Hello - I've just found this forum after posting the following on another forum elsewhere.
When I was diagnosed as Type 2 nine years ago, the very pointed medical advice that I received from within the NHS was specifically to eat more meals and to ensure that I ate starchy carbohydrate (bread, potatoes, pasta, rice etc) at every meal.
Since those days no advice that I have received from anybody working within the NHS - or for that matter in literature from Diabetes UK - has given me a different message
Increasingly, I started to question that advice - often thinking that I may have misunderstood the message. However, I am certain that I hadn't.
It is only after reading US literature (particularly Dr Bernstein's book regarding the bad effect of carbohydrates) and when I started testing my blood sugars (against my GP's wishes) that I began to understand why I had been having problems maintaining blood sugar control (with HbA1c levels such as 8.2%, 9.4%, 8.5% and suchlike).
Now that I have some idea where I'm heading, my last three HbA1c readings were 6.8%, 5.7% and 5.5% - a massive improvement on where I was!
Moreover, where is the advice from the medical authorities regarding the eating of low-glycaemic index food? If that message is there at all it is diluted and compromised and largely lost.
My experience over nine years as a Type 2 diabetic has led me to seriously question the advice that we receive from UK sources such as the NHS and Diabetes UK. In my opinion, it is about time that the messages they put out are reviewed and re-issued. Surely, the people at the top of these organisations are fully aware of the factors that lead to poor blood sugar control - they must have read the same literature that I have read - and possibly more. Why do they apparently garble the message that is needed for people to understand how to take control of their diabetic situations?
I am very confused by their apparently well-meant messages - and from messages on this forum I am aware that others seem to be similarly confused!
Certainly, I shall be supporting any such petition as the one proposed to 10 Downing Street!