Mediterranean Diet & Type 1 Diabetes

Hello Friends-
I have recently found out a few medical issues and am looking for solutions that wouldn't involve just another pill to take. I have come across the Mediterranean Diet/lifestyle in my studies.
Has anyone with Type 1 Diabetes tried this?
How has it affected your Diabetes if at all?
I also have recently developed issues with high cholesterol and high iron. I already eat a Pescatarian diet which is basically a vegetarian who eats fish.
Thoughts?

Whatis the mediterraneam diet .I am portuguese it is suposed i know what that is but don´t know what is mediterrean diet is ?

I have eaten Mediterranean meals for many years, although I'm sure I eat more red meat than most Greeks or Italians.I find that it's more important for me to make food choices based on what my meter says. If it is hard to dose for don't eat it, if my BG is out of target range don't eat...it's really not rocket science, if it spikes my BG I don't eat it...well most of the time.

The Mediterranean diet emphasizes: Eating primarily plant-based foods, such as fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts.Replacing butter with healthy fats, such as olive oil. Using herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor foods.Limiting red meat to no more than a few times a month.Eating fish and poultry at least twice a week. I would say a diabetic should also limit the whole grains and legumes.

This diet also recognizes the importance of being physically active, most of us drive a car to work and most Mediterraneans walk to work or the train station, ride a bike or something. They also enjoy meals with family and friends almost every day. Fast food is still a luxury in europe...almost never.

In wich european contry you only eat meat two or tree time a mnth meat Romenia ?
Fast food is available every where .
European walk to their job ?! If you say they if they could they go to their desk inthere car i will believe.

The mediterranean diet is a myth nowadays 20 or 30 years ago that was a fact ,European eat highfat high carb meals like every undustrialized contry ,that is why we have alot of people with weight problems .

Hi,

I eat something close to a Mediterranean diet - lot's of vegetables and olive oil, moderate amounts of whole grains, legumes, fish and fresh fruit and do well on it. The high fat/high fiber nature of the diet tends to slow blood sugar spikes which means that while you may not go very high at 2 hours, you may still be above target at 4 if you don't hit your insulin right.

Maurie

agreed JohnG. Amen to that. Get the excess heavy duty carbs (grains)out and up the
exercise. I believe you have what is considered the basic framework of the Mediterranean diet along with some good red wine and a occasional drink.

There are a lot of different ideas about what a Mediterranean diet is exactly. At my last endo visit we had a discussion about my drinking wine every day. I claimed that researched showed that it was healthy and it was consistent with my efforts to follow a very low carb Mediterranean diet. My endo however argued that wine is not part of the Mediterranean diet and we spent far too long on that discussion.

That being said, while I am not a T1, I am a T2 on insulin and I follow a diet very similar to the Ketogenic Mediterranean diet advocated by Dr. Steve Parker. I buy my olive oil at Costco in big double 2 liter jugs. I also eat lots of saturated fat, with lots of butter (Kerrygold is my favorite) and coconut oil. I don't believe that cholesterol has any significant relationship to CVD and dietary cholesterol for most people plays virtually no role in the cholesterol level in your blood. In fact, high cholesterol is often a result of elevated blood sugars as your body converts excess glucose into triglycerides and shuttles them to fat storage. My position with my doctors has long been that they should first help me normalize my blood sugar before attempting to treat the results of high blood sugars (like elevated cholesterol).

ps. One of my current favorite dishes is seared fish served with a garlic aoili.

10-4 Brian(bsc) excellent comment. The seared fish plus garlic aoli sounds real neat. Best wishes and thank you for commenting!

I eat something like a mediterranean diet or some parts of it... lots of non starchy veggies, chicken/turkey, some fish, olive oil, cheese/butter/eggs- don't think these are meditarrean.., no grains though and only berries, no starchy veggies, no milk except yogurt and cream. I drink red wine with dinner usually although when my reflux gets worse I stop it for a few days. I try to walk 1-2 miles nearly everyday. I heard a radio show the other day discussing the vegan diet which mentioned a study which showed staggering % for vegans vs vegetarians and meat eaters of less of all the major diseases and I'm thinking about mostly raw vegan again but I haven't worked out how I will keep it low carb and what I will eat for proteins and how I will do it with all the other foods I've eliminated. I did buy some tofu and vegetarian cheese the other day to start me out on a trial of those foods to see if I can eat them again, I was vegetarian and then vegan for a while before my D diagnosis. The % mentioned were 60% less cvd, 40% less cancer, 60 less type 2, 40% less cataract and more. I can't remember the name of the book or the author who wrote it based on these studies but she was from Canada. I will try to find it. It was interesting that they found that vegetarians who ate milk, cheese eggs etc. didn't have much difference from meat eaters in the studies.

meee- I don't know about a Canadian author, but the information you're talking about sounds like the theories that Dr. Joel Fuhrman writes about. He calls it being a "nutritarian" - far more veg, not much processed stuff, added oil, or animal products. My husband is starting a nutritarian program, and I may join him if I can do so safely. Am already eating vegetarian, so it's not too much of a stretch. According to what I've been reading in a few places, it keeps BG levels more level and lessens the need for as much insulin in T1. I'm intrigued and strongly pondering. You may want to look it up, as you've already shown an interest in veganism. (Our meals and lifestyles are not one-size-fits-all, so I'm not necessarily espousing it for all my fellow TuD-ers....)
As to the original poster, Katelin - my biggest issue with a Mediterranean diet is that it's often high in carbs. If you're planning on enjoying a diet rich with veggies,beans, and fish but cutting back on the pasta and bread, that would likely be better than the standard american diet. I'm on the fence about the effects of oils on cholesterol. I'm leaning towards nutritarian like I mentioned to meee above, as lowering fat and eating more vegetables is unlikely to hurt me - it's just stricter.
Whatever you end up doing, I'd be interested in having you post later with how it's going.

Thank you all for your comments. They have been a help. In response to Brian (bsc)'s comment, I have been working with my doctors for the last 5 years now since I've had type 1 to get my high blood sugars really solidly under control and then fix the side effect problems that might be happening and we were doing good. However in the last year my blood sugars have decided to have a mind of their own and have started new patterns that we are still working to get under control, my endo doesn't seem too concerned it's other doctors that are.
Basically at this point I'm on a mission to try to find things I can do on my own with my doctor's buy-in that will provide them some comfort and keep me off of just taking more meds everyday. I'm on enough as it is and would rather have a natural solution to solve these sorts of issues until my blood sugars are back under control.
Thanks for the advice everyone!

Thanks rood girl, I have heard of dr. fuhrman I think but not the nutritarian-I didn't know he suggested a vegan diet- I will look him up for sure and post back. I watched some videos made by a woman who is type 1 on youtube who was eating a raw vegan diet of veggies and fruit- she got her carb ratio to 1:60... not sure what happened in the end. But I was impressed with that. I don't know if I can tolerate higher carbs but I'll see what happens and post back.I ate an almost vegan meal tonight of hummus, snow pea grass, carrots, pickles, tofu, olives and nuts and berries and consommé. I will see how my bg does. I have a virus or a something so it's hard to tell since that can spike me. But it was pretty good, I felt full afterwards :)