Can anyone help and tell me what kind of diet (specific foods to eat) for my type one? I wanna be on a strict diet as of 2010.thanx
Hi Tim,
Jenny’s site (& book of the same name) http://www.bloodsugar101.com is a good place to start. Dr. Richard Bernstein’s book Diabetes Solution is wonderful. He advocates for a low carb diet to keep BG in control with correspondingly lower insulin doses. I follow Dr. Bernstein’s recommendations & it’s helped me tremendously. When I followed the ADA guidelines of 45-60 carbs per meal, my numbers were all over the place. I felt horrible from the low & high swings that accompanied larger insulin doses.
Are you counting carbs?
Guess it’s easier to list what not to eat if you want to be on a strict diet. People vary widely on what they eat & how much. It also depends on how active you are. Some eat whatever they want in moderation. This didn’t work for me. I basically eat lean protein & low carb veggies, eggs, nuts & cheese. I use almond flour, coconut flour & flaxseed meal for making pancakes, muffins, cookies & unsweetened almond milk as a substitute for cow’s milk, With sufficient protein & fat, lower carb meals keep you feeling full & satisfied. It’s high carb that makes us hungry. Foods I don’t eat: grains (bread, crackers, cereal, pasta, etc.), beans, fruit or fruit juice, milk & starchy vegetables. It’s not as restrictive as it sounds because I’ve found great recipes & alternatives for high carb food.
As much as possible, I keep on a regular schedule for eating (meals 4 hours apart) & try to keep the amount of carbs & protein consistent. For snacks, I eat cheese, nuts, raw vegetables. I’m not a big snacker.
Hope this helps.
Hey gerri, im going through the site&links and i like it, it has everything i wanna know and im learning lots so far thanx alot for that info. I dont count carbs though but i wanna start to from sometime mid this month…what kinda of lean protein & low carb recipes can you recommend? Im well…kinda was the eat everything but in moderation kinda guy…i try not to do lots of grains but i love fruits
Hey Tim,
Learning to count carbs is important. Glad that’s on your list.
Lean protein-- red meats that don’t have a lot of fat, chicken, turkey & fish. The reason to watch fat is because it slows digestion. When you’re matching insulin to food, you don’t want the food to hit your blood when the insulin is gone & have high BG.
I love fruit also, but it sends me soaring. Small amounts of berries, unsweetened coconut & tart apples don’t effect me badly, but I’d rather eat juicy tropical fruits.
Here are some sites:
Linda’s Low Carb Menus & Recipes http://genaw.com/lowcarb/index.html
The Low Carb Cafe www.lowcarbcafe.com
Low Carb Luxury http://www.lowcarbluxury.com/index.html
Simply Recipes http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/low_carb/
Low Carb Eating http://lowcarbeating.com/
Let me know what you think of them. Hope you find many that will make your tummy happy.
Ok, thanxs i will…just on phone internet thats why im a lil slow and maybe not much info back at ya
I really appriciate it, your earlier info was a great help.thanx
Any recipies.??
No fun doing that trying to read long posts or search sites.
We’re all here to help each other. Holler if you need anything.
Sorry, US measurements here. = )
Whole foods with low fat. Have a snack with an apple and a cheese stick or a 1/4 cup of nuts or so.
Eat whole rolled oats or Quaker Instand Oatmeal with fiber for breakfast. I add flax seed (crushed) and almond slivers to get protein and extra fiber. Or you can add milk.
My dietician talked to me, saw what I like to eat, and gave me 3" x 5" cards with different foods on them. I ended up with the following examples for lunch items that are simple and gives me a good idea of portions:
- 1/2 cup ww spaghetti noodles + 3 oz meat + 1/2 spaghetti sauce + 1 cup broccoli
- 3 oz canned chicken + 2 cup salad greens + catalina dressing + 5 crackers.
- sandwich - 2 pieces bread (40 cal each) + 3 oz turkey + 1/2 cup cucumber slices + 1/6 lb carrots.
- Tostada - 1 corn tortilla + 1/4 cup vegetarian refried beans + 2 oz ground pork + 1/2 oz cheese + lettuce, salsa
These are foods I like and they are easy to pack for lunch without much work. See what works for you. Instead of whole wheat spaghetti noodles, I actually prefer spaghetti squash, but it doesn’t keep you full as long as the pasta. If I have regular pasta, my rule is eat at least twice the volume of broccoli as pasta, because otherwise I don’t stop eating pasta. = )
You will need a food scale and some measuring cups / spoons.
Tim,
Foods like oatmeal, beans, bread, pasta will raise BG significantly because they’re high carb. When you learn to count carbs (not hard to do), it’s good to set a carb goals for meals.
There are on-line carb counters. Packaged food contains carb info on the label, though sometimes labels are way off. I love my EatSmart scale. It’s preprogrammed with 999 foods. Gives weight, carbs (for cooked & raw foods), sodium, fat, protein, etc. in ounces & grams.
Some low carb veggies are leafy greens, radishes, cucumbers, scallions, summer squashes, spaghetti squash, anything in the cabbage family (cauliflower, broccoli, bok choy, cabbage), asparagus, spinach, mushrooms & turnips.
High carb veggies: peas, carrots, onions, of course potatoes, winter squash & anything starchy.
Fruit & milk are high carb.
@gerri, thank you for everything, your really helping me alot, im gonna look at thoes things! Now…im just on phone internet…for now!
You’re welcome, dear Tim. Happy if anything I said helps you!
Sorry - I disagree with Dr. Bernstein. I feel his diet it much too extreme. Personally, I was diagnosed in the dark ages (1972) when they actually hospitalized people and the dietician came in with the list of food exchanges and determined how many calories you needed per day (I was a teenager) and the doctor matched my insulin doses accordingly.
Nowadays, everyone seems to just "count carbs,’ and so many people do not eat a balanced diet, as a result of that. If I were you, I would get a registered dietician, who is also a CDE (Certified Diabetes Educator) to help you out. If you don’t want to go that route, and can manage your insulin dosing all by yourself, then tune in to Dr. Oz, who makes wonderful recommendations as to what people should eat to stay healthy (fiber, fruits and vegetables, lean meats, Omega 3’s, etc.
I follow Dr. Bernstein’s recommendations & eat a balanced diet. Nothing imbalanced about eating protein, lots of vegetables, nuts, small amounts of berries, etc. There’s a lot of fiber in vegetables. People don’t need grains, beans & starchy vegetables. The grain heavy diet has been implicated in a host of health issues & there’s much research to support this. Following a low carb diet has improved my BG control, blood lipid profile & energy level as it has many people. Taking less insulin has advantages as well.
Dieticians & the vast majority of CDEs push ADA recommendations of 45-60 carb meals that are too high carb to allow good control for most people. They endorse A1cs are that too high to accommodate their carb heavy diet.
@june.thanx alot, is he the guy that comes on oprah? I like the things he talks about…i will check the dr.oz web site and get back to you.