This is not new, but I have not seen it before and it is well written,
Hmmm. Please note that this is hardly an unbiased article written by an open-minded journalist. It was written by Adam Campbell, who has written a mass-market low-carb diet book. And it relies heavily on quotes from Dr. Feinman, a researcher who believes so strongly in low-carb that he takes funding from the Atkins foundation and has created a society and an online journal in order to publish pro-low-carb research.
Thanks Jag. Did not not know these things. I still like the article and still think the ADA is out of line, but I’m just going by my own experience. No scientific study.
Randy,
I’m no fan of the ADA, quite the opposite. One has only to look at their funding sources. The ADA was against home glucose monitors.
I’ve been on the ADA diet & low carb. Low carb wins hands down. As a newly diagnosed T1 who knew next to nothing about diabetes, I was stunned that everywhere I turned I saw high carb recommendations that kept me on a perpetual BG roller coaster. For the first time in my life, I gained weight. Knew there had to be a more sane way to tame this beast.
On a low carb/moderate protein/high fat diet, I’ve had more level BG, take less insulin, have far more energy & a great lipid profile. My doctor is suprised how much my lipids improved eating an increased amount of fat, but he’s bought into the low fat myth like most healthcare professionals.
One day, the tide will turn & people will shake their heads in disbelief at what PWD were told to eat.
Thanks, Randy. I’m actually glad to see any articles or papers on the subject of Diabetes and Diabetes management so I hope you’ll post any more you find. I don’t mean to imply that the article should be dismissed - there are certainly a lot of people who think ultra low-carb works great and is a better way of eating. I just wanted to point out that the people writing and quoted in the article have a very definite bias.
Thanks Jag. I am a firm believer in finding your own way with managing D. I am truly amazed that some people find good control with an ADA style of diet. But I do think they are very rare. My plan has been to get my numbers close to normal with a narrow range of food (so I could live) then begin to add to my menu and track those results. It took about 2 weeks to realize that the diet I got from a CDE was not going to get me where I wanted to be. So, the bias in this article is in line with my own.
I’m still in the middle. I have enjoyed quite a pleasant experience reducing carbs, losing weight and not bothering to spend as much time messing around cleaning up my BG. At the same time, I love potato chips and pretty much any other kind of potato. And various other horrid carby things.
When I first started hanging around here, I made a snarky remark about needing carbs to workout and was told off and, as I happened to be off that week, I ran like 30 miles and cut way back on carbs and it worked out ok, I didn’t feel drained or anything so I’m personally skeptical of that argument. I’ve done 3 1/2 marathons and didn’t eat dinner the night before any of them. Yes I was tired but not hungry tired. This is mostly @ the suggestion of Jeff Galloway, a runner who just touches on nutrition but seems to have worked ok for me.
I get dismayed by suggestions that “you can’t eat carbs” but I have to recognize that it’s way easier to eat less of them. This makes me think that the low carb science will be more likely to be found to be correct. I don’t think that it’s an accident that the genetic roots of diabetes seem to have been dated back around 12000 years, around the time starches began to be cultivated and entered the human diet more? Unfortunately, I can’t remember where I read that either so I’m sort of a horrible contributor to these sort of discussions…
Actually, if you have followed much of the men’s health and other fitness and bodybuilding literature, you will find that low carb has been recognized for years as a route to becoming healthy, lean and muscular. While you suggest that there is a low carb mafia, run by the russians and Atkinites, it is really hard to think that there is an actual conspiracy.
It baffles me. I just don’t understand the logic in resisting LC especially from the medical community. If A1c is any indication LC is a winner. Last Oct (at dx) I was 12.3, Feb it was 5.5 and July was 5.4. My vision and NP are greatly improved and improving. I can understand a PWD not being keen on low carb, but to be told that it is not a safe or effective option is bizarre in my book. For me it makes the ADA and any others singing that song less than relevent and in fact, dangerous.
I went to an ADA expo in Seattle this spring and one of the largest exhibitors was Minute Rice! Really? My wife was blown away.
The only problem with this article is that it is NOT the American Diabetes Association that advocated high-carb, but the American Dietetic Association. The ADiabA advocates a diet that fits the needs and preferences of the patient. The ADietA advocates a low-fat, high-carb diet. Both Marion Franz and Hope Warshaw (another high-carb advocate), while members of the ADiabA are Registered Dietitians, and actually represent the views of the ADietA, even when speaking and writing for the ADiabA.
The problem is that doctors study woefully little about nutrition in med school. CDE’s get most of their info from the ADA, like doctors. The same flawed info is passed around from the same source. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been told my brain would starve on low carb & that I was courting heart disease eating high fat.
Have you seen the discussion started by Low Carb Dietitian? She’s a CDE.
Not surprised to see Minute Rice at the ADA conference. Were their big Pharma funders represented as well? Follow the money.
Congrats of on your fabulous A1c!
I LOVE CARBS! Don’t get me wrong. I still have carbs because I like them. I Like whiskey and beer too. I still have all of these, just not like I used to have them. I have a cookie, apiece of pie, a drink. Keyword “a” and I have to recognize how that will work with whatever else I am eating and my level of activity. I don’t see this as an all or nothing proposition. I just know that if I stick to about 100g per day I need very little Apidra to get the results I want.
No wonder it was / is so confusing to figure this out. I did not know this. Thanks for the info. I still think the ADA is out of line though. I also think Hope does not live up to her name.
I thought the article was well written and well reasoned, but that’s no surprise considering low carb has worked for me in dealing with T2. T2s should be presented with low carb as an option, and if it doesn’t work, or they can’t stay on it, or they refuse to consider it, the drug/higher carb option is always there. Many people consider it preferable to avoid taking drugs, if possible. The problem is that this option is never even presented to most newly diagnosed T2’s.
Some of my favorite quotes:
Quoting Richard Feinman “They want diabetics to take medication to lower their blood sugar, but recommend a diet that has the opposite effect.”
"Dr. Vernon is more matter-of-fact about the remedy and the results. ‘I believe in addressing the cause, not the symptoms,’ she says. ‘That’s why I first eliminate the foods that raise blood sugar. It’s only logical.’ "
“An analysis of the high-carbohydrate, low-fat plan, presented last January at a conference of the Nutrition & Metabolism Society, showed that it didn’t provide the recommended dietary allowances (RDA) of four essential nutrients: potassium, iron, vitamin D, and vitamin E. The ADA diet, in fact, was deficient.” So much for healthy whole grains.
Commenting on the recommendation that all diabetics be started on metformin immediately. “With total sales of metformin having neared $1.1 billion in 2005, according to IMS Health, this recent recommendation must have brought a big smile to big pharma”
In the words of Deep Throat “Follow the Money”
The main purpose of this alphabet soup is to obfuscate 
Thanks Gerri. I believe there were sore pharmers as well. I was still pretty wobbly and visually impaired. Plus I was looking for things that would be of more interest to a T1. Most, but not all, of the exhibits were geared to T2.
A$olutely! My Dad has been T2 for a couple years. I was amazes and very angry when we began sharing info after my Dx. I could not believe the informayion he was given . not to mention that which he was NOT given.
As for low fat… I you read ANY nutrition label for a low fat product and compare it to the regular product you will find both higher carbs and sugars. My Dad’s Dr advises him to eat low fat and test only in the morning.
Again, I just don’t understand the inability to clear your mind long enough to think this through and realize that controlling carbs is a key to good management and weight loss. I mean, is it really that mysterious?
Unfortunately, Natalie I think the ADiabA’s version of a diet that fits the needs and preferences of the patient, the so-called “no bad food campaign” fosters two equally detremental attitudes. First it is, imho, rooted in the belief that the patient will be “non-compliant” so why even bother, and second, given the dietary outlook, at least in the U.S. where fast food abounds, servings could feed a developing nations family of 4, carbs rule and over-eating is a contact sport, what do you think the majority of patients will choose?
I consider myself a pretty health conscious person and have never set foot in a fast food restaurant. (Well ok once when I was on a greyhound bus and that’s where it stopped for meal break). When I was diagnosed (originally misdiagnosed type 2), I said “I’m a vegetarian, I haven’t eaten sugar in 13 years, I eat healthy”. The person I saw (RD, CDE?) said then there was no reason to change and didn’t bother asking if, as a vegetarian I ate lots of rice and pasta. Instead they put me on four oral meds and I went happily on my way. In fairness, I got good numbers with this approach (until I needed insulin as a LADA). But nobody ever suggested the option of lowering carbs and exercising as an alternative to multiple medcations!
Curious is any of your low carb thinking has rubbed off on your Dad?
My favorie was ““This is like saying it’s all right to eat contaminated spinach just because you have an antibiotic,” says Feinman.”