hello everybody! i was able to achieve a 6.9 a1c at my last visit, the lowest i have ever been! i know it is still not perfect but i am workin' on it. i think a big part of reaching it was following a vegan diet for the past few months. my body seems to operate much better without so much protein. i usually avoid fruit because honestly i am scared of how it will raise my sugars. HOWEVER...while searching for some other vegan advice i came across a lot of info on the 80/10/10 diet. High fruit and very low fats (polar opposite of what I have been doing for the last decade). i did try it for 3 days and my numbers, in fact, did lower. but a family friend of ours is a holistic nutritionist...she is also vegan and a very good friend of Gabriel Cousens (the raw vegan specialist). she says the high fruit vegan approach could be dangerous and to stick with the higher fat approach. has anybody tried both and have advise from both sides. doctors, nutritionist, holistic, whatever...they may know a lot but nothing is better than true experience. i would like to stay vegan but could use some pointers. i am grain free, wheat free too. but eat A LOT of nuts.
I was vegetarian for 14 yrs, now I just eat everything and anything. In all fairness though I'm still not at all fond of meat, I find it hard to digest. I have always felt at my best on a salad/vegetable diet, but because of my love of bread I usually give in after a while. My chol is 2.2 at the moment so I'm not complaining.
i am the same way. i would love to eat mostly vegetables but worry that i wont get enough calories? although i could definitely afford to lose about 10 lbs. i get most of my calories from nuts and don't know if thats really healthy or good for my blood sugar. i have heard how fat can raise your sugars more than fruit?
I have to tell you, when I hear these statements about how fat can raise your blood sugar it just doesn't make sense. You can prove this to yourself by a simple experiment, in a fasted state, test your blood sugar, then ingest some fat. I recommend 1/4 cup of olive oil, 54g of fat, 477 calories. If you can't stomach drinking it, hold your nose and drink it down the gullet. Then test your blood sugar. And keep testing it until you finally believe it. Fat doesn't raise your blood sugar.
If you really want an objective comparison of raw vegan diets against other diets, check our Denise Minger's blog RawFoodSos. Ms. Minger is a former raw vegan who has struggled to find her way through this mess.
And as to your concerns. I've always eaten lots of non-starchy veggies, you can do that on a low carb diet. But nuts can be hard. Bernstein recommends that you actually limit/avoid nuts as many of his patients find their attempts to lose weight are hurt by overconsumption of nuts. The challenge is that getting adequate protein as a vegan is quite difficult. With an ovo-lacto vegetarian diet it is easer.
I have plenty more to say about Counsens and Doug Grahams 80/10/10, but nothing nice, so I will leave it at that.
thanks for the advice i will try that. and yes, i do feel like limiting nuts might be a very good experiment on its own. i definitely over consume.
and i do not disagree with your opinions about vegan/raw diets. i go back and forth on beliefs but i do find that my numbers are better and it keeps me from eating EVERYTHING. so in those departments i am very for it. but i definitely understand all opinions.
I was eating quite a few nuts for the last couple of years but have laid off of them for the last couple of months. My mother-in-law told my wife "we eat more than you at dinner but we don't eat snacks" so I've cut out habitual snacks, dating back to R/NPH days, which included nuts. My BG have been wild as I can't seem to shake DP for like the last 6 months. These days, I have it beaten down to 120-140 but still have a couple days/ week when it may run higher. I dunno if it's all connected, but I'm going to worry about it after Sunday. I don't think fruit is bad but I'm not really into dietary extremism of any sort. Perhaps I cheat by exercising regularly and fairly intensely for a 44 year old with a ghastly, chronic disease but I like some variety and to splurge pretty regularly and feel pretty good most of the time. I don't eat a lot of fruit. I loathed it when I was a kid. I'll eat it occasionally but not all that often. 80% of calories seems like a lot. Although perhaps in line with some of our relatives?
Great job on the A1C too. It's a great feeling to make progress on that!
i am a vegaterian, not diabetic myself but my son is, i was just wondering about your diet and what you are eating for protein, i feel it is best for all people to eat a balance of fat, not saturated, (bring on the nuts!!)protein and complex carbs with every meal and snack if possible, this helps keep bs's stable. too much fat say restaurant food is more of a diabetic enemy than sugar in my opinion and spikes bs later just adding my 2 cents! best of luck with your diet choices just knowing your a1c is improving and you are being mindful of your food choices is a good thing! amy
If fat added tons of calories - ie make fat, cattle would be fed it in feed lots.
Instead they are fed carbs - corn/grain.
One does not want to sludge up your veins/arteries but for this T2 fats help slow the spikes in glucose from intestine and slow the digestive process.
Fat police need their wagon wheels straightened out.
hear, hear, jims!! long live fat!!
i spent my whole life worrying about fat before t1 and friends and family cant believe i dont watch my consumption now. i eat it like its my job. no bs spikes, keeps me sated.
If you don't mind my asking, why are you eating too much protein. The main "low carb" diets like Atkins or Bernstein are Low Carb, High Fat, Moderate Protein. Bernstein is also very specific about having a modest level of protein, about 50-70g/day and reducing or increasing it to lose/gain weight respectively. If you are having problems with so much protein, then you just reduce protein. Do you think it is possible that you are still struggling to get enough fat in your diet? Sometimes, people fear fat and as a result, the low carb diet reverts to a low carb, low fat, high protein fiasco.
My personal experience with protein is that half of it converts to blood sugar. I actually need to bolus for protein and overeating protein all day must also be offset by an increased requirement for daytime basal. Protein is not a "free" snack.
Andrea:
I find diets are a lot like religions or political beliefs: people can get passionate about their way and filter everything they see or hear through their own ideology.
Your meter, however, does not lie, and has no biases. It gives you the control to see exactly what effect various foods, medications and activities have on your glucose levels.
For example, I know that 1/4 Apple will raise me 15 points. One raisin will raise me 1 point. Bacon and eggs raises me 10 points, etc. I also know what effect 1 unit of my various insulins will have, and what effect different types of exercise will have.
I then choose my target level and manage to that level based on these inputs. Everybody's physiology is different, and hence, your diet needs to be YOUR diet. Rather than locking yourself into one particular ideology which might might be unnecessarily rigid, pick the things you like and test their effect on your blood sugar with your meter. Decide what is acceptable and build your meal plan based on that.
Christopher
i agree with you, i just mean excessive amounts of fat can catch you later in a big way in terms of bs, small to moderate amounts esp of healthy fat are very important to bs control and overall health. i have never been on the fat free kick! best of luck finding the right balance for you! amy