LOL. I seem to thrive on acquired tastes . . . Guinness, scotch, anchovies, natto . . . and so on. 
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LOL if I have mashed cauliflower instead of potato I can have a glass of wine with dinner…
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I would never have dried fruit. It would spike my BG too much.The point of having fresh fruit is that it is the best form to have it in. I have had a lot of people who know NOTHING about Type 1 say, “what you need to do is juice!”
No, I don’t. That’s the last thing I need. The next-to-last thing I need is dried fruit.
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I found a low carb beer that does not spike my bg. It’s called Barking Squirrel. A favourite local restaurant was carrying it, but not anymore. I can still get it at the beer store.
Yeah, it took me a long time to come around to the taste of Guinness. After repeated attempts over many years, one day I just enjoyed it. For me I think the disconnect was due to its dark color. My brain was thinking Coke or coffee, not beer.
My wife had a similar experience with coffee of all things. When we met and married, she didn’t like it and never had. One day about 25 years later, she suddenly started liking it.
Aren’t human beings fascinating?
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I eat mostly veggie and fruit diet.
Maybe a few slices of bread in the day is the most complex carbohydrates I will digest
About 65-80 carbs a day
It has worked to stabilize my bg levels and normalize my average but I constantly veer off course and I don’t think my body can endure the abuse as is the case with my retinopathy.
This is an indication to me and more then a diabetic complication that I’m not managing my diabetes correctly
If I might ask, do you record what you eat during a day (using something like MyFitnessPall or another calorie and macro-tracking app)? The reason I ask is that I also eat about 65-80 grams of carbs a day, on average. “A few slices of bread” would put me in the 150-200g of carbs per day range if I was also eating a lot of veggies and fruit. One of the things that’s common when people try to change their diets (for whatever reason) is that they commonly miscalculate what they’re eating.
If, for example, you’re largely vegetarian, you have more limited access to fats and proteins than someone that eats dairy and meat products. Consequently, cutting carbs almost always means cutting calories, sometimes significantly. So what you might be experiencing is just hunger from not consuming enough calories, and it comes out as carb-cravings (because that is what your body is used to). I would consider adding (large amounts) of coconut oil, olive oil, avocados, and other really fatty vegetables to your diet, and also plenty of fiber (beans): you might find that with enough protein and fat, you’re satiated and don’t crave carbs.
For me, I get the most intense carb cravings after I work out (which makes sense, since I’m depleting glycogen stores and exercise raises my BG). I’ve found that consuming a very low carb or zero-carb protein drink after working out helps to diminish that carb-craving (which is often just my body screaming for quick calories). I get Premier Protein drinks from Costco, which have 5g of carbs and 30g of protein. Easy to down one, and then I’m usually good til my normal low-carb dinner.
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Are your blood sugars high when you crave sugar? When you are high, your body can’t process the sugar you have and in a sense you are starving. Your body naturally then craves more sugar to feed yourself.
I had this issue too. Are you on insulin? I found that if I can get my blood sugars lower (100-120) I don’t crave sugar. So don’t beat yourself up, it’s a normal response. But you might need insulin to bring your sugars down. The. I think you’ll find the fruit and things easier to do.
I know most people would argue with me but I believe sugar is healthier than sugar free or alternative chemicals, just need to manage it appropriately.
My thoughts are with you!
I just wrote a long post but then realized I was covering ground already covered. So I will just say - re-read Diabetes Solution and work towards following it. There is a wealth of info there and you have to become the master of your own diabetes. I have never relied on an endocrinologist to alter my doses. That would be too slow. If I am going low throughout the night I will lower my basal the next morning, and vice versa.
Dr Bernstein talks about sugar cravings among other things. You said before it was too low carb and that you kept going low and had headaches. If you kept getting low you need to lower your basal dose. If you are injecting like me, just reduce basal by the smallest possible increment one day at the time until you get it right. This is ultimately a good thing and eventually you should get it right. And eat lots of protein. It is very satiating. Headaches are normal, the’ll pass. Drink LOTS of water, you’ll eventually find you balance.
I was looking at some videos by Doctors on You Tube and some of them are quite interesting. These doctors are nutrition based “You are what you eat.” advisers. One of the videos stated that certain people have really strong cravings for sugar and that when they eat it they actually feel better. If they don’t eat it they feel weak and unwell. So if someone like this got diabetes there would be a lot of fighting the cravings for sugar.
I was like that… when I ate sugar I felt less pain and I would just feel better. I know that with diabetes that was too bad, that a lot of sugar was not an option. Try adding vegetables to your diet, like four a day and drink water. See if that helps you lessen your sugar cravings. It helped me. Also remember if you have diabetes and you eat a lot of sugar anyway that you could end up with a messed up liver. High glucose levels can hurt the liver and believe me…You want your liver to work right.
Hi. I’ve had diabetes for about 9 years. Diagnosed with Type 1.5 later in life. Right around that time of the month I crave everything including sweets and no matter how much I try to tell myself not to eat it or I’ll be sorry if I do, I still find myself indulging in things I shouldn’t. I can’t stop myself. And the worst part is that I don’t get full. I just want to keep eating and eating. I’ve tried everything to curtail the craving for sugar. Nothing seems to work until I read a book that gave a recipe for chia pudding. I tried it and it did fullfil that need for sweets and gave me the feelling of being full. And best of all it was good to my diabetes. My numbers stayed pretty low. So here is the recipe, give it a try.
Chia Pudding
1/4 cup chia seeds
1/2 cup hot water
Let seeds sit in hot water for 5 minutes.
Add:
2-3 tablespoons half and half
1 tsp of coconut oil
1 tablespoon agave 
1 tablespoon dried coconut
1/4 to 1/2 of a 
4-5 
cut in quarters
5 tablespoons roasted almonds (or any nuts you prefer)
Mix and enjoy.
I can enjoy this dessert, as I like to refer to eat and usually give myself two units of insulin and I get a rise of 120 or less if I does 15-20 minutes before I eat it.
Have been using dates lately to stop serious sweet cravings and seems to work for me. A brand called Medjool is available in most supermarkets here in Australia.
I have 1 or 2 at a time (some times even 3 !) and it seems to stop that craving for hours and they are packed with goodness. . Even 1 before retiring at night seems to stop early morning cravings.
There are many similar date products available and where possible I go for organic ones.
10th year as a Type 1 and always learning, never forget the best medicines are free, Exercise, fresh water, sunshine, fresh air, and have I mentioned Exercise. 
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Dr Bernstiens book is informative but the rigid guidelines he outlines are more of a work in progress for me.
I have significantly cut back on carbs but that diet was way to hard to do so I had to add a little more carbohydrates to stay balanced.
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The sugar is a form of self medication
I do feel better afterwards
Even though I know it’s killing me
I totally get that. Sugar is a drug and has similar physiological effects. Dr Bernstein actually talks about that. It is funny how wrapped up in food we are. How it makes us happy or not. I was just discussing binge eating in a Facebook group. And sometimes people geg depressed because they feel isolated in terms of food. The thing about low carb is that it takes time and work, no question. But the rewards are pretty great. So even if it is a work in progress, keep chipping away at it. Another thing that works s bit like sugar is exercise. Hard to motivate yourself if you are feeling down, but it can lift your spirits. We all go through periods of feeling like failures. Keep working at it and you’ll get there.
I would eat fruit if you want something sweet. I eat various fruit with each meal. The foods that are impossible for me are gluten and any grains or starchy things like potatoes.
Here is a peach custard recipe I made for the weekly dinner with my mother-in-law. She is 85 years old and loves custard.
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Cut a peach in half, remove the pit and slowly, carefully peel the peach. Slice the peach into eighteen thin slices.
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Sauté nine of the more attractive slices in butter, but only enough to make them soft and juicy. Move them off the heat.
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Mix one cup of whole cream (for three custards) with four egg yolks, a spoonful of white sugar, a spoonful of brown sugar and two spoons of Stevia.
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Use a double boiler to heat the custard and stir constantly until the custard sticks to your rubber tool or the sides of the pan.
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Prepare three short pyrex dishes with butter. I sprinkled sugar on the bottom. Then place three uncooked slices of peach into the bottom of each dish in a pinwheel pattern. I put a pinch of brown sugar on each peach slice.
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Ladle custard into each dish. Place the three dishes into a bain-marie and fill carefully with hot water from the kettle. Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 to 45 minutes. The custard will giggle a little even when cooked.
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Finish each dish with three of the peach slices you sautéed, placing them carefully in a pinwheel pattern on top of the custard. I sprinkled each with turbinado sugar. Let them cool, then tuck them in the fridge.
Note: what I do is have a carbless dinner and then enjoy a fruity custard with my wife and her mother. Yum.
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@John131, I know exactly how you feel. When I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes I was really serious about doing whatever I could to avoid complications in the future. I found out that cutting way down on sugar was so difficult. I found that whenever I cut carbs a few things would happen. One, I felt weak and sick and also depressed. It was not a little bit. It was huge. I felt ill. The dietician said just cut carbs and your body will get used to it, but that was not the case… I also noticed that whenever I went for a run, at approximately 2-3 miles I would have to eat carbs or I would get in terrible trouble. I could go out at 250, which would make one think that they needed to run to get it down, but I would have to eat a snack with carbs to come back in at 70, then the whole night and next morning I would be getting lows and feeling ill.
It wasn’t until I got a bit older and started to get some really scary complications that I tried again.
I did a super overhaul on my diet where I ate a lot of vegetables and cut glucose. I find that staying on the high end of the recommendations for glucose helped and that beans and rice and peanut butter or nuts alone helped to make me feel better and stronger and more able to cope with depression and just feeling like crap.
Next time you get feeling like having something sweet try an avocado. Learn to cook really tasty veggies of all different kind.
I hear you, I was the same way. You can change your whole perspective on food. Think of caring for your diabetes as a symphony, not whistling a little tune. This is serious stuff and it is your experience of life that counts. It was a long process and a lot of work to get it right. I think you can do it too because you will not feel good with a high BG after the sugar. The little bit of enjoyment or relief from eating sugar doesn’t last long. I bet a couple hours later you are high and that can make you feel horrible and affect your mood. I am glad you posted your concerns.
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The thing is when I stick with the low carb diet I have lots of energy
I’ve never been a morning person but I am able to run and not get sore as if I’m twenty and not my almost forty years.
It’s strange how cutting crackers,breads and other starchy elements out of my diet could make such a profound impact
When I first started I would get these terrible moods that I would characterize as a symptom of depression and then I noticed the constant of low bg levels and realized it wasn’t really that bad and was just mood swings brought on by low levels.
That being said,It doesn’t make it easier to cope with.
The alternative will surely make already complications worse and maybe even provoke more problems.
I’m not looking for perfection just trying to balance it
I accept it but always find myself binging and having to throw out stuff because it makes me sick to mystomach.
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