agree:) I also love nuts (walnuts, almonds), seeds, and healthy oils. Love a good Shiraz:)
Good advice. I use a gm/oz scale and have several good texts to check CHO per amount serving. Even these are inaccurate though…trying to remember…but, think variability in the USDA food lists (what everyone basis their databases on) is around 15% (variability in food tested AND allowable error in reporting on food labels). This is why the law of small numbers is so important…everything we use (meters, test strips, food, pump, insulin) has a bit of error in dosing implied that together is cumulative and significant. Recs you have given are excellent and helpful to all of us…low CHOing is the only way to actually decrease BG variability. If you look at normals post meal they deviate from tight range…those that deviate the most, are those that develop cardiovascular complications. Given how difficult it is for persons w/ diabetes…low CHO is a major tool in the tool box of treatments.
Dee, just wanted to share my experience…that echos that of many others that have already posted. I started w/ a HgA1c of 7.2 and dropped to 5.9 in 3 months. I am really curious to see what my next set of numbers show…including lipids. I have a ton of energy, my CGMS shows barely a bump after meals, have decreased my number of hypos and hypers (over 150mg/dl). Only time I go high is if I have a problem w/ my infusion set:) I eat most of my carbs as vegetables …and come to think of it, most of my protein as well. I have a goal of decreased bg variability AND weight loss…have done both.
The best outcome has been…that I am not hungry like I used to be. You know…that insulin driven hungry all the time feeling. It is gone. I feel like I have “me” back. I have been T1 30 years…this is the only thing I have found that ever helped me achieve HgA1c below 7.0 and minimize risk of hypos.
I too have experienced resistance from the medical community…but, NOT my MD/Endo:) Just a point, I have always believed that we are our best medicine and have to find what works for us. I also was a dietitian:) in my former life…I did find that how I counseled and advised patients was considered “non-traditional” and not always appreciated…that is why I went back to school and studied biology. But, just to let you know…there are dietitians out there like I was…just not many:) Also…it was my doc who suggested I try low CHO and specifically referred to Dr. B. She said it whispering:) but, definitively felt I was posing no risk to myself and could achieve many of my long-term goals. She is a endocrinologist and researcher.
Good luck to you:) and let us know how you are doing after a little bit on the low CHO.
PS: I follow 6-12-12 most of the time…sometimes make exception on special occasions…but, pay the price. I suspect this
because it is very hard to seperate your underlying basal from meal time bolus when you suddenly increase CHO intake. I suspect I relied on that backup amount to keep my postprandials fairly good when I ate high CHO. I ate mostly low GI CHOs when I ate 150g/d.
Hope some of this has helped you or someone else. Take care and good luck as you proceed.
Well, I don’t know about 1 CHO cookies, but here is a 3 CHO recipe:
Dana Carpender’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
A classic chocolate chip cookie, just like Mom used to make - only a lot better for you!
- 1 cup almond meal
- 1 cup vanilla whey protein powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter – softened (2 sticks)
- 1/2 cup Splenda granular
- 3/4 cup Steel’s Gourmet Sugar Substitute (Maltitol)*
- 2 eggs
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups Sugar Free Chocolate Chips
- 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
*NOTE FROM DANA:
This recipe calls for maltitol. You can substitute 3/4 cup extra Splenda plus a teaspoon of molasses if you want a polyol-free cookie - the cookies will be a little crumblier, but will taste fine.
Measure the almond meal, vanilla whey protein, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, and stir together. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter till creamy and fluffy. Add the Splenda and maltitol, and beat till very well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat well.
Now add the dry ingredients, in three additions, beating each addition till well incorporated before adding the next.
Beat in the chocolate chips and pecans, and mix just until well-distributed.
Turn off mixer, and scrape the dough off the beaters back into the bowl.
Preheat oven to 375.
Scoop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto cookie sheets you’ve sprayed with non-stick cooking spray, or covered with pan liners or baking parchment.
Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
Yeild: 44 cookies, each with: 125 Calories, 9g Fat, 6g Protein, 6g Total Carbohydrates*, 3g Dietary Fiber*. *Net Carbs per cookie 3 grams.
here’s what id recommend
read dr. bernsteins book, there are so many helpful specifics in here
modify it with the lowest amounts of carbs possible for you, but stick to your modifications
try it out as strict as possible for three full months, and then if you’re going to ease off, ease off after the three months. this is ripping the bandaid off quickly instead of slowly- go for gold, do it right the first time. low carb works, and once you go through the difficult experience of doing it right, eating more carbs is easy later on.
make sure you eat quality foods. consider a fiber supplement and a green powder (ie paradise herbs orac high energy greens)… green powder is like eating 10 servings of fruits and veg in a table spoon.
Can you low carb people give your menu for a day?? I know I would not roller coaster so much if I would lower my carb intake.
Thank you.
could we maybe get a typical day’s meals? i’m not sure how low/no carb you go and what you’re eating… i’m no nutritionist but maybe if we get a bunch of eyes looking at your diet we can trouble-shoot for you.
may i ask what your exercise regimen is like? my TU amiga Nel suggest ‘movement, movement, movement’ to lower cholesterol too.
For the last three years, I’ve focused on heavy weight lifting, working out 2-3 days a week at the gym. I initially followed the beginner barbell program in http://startingstrength.com/ focusing on compound weightlifing movements; squats, presses, deadlifts, and rows. I supplemented that with cardio for 3-4 hours a week on my elliptical. I’ve moved on to a more intermediate weightlifting, with more variation in repetitions, sets and exercises and I’ve changed my cardio so I only do about an hour of interval training each week. Bernstein is strong believer in resistance training, and yes for women too.
As far as I am concerned, the only cholesterol that matters is keeping your HDL high and your triglycerides low. As a woman, I think that efforts to reduce LDL are particularly misguided. But let’s not get into that here, this is about low carbing after all.
I consume about 70-90 carbs a day, depending on the day, and what I have to eat. This has worked reasonably well for me. I have also immersed myself in finding out which foods will have a higher or lesser spike than others, because of their glycemic load. Some foods that have a lot of dietary fiber, or a lot of resistant starch will not spike as much. One example for me is that, well… all potatoes are super bad, except for red potatoes. I think they naturally have more resistant starch… but when I boil them, and cool them in the fridge for about 12 hours, they develop a LOT of resistant starch, and once a food that would spike me incredibly, now only has a minimal effect on my BG. Cooking or cooling foods will affect how much they can spike blood sugar. I follow glycemic load, and not glycemic index because it paints a more accurate picture about a food serving.
“The glycemic load (GL) is a relatively new way to assess the impact of carbohydrate consumption that takes the glycemic index into account, but gives a fuller picture than does glycemic index alone. A GI value tells you only how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar. It doesn’t tell you how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. You need to know both things to understand a food’s effect on blood sugar. That is where glycemic load comes in. The carbohydrate in watermelon, for example, has a high GI. But there isn’t a lot of it, so watermelon’s glycemic load is relatively low. A GL of 20 or more is high, a GL of 11 to 19 inclusive is medium, and a GL of 10 or less is low.” http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm
A good site to research foods’ glycemic load content is www.nutrtiondata.com, as well as the mendosa site I previously quoted. I really, really like glycemic load because it helps me understand why, sometimes, even though I may have a small amount of a particular food… it will still spike my sugar to a level I don’t want. Some people will say that it’s just about carbs, but I think that doing both… carb counting and glycemic load counting is best. That is why you’re never going to catch me eating pizza… no matter how small the portion. lol (And I’m not Type 1, sorry. lol I just had to share… 
)
Hi Dee!
I totally understand your reservations, but it does work. It’s a lifestyle change, but I went from an A1C of 8.0 to 6.9 in three months’ time and that is without being entirely strict about my low-carbing. Check out some of the “paleo” and “primal” diet websites out there - there are some great recipes and great advice about how to eat this way. My non-diabetic boyfriend is doing it with me and honestly we still feel like we’re indulging since we get to eat more rich foods. I have had a ton of fun trying out new recipes lately. I have reduced my sugar cravings quite a lot over the last few months, and to me that’s enough of a triumph. I still eat fruit (not a ton, but I take insulin when I really want it) and just try to eat things like berries and other low-sugar fruits rather than bananas, or I eat a half a banana instead of a whole one. Almond flour will become your best friend. I found this recipe for almond flour pizza recently and it is amazing!! I have made it twice this week and it tastes so good. So good luck with whatever you choose I wish you all the best! If you have more questions about how to get started feel free to shoot me an email. The important thing is not to punish yourself if you make a major lifestyle change, these things take time. It’s my birthday today and I might just have a slice of some sort of cake, so there!
http://crossfitchron.blogspot.com/2010/01/paleo-pizza-on-menu-tonight.html
OMG! Are you into crossfit? That stuff will turn you into a lean mean fighting machine. Just check out these ladies (http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/051204.wmv). Those women are seriously fit and strong not too mention intense. Sorry, me bad, kinda off topic.
Hi…Thanks so much for sharing all of this…I must admit that it all seems daunting to me. I’m just about ok with counting carbs, but realize that often I don’t really know why I’m too high after counting so carefully. It may well be that I need to take the GL into account. Now, I need 1 unit of Apidra to cover 30 grms of carb. If I suddenly chose mostly low GL foods, will I need to change how much insulin I give myself? Thanks, Michou