Hi Dippy.
I think this is the sort of advice you mean, this is taken from the NHS Choices website and is about what a Diabetic should be doing.
Eat healthily
The belief that if you have diabetes you will have to eat special foods is untrue. Your diet should be the same as that of anyone else - high in fibre, fruit and vegetables and low in fat, salt and sugar.
However, different foods will affect you in different ways, so it is important to know what to eat so you get the right amount of glucose for the insulin that you are taking. A diabetes dietitian can help you to work out a diet plan that can be fitted to your specific needs.
The problem I have found is that it all depends where you look and who is answering. I have had very good advice from Dietician's and I have also had absolutely rubbish advice as well. Nobody seems to be 'singing from the same hymn sheet.' I wish that were so.
Speaking personally the advice given out whilst not applicable to all of us is in fact in the above instance for me.....good advice. I am on medication, Byetta which suppresses the appetite, never been able to control with diet only.
I am able to eat high fibre foods, bread, fruit, vegetables and stick to low fat, low salt, and this is where I take issue with the advice.....low sugar. It isn't just sugar we need to avoid. We continually tell people on here to reduce or avoid starchy carbohydrates......this is because they convert 100% into glucose in your bloodstream. Why we tell people to count TOTAL carbs as they include sugars.
If they were to change the wording to read 'reduce starchy carbohydrates' then that would satisfy me.
We are, as we repeatedley say on here 'all different.' Now that as well seems to have been overlooked by the people who dish out the NHS diet advice. What works for one does not always work for everybody. The principle might be good, in practice it is flawed.
I can follow some of the dietary advice with no problem, if I try to follow other parts of it I am in trouble. By continually testing is how I found out what affects me, what I can and cannot eat.
The advice is old advice and needs updating, but who is going to be brave enough to change what we have been told for many years. A brave man/woman is what we need......not afraid to stick their hand up and say, "Excuse me, this is not right. We need to change things a bit."
Now I am not technically a low carber, mainly because a certain Dr says so ! However I have a reduced carb diet because I say so. It aso includes low GI/GL principles. Now that works great for me. Other's have to cut out carbs drastically and believe that low carbing is the way forward. If that is what they want, who am I to argue. If that works for them.....good. It just doesn't work for everybody, I can't be doing with the restrictions in foods to eat, eating high fat. Not something I believe in. Jersey Royals, Granary Bread, root veggies, rice and pasta are all part of my diet.
My view is and always has been, do what is best for yourself and ignore those that seek to tell you there is only one way........that is bunkum as shown by my own results. I have a brain and I use it, I don't need leading by the hand to the promised land. I have my way, that is all I need to know. Oh yes, I do not eat low fat / high carbs as a certain individual seems to think people like myself and others on here do. It is low fat and 'reduced carbs.' Seems some people can't tell the difference.
My diet is varied and balanced, full of vitamins and minerals, my Bg numbers are all low throughout the day, sometimes too low ! I feel healthier, fitter, livelier, lost over 5 stone, all whilst following the NHS principles but with some minor adaptations. So, I suppose to some it might seem strange to be advised eat plenty of starchy carbs........for some of us we can, NOT plenty though, just all things in moderation. Makes life so much more interesting.
Ken
P.S. Dippy........not start a row ! Yeah, right !! :wink:
