Re: Diabetes

On Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:08:29 -0500, Janet Wilder
<kelliepoodle@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Boron Elgar wrote:

Glycemic ratings are wonderful on paper, but people are not made of
paper. You saw that George is fine with some rice, yet Janet's
husband is not. As they say, YMMV. That is what the meter, a good MD
and a nutritionist are for.

DH's body laughs at the Glycemic Index. A nutritionist once told me that
he tolerates potatoes well because of their "long carbohydrate chain" I
haven't a clue what that means, but he does well with half a baked
potato which is about 15 grams.

I think one has to take the nutritionist with a grain or two of salt.
Too many of them rely on the ADA recommendations which are too high in
carbohydrates for many T2s. That diet might fit T1s,who bolus their
insulin to cover carbs much better.

Back in the mid 90s, I had a endo (this was years before I developed
the disease, but since it was rampant in my family, I went to an endo
to try and avoid it) who told me I'd be fine as long as I never ate a
bagel. When I asked why he said he couldn't tell me, but it was true
and to talk to his nutritionist.

She concurred, again, without being able to give a reason (I wasn't
born with all this useless knowledge, it took me awhile to suck it all
up)and also told me that drinking coffee would destroy my BG levels.
When I challenged her on this too, she got very snippy and pretty much
told me that if I wasn't going to take her advice (read that as accept
anything she told me as Gospel), that I could take a hike. I hiked.

I have seen a comparison chart with the ADA (American Diabetes Assoc.)
diet and the Endocrinologist association diet and there is a significant
difference in carb count. Also the ADA seems to be paranoid about fat
which isn't such a bad thing to make one feel a little more full when
restricting carbs. If there were a bunch of carbs in the meal, fat can
delay the spike. For some people, it evens out the absorption of the
carbs and reduces spikes. That is why everyone needs to learn to test
pre-prandial and several times post-prandial until they can get a handle
on their own body's reactions. I mention this to bring awareness to the
fact that fat-free food is often higher in carbohydrates than low-fat or
full-fat.

The ADA has often been chastised for it overloading on carbs and being
just plain scared about any fats. They've come around a bit, but I
still think that a one-size-fits-all diet plan is useless.

Not to mention that a ketogenic diet for a diabetic is pretty much
idiotic and unnecessary. Most T2s do not need insulin, but even if the
pancreas craps out completely, taking insulin is not a sign of moral
weakness any more than taking antihistamines are for an allergy
sufferer.

Many long-term diabetics have kidney involvement and a ketogenic diet
has been deemed unhealthy for them. My DH asked about it when Atkins was
really popular and was told, rather vehemently as I recall, that it was
not a healthy diet for him if he wanted to keep his kidney function and
stay off dialysis.

Very important point.

In all but the most bizarro and extreme cases (none of which I can
even think of right now), it is far better for a diabetic to eat a
well balanced diet (use the Medterranean as an example, which does as
well for T2s, especially women, as low carb in research), tailored to
one's individual diabetic needs, than to strive for ketogenesis, which
can deprive the body of vitamins and nutrients that need to be made up
with supplements, as well as put a diabetic in the position of an even
more stressful dieting situation than the disease itself presents.

Many people overlook the fact that carbohydrates come from other places
than starches. Some veggies and legumes, fruit and milk, for example are
sources of carbohydrates that have fiber and nutritional values far
above something like white rice. I am often surprised by some of the
diabetics I meet who are not aware that a slice of supermarket white
bread and a tablespoon of sugar will do exactly the same thing to their
body. They think sugar-free cake or cookies are fine and never even
think that all the flour in the cake or cookies.

We have had much success with keeping meals in the 20 to 30 gram range.
No higher than 45 on few occasions. Things do change, however and he is
always checking his meter. For a while he did well with Dreamfield's
pasta. It no longer works. Now he does better with controlled serving of
regular Barilla pasta, about 1 ounce dry.

Amazing how the body's tolerances change over time.

I have learned to make do with substitutes like using a bit of
unsweetened applesauce in the meat mixture for stuffed cabbage instead
of rice. The applesauce has pectin which helps the meat hold together
without needing the rice as a filler. I also use wheat germ, which is
mostly fiber, as a filler for meat loaf. I use just a little, but we
enjoy meatloaf more with a little filler than with none.


What about cooked steel cut oats mixed in with the meat? They are
loaded with fiber so may be tolerable.

Boron
.

Relevant Pages

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