1Denise said:
. . . they are both extolling the virtues of eating plenty of complex carbs - granary bread, basmati rice potatoes etc, yet from what I've been reading here this is not a good thing? Why aren't the above people advising a low carb diet if it really is that good for you?
Hi Denise,
The basic answer to your question is that governments on both sides of the Atlantic have been scared stiff of telling the public that the dietary advice they have been giving us for the last 30 years is completely wrong and was based on very poor research. There is a set of "official" dietary guidelines that say a healthy diet should include plenty of starchy carbs in every meal and be low in fat. So where did this idea come from? In the 1950s and 60s there was some "research" done by an American scientist that "proved" carbs were good for you and fat is what causes heart disease. This so-called research was accepted by UK and US governments and was adopted with the intention of reducing heart disease.
What has happened since?
1) By following these dietary recommendations the western world has the highest ever rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease!
2) The "scientist's" research was re-examined and found to be completely flawed - and was found to have been financed by the American Wheat Growers Association, so there was only ever going to be one outcome!
3) More recent research has proven beyond any doubt that fat only contributes to heart disease in the presence of high levels of carbs. It is now realised that it is not fat that raises cholesterol, but carbs!
4) In the US the American Diabetes Association has at last recognised that this diet is completely inappropriate for diabetics and now recommends that anybody with diabetes should limit their carb intake to between 135g and 185g of carbs per day. Even this is much higher than the research body who were advising the ADA had recommended, but was as far as the ADA were prepared to compromise.
Unfortunately in the UK our medical authorities, whether or not they recognise how inappropriate their recommendations are, still resolutely refuse to budge on the matter, presumably because they are afraid that changing their recommendations will leave them wide open to being sued by millions who have followed their recommendations and whose health has suffered as a consequence.
Our medical professionals are caught between a rock and a hard place. If they recommend a reduction in carbs they are in breach of the guidelines laid down by the government that pays them. If they don't recommend a reduction then their patients will inevitably suffer. There are some enlightened GPs and dietitians who are prepared to do what they believe to be right for the patients and risk the consequences, and several of our members have reported that their support team has encouraged a low carb approach. But it seems that the majority of health care professionals are either unaware of the damage that carbs do to a diabetic, or are simply not prepared to stick their necks out.
I have been warned against ketoacidosis if following a low carb diet.
An interesting comment that would seem to indicate that whoever said it doesn't understand the difference between ketosis and ketoacidosis. With a very low carb diet (i.e. below 50g carbs per day) the body doesn't have enough carbs to meet it's energy needs so it starts to burn fat as its source of energy. This produces a small amount of ketones and is a normal body function which is perfectly healthy - it is how we lose weight. Ketoacidosis is very dangerous and happens where the body has very high levels of blood sugar
but no insulin. Because there is no insulin to convert the blood sugar into energy, the body will start burning fat uncontrollably while blood sugar levels continue to rise. The very high level of ketones that are produced then become acidic, leading to vomiting, inability to breath, coma and death. The treatment for ketoacidosis is to give the patient insulin, not carbs!
In considering whether or not to reduce carbs, you need to first work out how many carbs you currently eat and where do they come from (i.e. are they healthy carbs from veg and fruit or unhealthy carbs from starches). That will give you a better idea of how big or small a reduction you might need. You mention a BS range of 4.6 to 10, so my own guess is that you wouldn't necessarily need an enormous reduction. I would be inclined to start with a small reduction (say 20%), then test the results and fine-tune with another small reduction if needed until you get the balance you want to achieve.
