I hope you are all well. I just wanted to shed a bit of positivity. I know a lot of people have seen me struggle, so i believe it is my job to also motivate everyone in the way they have for me :)
I am currently doing full time University and two causal jobs. I have assignments coming out of my ears and some of my circumstances at the moment are driving me absolutely insane. And all of this combined would usually send my diabetes to the fiery depths of hell. BUT. It didnt...
I know the Berstien diet is controversial. My mother and I followed it for two weeks and it went pretty well but also effected my energy levels. (Surprisingly never fell into hypos!) But we decided to tweak it slightly and not be obsessive about his rules. However we are taking the low carb/no carb diet very seriously and I have to say it has completely reduced my stress about my disease over the last 2ish months. I think a lot of our diabetes hurt stems directly from over eating carbs and wondering why it sends our bg's sky high and then feeling guilty. Since I have removed carbs from my diet, I don't obsess about my sugars because I know almost every time they are okay. At times, they may be slightly elevated but never hit a dangerous level and I feel that my levels are so extremely easy to control that it doesn't take up half my life. I cheat now and then with no guilt (and I am talking cappuccinos, not cake and lollies and sweets and pasta and rice and bread, haha), because my new life style is permanent and I can easily slip back into my routine of no carbs.
I know these things don't work for everyone. But if you can read up on Dr. Berstien or even 'Sugar Poison' you will see that half the things we eat aren't necessary and you can adjust it to suit your life style as much as possible. The other day my mother and I had no choice but to go to McDonald's for breakfast, I kicked against it but we ended up getting a bacon and egg Muffin without the muffin. Haha, it worked! And I didn't have to sit there imagining my blood levels rising.
Good luck on this constant journey! Keep positive. Know that these lows will always happen as long as you keep picking yourself up.
I have to agree. We were on vacation last week and although I tried counting my carbs carefully I was screwing up left and right and none of the stress ( three arrows straight up !!) was worth a few bites of carbs. Who knew there are >50 grams of carbs in a Vietnamese egg roll, not me apparently. I’ve low carbing for two days since we returned home and I feel so much better!!! It works!
Funny I should happen upon your post. Was just at my diabetes educators today and she brought up dr.Bernstein and that there is a new book out. I have forgotten the name but plan on getting it from her. I have to get myself off carbs since all I have been reading suggests my cravings for them will subside once my body adjusts which at the moment is my biggest issue. It would be so nice not to be obsessing over how much carbs are in every single thing I put in my mouth. Thanks for the info :)
There is a big difference between the restriction carbs and to eat no carbs at all. I would not recommend to eat less than 100g of carbs per day. There is a high risk that the following will happen:
a) your muscles need a steady storage of glucogen created from digested carbs. Without this storage the mucles will become catabolic which will break the muscles down.
b) Muscles are very important for your metabolism. The will consume excessive carbs from your blood stream. Furthermore they will consume fat in the inactive state. So they are important for the regulation of weight too.
c) If the muscles are consumed to get the carbs in their glucagon store the body will slow down the metabolism. Now that there are less muscles to consume fat the body will preserve as much body fat as possible.
a) b) c) can lead to a very bad cycle. At the end you will experience massive spikes with even small amounts of carbs. This is caused by the missing buffer function of the muscles. A high amount of body fat will accumulate because the main consumers for fat - the muscles - are reduced. The more body fat the more this will make you insensitive to insulin. Now it just needs a down regulation of the insulin receptors of the cells to get into trouble: increased need for insulin, more accumulation of fat, more weight gain. As a reaction the consume of food might be further restricted. It can really lead to a very troubling spiral that has nothing in common with a "healthy eating style". Again I have nothing against the restriction of carbs but we should not neglect the needs our bodies have.
Loving hearing both sides of the low carb/no carb debate. I have discussed it with my diabetes educator and have bought Dr. Bernsteins book. I know I would find cutting out carbs altogther far too difficult and now that I have read your post Holger I feel that leaving some carbs in will probably work for me and give me the control of my sugars that I am constantly striving for.
Just for the record for others, Dr. Bernstein is not zero carbs. Zero carbs would essentially mean eating no vegetables, nuts or even the few that are in eggs. Zero carbs would be severely nutrient deficient.
I am also very conflicted when it comes to the debates, and I appreciate your input Holger. Gerri - This was my problem! But Mum and I are back on Vegetables. Just the ones that are controllable, for instance, the Berstien said no Tomatoes or Carrots or Onions, but those I eat now. But I prefer not to eat potatoes and rice and bread and all those sorts of things. Because I know now instinctively what will raise my blood or not. I don't want people to compromise their health, but I would like to say that reducing most of your regular carbs will definitely help. And I'm talking pasta and fruit and bread and cake and lollies and obvious carbs.
I've been following Dr. Bernstein's recommendations for over 3.5 years with nothing but positive results. Dr. B doesn't prohibit tomatoes or onions (unless that's in the new edition of his book), but cautions to eat them in very small amounts. I eat them now & then & count them into my daily carb total. Fortunately, most veggies are low carb. Glad you're eating vegetables. We need the vitamins, minerals & fiber..
100g onions have 9g of carbs. 100g tomatoes have 3.4g of carbs.
In my opinion the death from accute flatulence is more likely than having a problem with a huge spike from the carbs. To me this is were Bernstein really has traits of a fundamentalist.
The ADA proposed much more than 100g of carbs per day and I think this was very wrong. But to limit yourself to less than 100g per day is not recommendable - especially with higher levels of physical activity. Please do not take Bernstein himself as the living proof that his approach works. I heard of several smokers that got older than 100 years but I would not take that as an indicator that smoking is good for your health.
Today we have abundance of carbohydrates and especially sugar in our food. In contrast our physical level of activity is much lower than decades ago. It is the right approach to lower the carbohydrate intake in general. But research also indicates that carbs are an ideal source of energy. This is why today we see recommendations for healthy people that half of the daily energy should come from carbs. Not a recommendable amount for us but still we should acknowledge that carbs are important.
I see another problem here. By avoiding carbs you will never develop the skills to handle them. Repetion and learning from mistakes can open a way to handle different foods: different waiting times, finding the appropriate type of insulin, dual waves etc.
