Hi All,

I"m fairly new to this group, today being my first day. My husband was just
diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. His blood sugar was way off the chart and
stopped registering after it hit 500. The doctor told us some of the foods
to avoid but not all of them, and I was wondering if someone had a complete
list of all the foods that were good or bad so that we can start immediately
to get this controllable. So far the only thing he is upset about is not
having beer.LOL!

I would appreciate any help I can get and thank you all so very much.

Michele

Hi Michelle...

sorry to hear about your hubby... have him join us here, remember it's
his disease and he's going to have to be the captain of his health care!

As for foods to avoid... well... there are a lot of opinions on that.
Many would say you don't have to avoid anything, it's all about portion
size. I think that's almost true. But not at the beginning of this road.

At the beginning you, or rather HE, has to learn more about his body and
how it's getting along with this disease and then he can add back in
appropriate portions of those foods he may have to avoid at the beginning.

And just how does he determine those foods? I thought you'd ask ; )

His meter. What he will learn is that foods that might spike him (a
spike is an extreme rise in blood glucose), might not spike me. And
something he can eat, I might have to severely limit. Diabetes is not
a one size fits all disease.

Here's the advice I give all newbies... give it to him:

Sounds like you're planning a move to take control of your diabetes... good
for you.

There is so much to absorb... you don't have to rush into anything. Begin
by using your best weapon in this war, your meter. You won't keel over
today, you have time to experiment, test, learn, test and figure out just
how your body and this disease are getting along. The most important
thing you can do to learn about yourself and diabetes is test test test.

The single biggest question a diabetic has to answer is:

What do I eat?

Unfortunately, the answer is pretty confusing.

What confounds us all is the fact that different diabetics can get great
results on wildly different food plans. Some of us here achieve
great blood glucose control eating a high complex carbohydrate diet.
Others find that anything over 75 - 100g of carbs a day is too
much. Still others are somewhere in between.

At the beginning all of us felt frustrated. We wanted to be handed
THE way to eat, to ensure our continued health. But we all
learned that there is no one way. Each of us had to find our own path,
using the experience of those that went before, but still having
to discover for ourselves how OUR bodies and this disease were coexisting.

Ask questions, but remember each of us discovered on our own what works best
for us. You can use our experiences as jumping off points, but eventually
you'll work up a successful plan that is yours alone.

What you are looking to discover is how different foods affect you. As I'm
sure you've read, carbohydrates (sugars, wheat, rice... the things our
Grandmas called "starches") raise blood sugars the most rapidly. Protein
and fat do raise them, but not as high and much more slowly... so if you're
a T2, generally the insulin your body still makes may take care of the rise.

You might want to try some experiments.

First: Eat whatever you've been
currently eating... but write it all down.
Test yourself at the following times:

Upon waking (fasting)
1 hour after each meal
2 hours after each meal
At bedtime

That means 8 x each day. What you will discover by this is how long
after a meal your highest reading comes... and how fast you return to
"normal". Also, you may see that a meal that included bread, fruit or
other carbs gives you a higher reading.

Then for the next few days, try to curb your carbs. Eliminate breads,
cereals, rices, beans, any wheat products, potato, corn, fruit... get all
your carbs from veggies. Test at the same schedule above.

If you try this for a few days, you may find some pretty damn good
readings. It's worth a few days to discover.

Eventually you can slowly add back carbs until you see them affecting your
meter.

The thing about this disease... though we share much in common and we
need to
follow certain guidelines... in the end, each of our bodies dictate our
treatment and our success.

The closer we get to non-diabetic numbers, the greater chance we have of
avoiding horrible complications. The key here is AIM... I know that
everyone is at a different point in their disease... and it is progressive.
But, if we aim for the best numbers and do our best, we give ourselves the
best shot at heath we've got.
That's all we can do.

Here's my opinion on what numbers to aim for, they are non-diabetic numbers.

FBG under 110
One hour after meals under 140
Two hours after meals under 120

or for those in the mmol parts of the world:

Fasting Under 6
One hour after meals Under 8
Two hours after meals Under 6.5

Recent studies have indicated that the most important numbers are your
"after meal" numbers. They may be the most indicative of future
complications, especially heart problems.

Listen to your doctor, but you are the leader of your diabetic
care team. While his /her advice is learned, it is not absolute. You
will end up knowing much more about your body and how it's handling
diabetes than your doctor will. Your meter is your best weapon.

Just remember, we're not in a race or a competition with anyone but
ourselves... Play around with your food plan... TEST TEST TEST. Learn what
foods cause spikes, what foods cause cravings... Use your body as a science
experiment.

You'll read about a lot of different ways people use to control their
diabetes... Many are diametrically opposed. After awhile you'll learn that
there is no one size fits all around here. Take some time to experiment
and you'll soon discover the plan that works for you.

Best of luck!

Jennifer

Have you discovered WHY he .. has .. type 2 diabetes .. ?

Go with whole grain bread .. better for him ..

Who loves ya.
Tom

Jesus Was A Vegetarian! http://jesuswasavegetarian.7h.com
Man Is A Herbivore! http://pages.ivillage.com/ironjustice/manisaherbivore
DEAD PEOPLE WALKING http://pages.ivillage.com/ironjustice/deadpeoplewalking

"Michele" <shell702@cox.net> wrote in message
news:xlrdb.7259$Rd4.523@fed1read07...
The first stop your husband should make is to a dietician. There, he will
learn that he can probably eat most foods, but will have to control portion
sizes. He will also learn what those portion sizes are.

Also there is no one diet that works for all of us. The diet that the
dietician gives him may or may not work for him. I say this because there
are just so many variables. When I was first diagnosed, I found that I had
to eat more carbs between meals that what the dietician told me to eat.
This was due to a thyroid problem that was being improperly treated, causing
me to have frequent hypos (low blood sugar).

I'm seeing a different set of Drs. now, and am finding that I must be more
careful than ever with my eating. Carbs are the food that raises BG (blood
glucose) the most. If your husband eats too many of those, he'll have high
BG. Unfortunately, the amount that can be eaten varies from person to
person. What foods contain carbs? Cereal, bread, pasta, potatoes, corn,
peas, dried beans, fruit, juice, milk, sweets, the list goes on and on.
Non-starchy vegetables like green beans and broccoli also contain carbs, but
in lesser quantities. So while he can probably safely eat more of these
than he can of the starchy foods, he must remember that those grams of carb
will add up too. Also, be on the alert for hidden carbs that lurk in many
prepared foods such as meatloaf, soup, sauces, etc.

Some of us find there are certain foods we simply can no longer eat.
Popcorn used to be my bedtime snack. I seemed to be able to eat huge
quantities of it with no problem at all. Then all of a sudden, it turned on
me. Now, I seem to be limited to 3 cups. If I eat more than that, my BG
goes through the roof. I've also noticed a big difference in foods that I
get at restaurants. I made a move from CA to NY and I can order the same
types of meals here that I ordered there, yet my BG is now high after eating
them whereas it wasn't before. I am not sure if that has to do with the way
they prepare the food, or some change that has occurred in my body. I seem
to have more insulin resistance as time goes on.

Oddly, one of the best foods for me is mashed potatoes. I now eat those
with some cheese mixed in as a bedtime snack. And I eat them often for
dinner, often topped with a cheese sauce with some chopped tomatoes added.
This works very well for me. And yet mashed potatoes are one food that many
diabetics say they can't eat.

Fat delays the absorption of carbs. So a little fat in a meal or snack is a
good thing. A lot of fat can be bad because it can cause those carbs not to
get into the system when you want them there. As a result, you could get a
hypo followed by high BG (because you treated the hypo with more carbs), or
you could merely get a spike (higher than acceptable number) at the 3 or 4
hour mark after eating.

My parents were just here visiting. My brother (who lives near them) is
also a diabetic. Our diets are like night and day. He was diagnosed about
a year after I was. Following his diagnosis, he was eating far more carbs
and calories than I was. Now he has swung totally the other way. My
parents say he eats mainly salads. They would cringe at some of the meals I
was eating, and they couldn't wait for me to test my BG afterwards. It was
always fine with the exception of two days prior to the start of my period.
Hormones, stress, illness and other things can also affect BG. At least
your husband won't have to cope with monthly fluctuations. And foods that
my parents were used to seeing me eat, are no longer in my eating plan.
Like popcorn.

--
Type 2
http://users.bestweb.net/~jbove/

Salutations Michele (and hubby)
You'll find spouses usually call the other DH (Dear Hubby) or She Who Must
Be Obeyed.
8))
Just kidding!
Jennifer's post sums it up nicely. It's great that you want to get right on
it. I hope your DH feels the same.
Sometimes the written word helps. When I was first dxed in June 03 the one
of the first things I did was go to the bookstore and buy the Gretchen
Becker book "The First Year Type 2 Diabetes: An Essential Guide for the
Newly Diagnosed". It was a great help to me. Two other places here on the
net that may be helpful to you are alt.support.diet.lo-carb and mendosa.com.
Good luck with DH and keep in touch.
--
t2_lurking
geabbottATabbottandabbottDOTcom
Do not mail to t2_lurking (auto-delete)
===============================
The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,
dies young.
---- Anne Sexton ----


"Michele" <shell702@cox.net> wrote in message
news:xlrdb.7259$Rd4.523@fed1read07...

This post not CC'd by email
On Sat, 27 Sep 2003 19:02:07 -0700, "Michele" <shell702@cox.net>
wrote:

G'day G'day Michele,

Whew.

500 mg/dL (500 on the US scale)is 28 on the mmol/L scale we use here.

It is almost certain that your hubby's blood glucose is not going to
be controlled by diet alone. This is important to realise because
false expectations lead to little except frustration. Such high
levels are toxic so don't be surprised if the GP goes for an
aggressive initial strategy of using insulin injections to get levels
down to manageable levels. That doesn't mean he will always need to do
that. It is just one approach to aggressively getting things under
control. On the other hand the doctor might prescribe oral medication
that either increases insulin release in response to food or improved
the sensitivity of the tissues to naturally produced insulin or some
combination of strategies.

Though you have asked about food I have taken the time to explain that
food is only part of the story. Medication is almost certainly likely
to be part of it. Abandoning thoughts of a sedentary life is another.
Weight lose is often the key to improving all those numbers that
appear in blood lipid profiles.

OK. First read and reread Jenny's advice to newbies and repeat after
me, "My meter is my guide for personal discovery." Only by using it
purposefully can one discover what is true for your husband ... and
for all we know ... for you.

OK what foods to choose. Well take a look at the USDA pyramid. It
advises cereals and other carbohydrate based foods should be the most
commonly consumed foods. Well that you will discover is great for
some other people but it won't work for people whose blood glucose
goes through the roof. Cereals are great food for porting
concentrated carbohydrates for invading armies. We can leave that to
someone else. They are great foods for marathon runners ... but have
you or hubby been training for marathons. As a starting position you
might like to think along these lines, "If it came from a bakery it is
bad for HIM." His liver chemistry is different from those marathon
runners.


Start thinking in terms of vegetables rather tan cereals. Vegetables
have a higher water content, better mineral and vitamin levels. If
you think salads then that would make a good starting point. Think
cauliflower instead of potatoes. One could have five cups of
cauliflower to every cup of mashed potato for the same amount of
carbs. Think asparagus. Think courgettes (zucchini). Think onions,
especially the red ones. Think capsicums especially the orange and
yellow ones. Think eggs. Think strawberries.

No that is not a typo.
Berries are good choice.

If he is having an OJ for breakfast can that.
It is time to can the concentrated fuel rushes.

Think fish in preference to meat.

Think olive oil.almonds and avocados in preference to margarine or
butter. Olive oil, almonds and avocados contain a very specific type
of fat called mono-unsaturated fat. This can replace some carb in the
diet. Stay away from vegetable oils. Please. The explanation is more
complicated than simply doing the right thing.

Tonight I might well make myself one of my favourite curries with
tomatoes, baby beetroot and radishes. Sounds weird but hey, it even
appears on the menus in the up market Indian restaurants here.

Do we figure it all out by experience?
Not quite. This is help at hand.

http://www.calvin.biochem.usyd.edu.au/GIDB/searchD3.htm

The figure that is most meaningful is the Glycemic Load though serving
size might be an eye opener. The glycemic load gives the amount of
glucose that is being mainlined after a meal.

Best wishes,

Don't hesitate to ask questions, lots of questions about diet.


--
Quentin Grady ^ ^ /
New Zealand, >#,#< [
/ \ /\
"... and the blind dog was leading."

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/quentin

"Michele" <shell702@cox.net> wrote in message
news:xlrdb.7259$Rd4.523@fed1read07...
I just want to say Hi, Michele, and welcome to the group.
Everything that needs to be said at this stage has already been
posted.

Don't be afraid to ask questions, and try to get the person this
concerns the most, your hubby, to join us.
I know, if he won't he won't. But try anyway. I found crying and
letting it all out helps sometimes to get through the denial and
reluctance. Because right now, he is probably in shock and doesn't
even want to think about it.

He is going to have to, sooner or later.

Annette



---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.521 / Virus Database: 319 - Release Date: 24/09/03

Make sure your doctor writes the prescription to reflect how many times you
want to test. Or you'll end up at the pharmacy and them refusing to give you
test strips because the doctor wrote four times even though I've had two visits
and her reading seven tests a day.
You have got to be very proactive.


k30a

Like your husband, I was newly diagnosed with diabetes 1 week ago. My Blood
Glucose (BG) levels the day before I went into the doctor were VERY high
(595 and 534) and I was extremely nervous about how that would effect me.
Chances are that, like me, your husband has experienced some side-effects
(blurry vision, excessive urination, unquenchable thirst, fatigue, tingling
feet/hands). I was prescribed Metformin, which basically increases your
body's sensitivity to insulin. One of my big questions was how long it took
to work and I've found out that usually within a week to 2 the BG levels
should drop considerably to a more normal level. If your Husband's BG
levels remain above 300 then you should talk to your doctor about having him
take insulin to help lower them because unfortunately, one of the bad side
effects of having a BG level above 300 is that you develop something called
Glucose toxicity. Glucose Toxicity will hamper or remove the pancreas'
ability to produce insulin (which results in higher BG levels!) Its almost
like a vicious circle and the only way to prevent this is to lower your BG
levels (ergo the addition of insulin).

Its very overwhelming at first, but, in the past week I have been able to
lower my own BG levels to between 200-300 (which is still high, but Im
assuming that the metformin will help further lower them once it kicks in).
If your husband is able to reduce his BG levels, the first symptoms he'll
see relieved are the urination and thirst, if he has blurry vision, I've
been told this can take several weeks to improve.

My dietician prescribed a controlled carbohydrate diet. COMPETELY eliminate
COLA and JUICE immediately. this first stage is to get your husband's
Glucose levels down. My diet consists of 45-75 carbohydrates per meal (3
times a day) with 2 snacks in between of 30-45 carbohydrates. I was told
that besides the cola and juice that I could eat whatever I wanted as long
as I maintained the diet to be within those carbohydrate boundaries. That
means your husband can drink beer (as long as his medication doesn't
interact and you should talk to your doctor about this). I have also read
that alcohol can help lower BG levels, but remember alcohol is an EMPTY
carbohydrate which provides no nutritional benefit and you have to make sure
you subtract the carb content of the alcohol from what you are allowed.

You can also tell your husband that based on the above criteria, he would be
able to eat just about anything as long as the portion is controlled within
the carbohydrate limits. If he is overweight, losing excess weight can
improve his Insulin Resistance, also. Also, given the above carb
limitations, your husband could eat at, say, McDonalds and be fine within
his carbs.... a Big Mac (45 carbs), Small Fries (30 carbs), and a diet pop,
or Iced Tea would fall within the range that I've been given. Of course, I
am trying to eat a little more healthfully...

So basically, its not the end of the world, its just a whole new way of
thinking about it, one where you are in control of your own health. I am
keeping a very positive attitude about this because eating better is
somethign I should have been doing all along.

Welcome to the group, I hope that you feel as comfortable and welcome as I
did last week when I joined!

Jim



"Annette" <acianthus@bigpond.com> wrote in message
news:bl6qos$8hi7i$1@ID-194908.news.uni-berlin.de...

Michele, I hope your husband comes here and becomes an active
participant It is his disease and he has to be the one to learn how to
control I hope he has made an appointment with a dietician or
nutritionist to see what is good for him, Then of course, he has to be
testing his blood sugar to see how those foods affect him, I am sure
Jennifer has chimed in with the regimen for testing. Most people I
believe low carb and carbs are sugar and starches , We watch the total
carbs in our portions and testing show us how many a day we can consume
I am diabetic for amost four years and I am ow at the point where I
really dont deprive myself, but portion control is very vital to me,
Your husband is a newbie and he needs to be more restrictive,

Has the doctor given him meds. Is he seeing an endo, He needs to see
an opthamologist and a podiatrist as well.

I hope he joins us and we are here for you too.

This is a famiy project

Loretta

--
In tribute to the United States of America and the State
of Israel, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife and
terrorism.

Jim,

Try cutting your carbs down to less than 20 a meal and 10 per snack and see
what happens to your blood sugars. You might be amazed.

-- Jenny

168.5/137

Low Carb 9/1998 - 8/2001 and 11/10/02 - Now

http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean
How to calculate your need for protein * How much people really lose each
month * Water Weight Gain & Loss * The "Two Gram Cure" for Hunger Cravings
* Characteristics of Successful Dieters * Indispensible Low Carb Treats *
Should You Count that Low Impact Carb? * Curing Ketobreath * Exercise
Starting from Zero * NEW! Do Starch Blockers Work?


"Jim" <jtb69@qwest.net> wrote in message
newsNYdb.40$NU2.17601@news.uswest.net...

This post not CC'd by email
On Mon, 29 Sep 2003 11:07:12 -0600, "Jim" <jtb69@qwest.net> wrote:

G'day G'day Jim,

Well here's hoping. It may happen that metformin will reduce your
blood glucose levels to acceptable levels. The doses originally
prescribed might not be sufficient or it may be necessary to make a
reassessment of what carbs you can safely consume at one time. It is
common practice for doctors to increase the dose of metformin stepwise
to avoid intestinal discomfort.

That makes sense. A can of cola has about eleven teaspoons of sugar,
an amount most people wouldn't dream of consuming in a cup of tea or
coffee.


I love the logic in this sort of argument. Drinking beer is OK so long
as one REMEMBERS it has empty calories. It overlooks the tendency of
beer to impair or minimalise the importance of such remembering.

So would a Big Mac ... without Small Fries.

Has your GP given you guidelines for trans and saturated fat, total
fat or total calorie intake?

T2 diabetes is an error in fat metabolism long before it is the
symptoms of high blood glucose levels become apparent.

Yep. I can see that. For some people giving up regular cola and
juice is a culture shock. It is hard for me to adjust to a culture
where people eat out more often than at home but I realise for some
people it is a circumstantial necessity.

Give yourself say six months and I'm sure you will see many ways you
can make simple choices that will improve the health and enjoyment you
have from meals.

Best wishes,

--
Quentin Grady ^ ^ /
New Zealand, >#,#< [
/ \ /\
"... and the blind dog was leading."

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/quentin

"Michele" <shell702@cox.net> wrote in message
news:xlrdb.7259$Rd4.523@fed1read07...
in time you will begin to learn what foods you can eat and what foods not to
eat - as far as blood sugar goes.
i am one of those people that believes just because you ate something and
your blood sugar remains good - does not mean that food is a healthy choice.
if that was true i could eat a pound of bacon every morning and my numbers
probably would remain good.
but then again there mind be some people who say a 5lbs bacon breakfast is
ok. lol
i have read that too much fat decreases your insulin effisincy and that
could result in being a diabetic
that when eating even a very small amount of carbs your numbers spike like
crazy.
he might be able to have beer - but could he handle the munchies that
follow?
i strongly suggest you see a dietitian and dont make any drastick changes to
your diet
while taking diabetic medications with out telling your doctor.
before you go to a dietitian keep track of what you eat and what blood sugar
levels you get.
that will be a great help for your dietitian to understand how you react to
carbs.
i was dx'd january 27, 2003 - lost 65lbs my last A1C was 5.1 and i feel
great.
here is a link to the American Diabetes Associations web site

http://www.diabetes.org/homepage.jsp

good luck

Jenny,

Funny you should mention that, I suggested doing that (because I had
previously read Atkins New Diet Revolution and was familiar with that and
the South Beach Diet) so I suggested it to my Dr. and he reacted very very
negatively towards it. At this point because I am pretty much clueless
about what is or isnt the best thing for me (ie YMWV) I am going to try to
stick with the nutritionist's suggestion....

One thing I do know for certain is that the reduction of carbs in my diet
since diagnosis (1 week ago) has already made a dramatic improvement in how
I feel and while I am still dealing with some of the complications of high
BG (blurry vision and a little fatigue) it is now at least tolerable.

Thanks, Jenny, for the suggestion, if this doesnt work, I will definitely
try doing that.

Also, I have two meters (A generic Walgreens unit and a OneTouch Ultra) and
the OneTouch Ultra is consistently 40 points higher? If only I could trust
the Walgreens unit.. lol

Jim

"Jenny" <jenny_the_bean@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:bl9shi$n7r$1@bob.news.rcn.net...

Jim wrote:

That seem's like way way too much, unless you're running really really
high numbers, like somewhere around 400. The meters lose accuracy at the
ends of their ranges.

I think I'd try to figure out what was going on. I have found the
LifeScan's people very helpful, they will run you through a calibration
test over the phone if you have current test solution. I'm sure
Walgreens's would do the same. Walgreen's might do both for you if you
took it in to a store and spoke to a pharmacist.

The last thing either wants is for you to have a problem because their
gizmo malfunctioned.

--
K'neH'a'Iw

Uncloaking, Shields up.

Sticking with your nutritionists advice is a good idea as long as you're
doing lots of testing yourself and modifying foods that may be a problem
for you. Your nutritionist might tell you to have a 1/2 cup of pineapple
chunks for instance, and your meter might tell you differently. Good
luck.


--
Cheri

Jim wrote in message <491eb.45$qU6.47476@news.uswest.net>...

Quentin,

Thanks for the great feedback. I realize I might not be completely accurate
in everything I say (Ie the BEER controversy), as I am just passing along
what my nutritionist has indicated. I personally don't drink much (if any)
alcohol. And I'd agree that it could impair your ability to remember to
discount the carbs. lol

As for the Big Mac & fries... Personally, I'd prefer a nice BIG salad to the
10 medium sized fries... lol

Anyway, thanks for replying, its great to know there is such a great support
system here. I am, of course, envious that you live in New Zealand, while I
live in the arctic tundra known as Minnesota.

Jim

"Quentin Grady" <quentin@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message
news:cv5hnvcf2qfkc8198l8bl02lerietspcgk@4ax.com...

O' come on there Jim, it's only goin down to freezin' tonight. Jeez I wore
my shorts.

--
t2_lurking
geabbottATabbottandabbottDOTcom
Do not mail to t2_lurking (auto-delete)
===============================
The Joy that isn't shared, I've heard,
dies young.
---- Anne Sexton ----



"Jim" <mn_bear@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:9O4eb.634380$Ho3.123066@sccrnsc03...

Jim,

There are an lot of dieticians out there still prescribing diabetic diets
that are way out of date and very harmful. The evidence they point to which
is supposed to show that a low carb diet is dangerous is either from flawed
or misunderstood studies, or based simply on hearsay rather than any
research at all.
Read here to see the latest very rigorous medical studies showing strong
benefits for low
carb diets. http://www.lowcarbresearch.org/lcr/l....asp?catid=215

Lowering carbs significantly drops triglylcerides for most people--often
dramatically, lowers cholesterol, lowers blood pressure, and most
importantly, lowers blood sugar, often very dramatically. The Endocrine
Society
meeting a couple years ago featured a presentation that recommended diets of
at most
100 grams a day of carb for people with diabetes.

Medical thinking is very slowly coming to see that the low fat diet
recommended for people with diabetes for the past 20 years turns out to have
been a tragic mistake because it worsens diabetes, causes glucose toxicity,
and does bad things
to blood lipids. But dieticians who have been prescribing these
dangerous ineffective diets for years are very resistant to admitting they
were wrong, so their anti-low carb attitudes can verge on the
religous/hysterical.

The best approach is to lower your carbs and read your meter an hour or two
after every meal.
See what happens when you eat at various carb levels for a few days.
If you're like most people your post meal blood sugars will drop
significantly if you cut your carbs to a level around 20 grams per meal or
less, and, after a
few days, your fasting blood sugar will go way down too, so you'll be able
eventually to cut back on your medications.

If you cut your carbs very low, to 12 grams per meal or so, you'll also see
your cholesterol profiles improve and may see your blood pressure go down
too. You can search on this newsgroup and on
alt.support.diet.low-carb for hundreds of reports of improved medical tests
after cutting carbs.

You might also want to read the brand new edition of "Dr. Bernstein's
Diabetes
Solution" by Dr. Richard Bernstein (an endocrinologist who has lived with
Type I diabetes since the 1940s) for information on how a low carb diet can
prevent diabetic complications. Bernstein is controversial, but my own
experience is that his diet works, though I'm a bit too humanl to stay at
quite as low a level as he recommends all the time . Still, even when I
slack off
I stay around 60 grams a day, day in and day out, and have done so for most
of the last five year. My doctor is very supportive because of the
well-maintained weight loss and
blood sugar control he's seen me maintain.

-- Jenny

168.5/137 (Starting weight/current weight)

Low Carb 9/1998 - 8/2001 and 11/10/02 - Now

http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean
How to calculate your need for protein * How much people really lose each
month * Water Weight Gain & Loss * The "Two Gram Cure" for Hunger Cravings
* Characteristics of Successful Dieters * Indispensible Low Carb Treats *
Should You Count that Low Impact Carb? * Curing Ketobreath * Exercise
Starting from Zero * NEW! Do Starch Blockers Work?


"Jim" <jtb69@qwest.net> wrote in message
news:491eb.45$qU6.47476@news.uswest.net...

This post not CC'd by email
On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 01:14:45 GMT, "Jim" <mn_bear@comcast.net> wrote:

G'day G'day Jim,

We all absorb a little information at a time. At the moment you
are focused on carb intake and getting that right.

The prime question at the moment is just what is the right amount of
carb for you in one meal.

One way to view this situation is to consider that your nutritionist
has told you what was right for some other diabetic ... not you. At
the moment we don't know whether what was right for some other typical
T2 diabetic is going to be suitable for you. If the recommended amount
doesn't get your blood glucose down to manageable levels then the
recommendation could be changed. Some carb could be replaced with
monounsaturated fats as found in avocado and olive oils. The general
strategy here is to adjust carb intake using the feedback given from
testing one or two hours after meals. We calling it eating by your
meter and part and parcel of this approach is YMMV, your mileage may
vary.

Another way to view this situation is that you will end up taking the
recommended amount of carb and your medication will be increased or in
some way changed to make this possible. This view is based on the
idea that carbs are in some way essential or at least good for you for
the bulk of calories in comparison to other sources of calories.
Your nutritionist might hold to some view that 55% of calories should
come from carb, 30% from a beneficial selection of fats and 15%
protein. This is more a prescriptive approach. GPs following this
approach tend to look more at fasting blood glucose in order to adjust
oral medication or decide that insulin is a better choice.

Naturally there is considerable overlap between the approaches.


There are folks who have to eat on the run often for employment
related reasons so choosing foods that can be readily obtained is a
real issue. Some people buy Big Macs and throw away half the bun.
Salads are almost always good choices, though most everyone with some
experience can recall the odd curve ball that didn't appear to play by
the rules.

Didn't I read that it actually gets colder in some of those cities
than in Alaska?

BTW there were thousands of applicants for the living for free for a
family in Napier. Many of them came from Canada where there was some
heated controversy in the papers about why so many hundred people
would want to move to provincial New Zealand. As it happens a lot who
didn't make it to the short list have decided to visit or emigrate
here anyway.

--
Quentin Grady ^ ^ /
New Zealand, >#,#< [
/ \ /\
"... and the blind dog was leading."

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/quentin