Low Carb Diets (LCD) are really defined based on the percentage of calories from carbs. The definitions have been confusing over the years and in some cases deliberately. The ADA and others continue to define low carb as anything less than 45% of calories from carbs, which for an adult eating say 2500 calories is 280 g carbs. This definition was used for years to support the claim that “low carb diets don’t help diabetes.” In the past decade there has been a lot more work and a group of leading low carb researchers defined a very low carb diet (VLCD) as 20-50g/day and a LCD as 50-150g/day. This has become sort of a standard in the studies that are done these days.
If a child is eating 1000 calories a day then a LCD would be scaled as a percentage of calories. This would make a LCD 8 to 60 grams of carbs a day. In practice with diabetes the point is to eat lower carb so that you can attain better blood sugar control. If you can do that with a higher carb diet that is great. But it is basically just the physics. Eat more carbs, blood sugar rises more and it is more difficult to precisely dose insulin to keep blood sugars in range and controlled. And that goes super double triple if you aren’t using insulin.
@jack16, yes, I realize that eating fewer carbs results in fewer calories over all. If you actually read my description I am changing the relative portions of each type of food. If i reduce the carb food, then the fatty food becomes a proportionately bigger part of the plate.
Personally I went with adapting recipes—but I was dx T2 at 57 after a lifetime of establishing comfort food eating habits. There are a wealth of low-carb recipes out there now that are worth investigating. …
After a very short time of doing Bernstein’s lo-carb, my appetite also decided it wasn’t all that hungry–they sort of support each other…
This has kept my numbers in the normal range for a decade without meds…BUT—I am a post menopausal female and I have made adaptations. I still keep my guidelines at 30-35 carbs/day, but I play with timing—so I might cluster 18-20 carbs at lunch, just before I do a gentle workout for an hour or so that works off the few carbs. But I would have had maybe 0-1 carbs for breakfast and dinner…
Metabolisms are so wildly different between an old lady and a child, T1 and T2—but I do know that many T1s make lo-carb work. I’m sorry I can’t give you better examples for youngsters…
Blessings and hopeful best wishes to you and your beloved child…
Tia_G - Interesting topic, and good discussion here. In my son’s case (14 year old) he has chosen to eat Low Carb using Brian’s definition. He chose that because he was having issues with control and allowed us to trial 20-40 carbs per meal with 3/4 meals being eaten daily, for a total of approximately 100 carbs per day, give or take. When we did that he felt in much better control, and because he feels the highs as well the lows, he really enjoys the ability to feel better more of the time.
As to how we achieve that, we don’t try to replicate carby food. When he has a carby craving he eats the real thing. Being low carb, and nowhere near Very Low Carb, has reduced almost all of his carby cravings, however. I would say he eats a 80-120g meal twice a month, give or take. With the exception of Low Carb Nanaimo bars and Fat Head pizza, we haven’t found many recipes that are great that are trying to simulate carby meals.
Now, the whole family, eats many of our meals that are Low Carb. We basically eat like many people did in the 1950’s. Vegetable omelet with cheese for breakfast with 1/2 piece of toast. Lunch is always leftovers from the previous nights dinner. Dinner is usually a protein, beef, chicken, fish, or pork with a vegetable and a salad, or a hearty soup or stew with a salad. When he is growing fast we will add a fourth meal and do marvel at the amount of meat he can put away at one sitting.
We have found also that our son is very sensitive to carbs, i.e. 12g of sugar took him from 58 to 275 yesterday before dinner. Also, when he was eating 80g meals he would soar over 250 even with a 30+ minute pre-bolus. With 30g meals, he is able to stay under 150 most of the day. Now if we could stop the growth hormone highs at 3 am we would be in business.
I’ve on day 27 of doing the Whole30 diet (meat, fruit, veg, nuts and fat) and my blood sugars are ridiculously stable and in range. My insulin use has dropped dramatically. Focus on foods like zoodles instead of pasta. Sweet potato instead of pizza. Use protein and fats to get the satiety that most people think comes from wheat/grain carbs. I recently made a nut and seed bread that is wonderful for breakfast. Good luck!
