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Please help me understand

Karen Dwyer said:
I have a feeling that you meant to address HR-Guy, and not me, as he is the one who posted the original comment about his office colleague who says she's "doing just fine" with her diabetes. In any case, I completely agree with you that most newly-diagnosed diabetics know absolutely nothing about the condition and are given very little guidance by their doctors and other medical personnel. It upsets me to think of the poor couple you mentioned where the wife is trying very hard to help her husband by feeding him a pasta dish. Obviously nobody told her that pasta is one of the worst foods a diabetic person can eat! When I was first diagnosed, I thought I simply had to cut out sugar from my diet; I had no idea that ALL carbohydrates turn to glucose once they hit your digestive system. As I mentioned in another thread, one medium-sized baked potato is the equivalent of eating 3 heaped tablespoons of table sugar, but very few diabetics are given that kind of information. I think the medical profession (and the various national Diabetes Associations have a lot to answer for. I read many years ago that the main source of funding for the Canadian Diabetes Association is 17 pharmaceutical companies so they are obviously not going to fund studies that might prove that diabetics don't need many of the drugs they manufacture!
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Agree but at least in Canada you have the fantastic Jason Fung to counter the orthodox wisdom!
 
Karen Dwyer said:
You've brought up something that I am very resentful of about the US. Years ago, they announced that they were planning to switch to the metric system. The Canadian government then announced that Canada had no choice but to change to the metric system too as the U.S. is our major trading partner. So Canada went ahead and made the change and then the U.S. changed its mind and never did make the change. I was a young woman who had been brought up with the imperial system, and did not have a very scientific kind of a mind, and I had a terrible time learning to deal with some aspects of the metric system - to this day, if I shop for two pounds of meat, I don't have any idea of the weight in kg. and have to ask the butcher! Temperatures, sizes, and distances I've begrudgingly learned to deal with! I know you're absolutely right in saying that the metric sense makes a lot more sense, but allow me my old lady biases. I'm coming around, slowly but surely!
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Hi @Karen Dwyer - the one thing Napoleon could not change, which Pythagoras realised, was that pitch in music is related to length of pipe or string. It so happens that even in his own country, all French organ stops are defined in Feet, not Centimetres, because an octave is exactly 1ft different in pipe length. We cannot completely venerate Metric!
 
Karen Dwyer said:
You've brought up something that I am very resentful of about the US. Years ago, they announced that they were planning to switch to the metric system. The Canadian government then announced that Canada had no choice but to change to the metric system too as the U.S. is our major trading partner. So Canada went ahead and made the change and then the U.S. changed its mind and never did make the change. I was a young woman who had been brought up with the imperial system, and did not have a very scientific kind of a mind, and I had a terrible time learning to deal with some aspects of the metric system - to this day, if I shop for two pounds of meat, I don't have any idea of the weight in kg. and have to ask the butcher! Temperatures, sizes, and distances I've begrudgingly learned to deal with! I know you're absolutely right in saying that the metric sense makes a lot more sense, but allow me my old lady biases. I'm coming around, slowly but surely!
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I'm not coming around to it. I think in imperial. A kilometer could be in the next street or in the next county!
 
Karen Dwyer said:
The standard international measure of blood glucose levels is millimoles per liter (mmol/l) but for some reason the US is different; it uses mg/dl (and I can't remember what that stands for). But it's very simple to convert - just multiply or divide by 18. So if an American says their BG reading was 126, for example, divide that by 18 and you know that in "our" numbers he means 7. Multiply by 18 if you want to convert from American to international numbers. I can just about do it in my sleep now, particularly since my late American husband still used his American glucometer after he moved to Canada to marry me! (We met on Dr. Bernstein's website!)

I don't think I understand the second part of your question. A large part of Dr. Bernstein's book is available free on the Internet. I don't remember how to find it, but I'll find the link for you when I have time - probably tomorrow - and let you know. Is that the kind of thing you're looking for?
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I just meant, is it worth buying the book if it has the same information already available on this site. The more I read the more I realise is that it is best that everything is cooked from scratch.
 
Guzzler said:
I'm not coming around to it. I think in imperial. A kilometer could be in the next street or in the next county!
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I do the same in most categories - if I see a number in metric, I mentally convert it to imperial. Where I'm improving is that I can mostly do that mental conversion now. I couldn't even do that for a few years after the change from imperial to metric.
 
Karen Dwyer said:
QUOTE="Petaluk, post: 1783982, member: 472096"]@Karen Dwyer I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I am curious as to if you have had any diabetic related complications in the last 17 years? Many thanks :)
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None that I'm aware of Petaluk. I do have some serious heart problems - I have two mechanical valves and a pacemaker in my heart - but they're nothing to do with my diabetes, but were caused by having had undiagnosed and therefore untreated rheumatic fever as a teenager.

When I had my first appointment with my eye specialist, just after I had started eating low-carb, he said I had early signs of diabetic retinopathy, but the next year when I returned he couldn't see any signs of it. He was amazed and said he could hardly believe it. He has been a great supporter of my low-carb diet ever since.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for answering :) that is great to hear!
How have you managed to maintain your weight with a LCHF diet? @Guzzler is at the stage where she is still losing weight and I think it would help us all if you don’t mind sharing your experience. Thank you :)
 
I had a real problem with losing weight when I first started my low-carb diet, so much so that friends started worrying that I had an eating disorder. That seemed to stabilize after a few months. I gained some of that weight back and have stayed the same for many years now - I'm 5 feet 61/2 inches tall and weigh about 120 pounds.
 
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Karen Dwyer said:
I had a real problem with losing weight when I first started my low-carb diet, so much so that friends started worrying that I had an eating disorder. That seemed to stabilize after a few months. I gained some of that weight back and have stayed the same for many years now - I'm 5 feet 61/2 inches tall and weigh about 120 pounds.
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Thank you, would you mind sharing a typical days food and carbohydrates/fat rate with us all please? Thank you!
I personally am at the stage where I am on LCHF or medium fat diet as I have a lot of weight to lose, but it is coming off. @Guzzler recent post was an eye opener, as I haven’t thought what happens after you reach your target weight and you still follow a LCHF diet. The link is here https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/have-to-admit-defeat.147066/
Your input would be greatly appreciated!
 
Petaluk said:
Thank you, would you mind sharing a typical days food and carbohydrates/fat rate with us all please? Thank you!
I personally am at the stage where I am on LCHF or medium fat diet as I have a lot of weight to lose, but it is coming off. @Guzzler recent post was an eye opener, as I haven’t thought what happens after you reach your target weight and you still follow a LCHF diet. The link is here https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/have-to-admit-defeat.147066/
Your input would be greatly appreciated!
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I must point out here that I had no weight to lose as I was not overweight on diagnosis. While I have been a member here (almost one year) I have noticed that the members who have problems with losing too much weight tend to be those who are TOFI (Thin Outside Fat Inside). So it wasn't a case of my loss of a great deal of weight just that weight gain was not a symptom of T2 that I ever suffered.
Chances are that if you carry extra weight you will lose most/all of that extra weight then stabilise at a healthy BMI.
 
Petaluk said:
Thank you, would you mind sharing a typical days food and carbohydrates/fat rate with us all please? Thank you!
I personally am at the stage where I am on LCHF or medium fat diet as I have a lot of weight to lose, but it is coming off. @Guzzler recent post was an eye opener, as I haven’t thought what happens after you reach your target weight and you still follow a LCHF diet. The link is here https://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/threads/have-to-admit-defeat.147066/
Your input would be greatly appreciated!
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Petaluk: I don't keep track of the fat I eat, although I don't restrict fat in any way. Dr. Bernstein's diet recommends low-carb, moderate fat, and high protein.

From my records of yesterday:

7:15 Before breakfast: 4.4
Breakfast was 100 g (1/3 cup) serving of low-carb yoghurt with 4 slices of bacon and a cup of coffee
Two hours after breakfast: 5.6

12:30 Before lunch: 4.8
Lunch was a Caesar salad (without the usual croutons) with a Salmon Filet (at a restaurant) and a diet coke
Two hours after lunch: 5.8

6:30 Before dinner: 4.9
Dinner was a serving of Cauliflower Fried "Rice" with some steamed green beans and a serving of diet Jello with a VERY FEW slices of fresh strawberries
Two hours after dinner: 5.7

Note: Many low-carbers don't eat any fruit at all (because, of course, the fructose in them is a sugar), but I find that I can tolerate small amounts of berries which are lower in carbs than most fruits.​
 
kazd63 said:
I just meant, is it worth buying the book if it has the same information already available on this site. The more I read the more I realise is that it is best that everything is cooked from scratch.
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Sorry kazd63,- I just noticed your question now. I find the book invaluable, but there is a lot of information about managing diabetes with low-carb diets on line so it's up to each individual whether they think the book is worth buying. I think it's essential for Type 1s because each updated edition includes the most recent information on insulins and other medications. For type 2s like me, I suppose it is more optional but I wouldn't be without the latest edition.

You are so right that to eat well on this diet it's pretty well essential to do a lot more cooking from scratch than a lot of us are accustomed to - especially if we want desserts. I do a lot of baking with almond flour and coconut flour.
 
I have an event with the girls tomorrow to watch the wedding, tiara's and pearls mandatory. We are all taking food, I am taking the General Tso's chicken plus Lo-Dough Pepperoni Pizza and hopefully some lemon,strawberry and chocolate muffins so I shouldn't starve. I have bought coconut flour to make the buns, 85% Lindt dark chocolate, will only use a little though. I do have splenda and I also have Xantham gum but I have also bought another type of sweetener to sprinkle on the buns.

I have another question, tonights dinner, wage burger, emmental cheese slice x 2, salad, coleslaw and SW chips. Before dinner @ 17:29 BG 4.8, glass of rose wine, one hour later @18:20 6.3, pre dinner @ 19:21 5.7, 1 hr post dinner @ 20.22 7.6, 2hr post dinner 7.7, had another 1/2 glass of rose wine with dinner.

Fairly okay results but does the wine counteract the carbs, I did scan the wine on MFP and it came up with zero carbs.
 
Oh update on friend at work. She let me test her today, before breakfast @ 9:51 8.2, 1 hour later @ 10:51 9.3, her breakfast was a large (poss about 400ml) of greek yogurt, blackberries and I think strawberries. Lunch was a salad with boiled eggs and a sugar free, zero carb dressing 6.6 pre lunch, 1hr post 6.7.

She saw her doctor yesterday and she told him about me and he told her not do what I was doing, asked if I had sought any medical help, then offered her a referral to a gastric band program aimed at diabetics.
 
kazd63 said:
If the medication is not keeping her sugars artificially low then how come her sugars are okay, she said the db nurse said they are fine but with the carbs she is eating her sugars should be higher.
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Only if she/he is highly IR. Some type2s are prediabetic or aren't so highly insulin resistant.
 
kazd63 said:
Oh update on friend at work. She let me test her today, before breakfast @ 9:51 8.2, 1 hour later @ 10:51 9.3, her breakfast was a large (poss about 400ml) of greek yogurt, blackberries and I think strawberries. Lunch was a salad with boiled eggs and a sugar free, zero carb dressing 6.6 pre lunch, 1hr post 6.7.

She saw her doctor yesterday and she told him about me and he told her not do what I was doing, asked if I had sought any medical help, then offered her a referral to a gastric band program aimed at diabetics.
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Is she overweight by much.
 
You have no idea of how angry it makes me to hear about doctors like her doctor who refuse to even consider that they might be wrong about their negativity to managing diabetes with a low-carb diet. My own family doctor was very disapproving 27 years ago when I first started it. He still won/t say that he has changed his mind, but he has told me that I'm by far his best-managed diabetic patient, so I don't press him to admit that he was wrong!
 
Karen Dwyer said:
You have no idea of how angry it makes me to hear about doctors like her doctor who refuse to even consider that they might be wrong about their negativity to managing diabetes with a low-carb diet. My own family doctor was very disapproving 27 years ago when I first started it. He still won/t say that he has changed his mind, but he has told me that I'm by far his best-managed diabetic patient, so I don't press him to admit that he was wrong!
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I think maybe she was a little surprised when I tested her blood and more so after it got higher after breakfast. I did mention that the HBa1C test was an average over the last two/three months and did not educate as to what was spiking her blood and what didn't. I also mentioned that I had read that nerve damage occurs when the BG is 8+, she is already seeing the effects of another girl at work who told me today that they estimated she had been diabetic for several years before diagnosis due to the amount of nerve damage in her feet. But she also won't listen, insists that Doctors know best, she said she had read up a lot when she was first diagnosed but I doubt it because of the foods they eat. My other friend has not done any research based on what she was saying. She told me that she will give up her takeaway, that consists of a chicken burger in batter in a bun which she has after she has been swimming.
 
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