will indeed result in higher trigs but too high a level total fat and particularly saturated fat have been implicated in insulin resistance for many years.
I realise that you don't think much of dietitians but this article saves me giving lots of references to papers.
Under the heading ' The effect of diet' is a summary of the more important studies and you can certainly follow the references.
(major ones 24-27)
http://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/070113p42.shtml
But note also the section on Reversing Insulin Resistance where the effects of calorie restriction are mentioned
" caloric restriction promoting visceral fat loss may reduce or even override the impact of dietary fat type on insulin resistance" *

There are a couple of papers from the last year which look at the mechanisms involved . Both look at the role of sat fats in the causation of inflammation. (these next 2 are both quite technical)
There is a diagram that summarises the researchers view of the events here:
http://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(14)00606-0
and this is a review so a discussion on the available (sometimes contradictory ) evidence
http://www.nutritionj.com/content/13/1/12
I'll also add this easier to understand paper describing the increase in insulin resistance in a small group of women with gestational diabetes who were assigned to a higher fat diet . The babies of the mothers on the higher fat diet were also fatter. It was a tiny study but had the advantage of that all meals were supplied rather than relying on dietary recall.
http://www.endocrineweb.com/profess...inked-insulin-resistance-gestational-diabetes

*It's important to distinguish between total fat in grams and fat as a percentage. Some people by adopting a lower carb diet actually eat the same amount or less fat but a higher percentage because they are eating fewer calories. In the average American's diet, they are eating a lower percentage of fat but the amount of calories they eat has gone up (by about 450 cal a day since the 1970s) so in reality they are still eating the same amount or slightly more fat and much of that comes from manufactured foods which are high in refined fats, refined sugars and salt(ie the idea that they adopted a low fat diet is a myth and they certainly didn't start eating lots of fruit (as in whole fruit) and veg (that increased but in the form of processed potatoes ie crisps and chips) not even whole grains) It's harder to do the same analysis with UK figures because they have changed the way they collect them, I suspect it wouldn't be different.
 
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Thanks for the various posts and links about high fat and insulin resistance. I was aware that you needed to increase your insulin a bit to take account of fats but perhaps not the extent of the effects on the metabolism. If I understand correctly this insulin resistance is not quite the same as that affecting the muscles due to excess carbs i.e. it affects the liver? Perhaps it is the same?
 
I think previously I was pretty much no fat and low carbs. Not intentionally . The only thing I really ate fat on was pork crackling besidesthe semi skimmed milk and butter ( if on odd occasions I had toast at weekends with hubby).

So being back to my normal winter intake of 18 for basal doesn't worry me at the moment, but if I have to increase the basal for my winter months I don't know currently if I would worry or not.

According to my fitness pal I run at 50% fat 15% protein and 35% carbs - is this a healthy balance or should I try to change it a little? Normally averaging around 40g saturated and no transfats etc...

I've never looked at fat content before so will look at the information on this posting when home tonight..


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Problem with most of these studies is that you are rarely told exactly what they ate. Was it really high fat? Or high fat AND high carbs? For example, from one of the articles phoenix linked to, the low fat and high fat meals are both mashed potatoes:

The low fat meals were mashed potato (12 g fat) or all bran (13 g fat), whereas high fat meals were 200 g instant mashed potato enriched with cream.

So don't take their word for it. I myself have no effect on bg at all from fat, not even saturated. Maybe it is individual.
 
In the book

http://www.amazon.com/The-Big-Fat-Surprise-Healthy/dp/1451624425

the author states that eating fat doesn't make you fat. The Inuit people are the biggest fat eaters in the world with low rates of heart disease,obesity and diabetes. The STV program gave the impression that fat people got diabetes because they were fat. How then does thin people get it? The followers of the Atkins diet ate high amounts of fat and lost weight which meant they didn't put it on. Critics will probably point out it was because of a low carb intake?
 
I think one the main things to note with all of these diets being mentioned; Atkins, Paleo, High Fibre, LCHF etc is that they all restrict sugar and if followed properly they all - to some degree - work! That should surely be a sign to us in the diabetic community and for the whole world, cut out sugar it is toxic to humans in the levels we are consuming it at.

When I was first diagnosed a dietician told me that roughly 20% of obese people would never develop high cholesterol or get diabetes. Several of my friends who have diabetes are stick thin, but had very stressful jobs. The stress they were under caused them to develop metabolic syndrome which effected their hormones and the leptin/insulin levels in the body and hey presto The big D!

The truth is out there - we just need to grab it and hold on.
 
Donnellysdogs I too found that adding more fat to my diet alleviated chronic stomach and bowel issues. I was able to discontinue long-standing meds for acute heartburn and stomach discomfort and also found that constipation was a thing of the past. No more painful burping or passing of wind for me!
 
Rory lad said:
Donnellysdogs I too found that adding more fat to my diet alleviated chronic stomach and bowel issues. I was able to discontinue long-standing meds for acute heartburn and stomach discomfort and also found that constipation was a thing of the past. No more painful burping or passing of wind for me!
Click to expand...

Glad I'm not the only one that has found this. I stopped all meds but insulin. I forgot the wind factor!!!!

And my gastro chapactually said he's seeing more diabetics with stomach probs... I put it down to no jelly babies initially, but now I know its a combination of both!



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Rory lad said:
Donnellysdogs I too found that adding more fat to my diet alleviated chronic stomach and bowel issues. I was able to discontinue long-standing meds for acute heartburn and stomach discomfort and also found that constipation was a thing of the past. No more painful burping or passing of wind for me!
Click to expand...

Through eating far too much fibre in my diet made me go to the loo about 4 times per day and was the prime reason for me having a colonoscopy done. When I told the doctor who did the procedure what I had been eating (bulgar), I was told off in a nice way, that although eating some fibre is good, too much of it isn't.


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Because I don't eat a lot of food, I don't worry about carbs in fruit or veg.. If I want it. I'll have it. They are also the mainstay of my fibre..its very rare nowadays besides working when I will have my 17g yum, yum that I have any significant anything really. That is about the highest single piece of carb I ever have.. Don't know their fibre content-lol!!

My favourite food instead of toast and butter is a whole big pointy pepper with philly cheese on it...

Just glad to have had more info from Phoenix and all others because I never even thought about unsaturated fats even!!






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