Diabetes meals/eating Plans?

Hi poster #1 - diabetic here - type 2 on insulin - I would honestly recommend the Dr Bernstein book as well.I borrowed it from the library and so impressed I actually bought it and his cookbook from his website.It IS written by a diabetic who is living proof of the way he lives.A lot of the information diabetics are given here are not written by diabetics - personally I would rather read something by someone who has lived and is still living the disease.My reading of the book was like reading a book about me in detail.He nails all the issues on the head basically.I was sort of following the diet the diabetes society recommended diet and was still having enourmous readings after eating what they recommended.So what I have done is reduced my carbs intake and am now getting single figure readings mostly which is what I am after.What I am looking for is to have readings without the super huge spikes you get from eating excess carbs.Example I eat weetbix for breakfast - 2 hours later I am sitting at about 15 - I have bacon and eggs for breakfast and I am about 8 - go figure!My advice to you would be to get hold of this book and have a read (or your friend), get a meter and do trial and error - that is how you will work out what is going to work for you or not.Keep a diary and record what you eat and the reading that way you will have your own person record.Discuss this also with your doctor or nurse.Take a step towards taking control of your own health.I am not saying cutting carbs out completely - just reduce them down and you will be amazed by the readings you will get.Also one thing you have to watch out for is some of the diabetic medication goes hand and hand with carbs - eg I take glipizide as well and my diabetic nurse told me to cut this back if I was eating less carbs so just double check with your health professional first to make sure. Oh and I unashamedly eat butter, olive oil etc - dont touch low fat products or artifical sweeteners.I wont use margarine or any like that - it just tastes wrong these days.No low cal soft drinks - these days they taste like either pure syrup or poison.this was someone who was drink a 1.5litre of coke zero a day - if I feel like something sweet these days will have half glass of it and remember why I dont drink it any more - yuk.
Also poster one please encourage your friend to take time out for his health sake - the complications of this disease are not nice and he needs to get it under control now rather than later.

The best post here by far pixiegirl, I am Type 2 and the only advice I will accept comes from my medical support people, as stated above P1's friend needs to take the time to get it right, if they were diagnosed as diabetic they will definitely know whether they are T1 or T2 and at the time would have been referred to a nurse who would have presented all the facts and given advice on appropriate dietary needs and regular testing with the blood sugar tester will tell them which foods are wrong for them

Maybe pixiegirl is elderly or sedentary, or recently diagnosed and with little management experience as yet.

There is definitely not 'one size fits all' so easygoer's advice to stick with your individualised plan is spot on.

Just tiresome ellihen. Someone doesn't agree with your flat earth ideas of nutrition and the first thing you do is try to discredit them by disparaging them. Why so antsi! You do not have diabetes. Pixiegirl does. She lives with the reality daily and is working hard to prevent the damage that excess glucose in the bloodstream can do.

If one size doesn't fit all, then how come the advice on the most loved by you and cooks site, the Diabetes Society, dishes out the same dietary advice for everyone! They aren't making any exceptions. Their advice is identical for everyone. Very strange. Just too bad, it is not healthy for diabetics in the long term.

If you read Pixiegirl's post carefully you will understand that the advice she got from her medical support was actually causing her harm. It wasn't until she read Dr Bernstein's book that she was given the tools to really help her best manage her diabetes. Her medical support is brilliant at the drugs part but still backward in the diet part of the diabetes equation.

Yes, tiresome indeed that the logic of buzzy110 is always so flawed.

The young person with diabetes who plays vigorous sport has an entirely different individualised dietary regime from the sedentary elderly person.Neither will find their individual needs met on the Diabetes NZ website or any other.

That is the point - like an Individual Learning Programme, there is an Individual Dietary Programme mapped for each individual person with IDDM and NIDDM.What works for pixiegirl is fine for pixiegirl and absolutely no one else.

Oh do stop trying to fudge the issues with different examples. Your flat Earth dietary vision doesn't allow for the fact that the body is quite capable of using fat as an energy source, therefore there is no real difference between the regime of an older diabetic and a young sports person.

If I may harp back to Dr Bernstein, he is 74 years of age and is quite capable of outrunning EVERY diabetes doctor who exercises at all of the seminars he attends. He recommends the same regime for young and old, because, unlike you, he actually knows it is the healthiest.

Now I know you disagree with Dr Bernstein, but that does not make you right. Just misguided. When you go and get a doctor's degree and start treating diabetics and write a number of papers on the subject that are peer reviewed and accepted, then I will accept your flat earth theories.

Until then, any diabetic who wants to die and early death, or suffer from the myriad of complications that diabetes entails feel free to follow ellihen's flawed and uneducated advice.

For your information ellihen, when I was recently in the States I actually rang and spoke to Dr Bernstein personally. We discussed a number of subjects to do with diabetes but the main thrust of his advice to me was that not just diabetics, but everyone, should be on a crab reduced diet because that is the most efficient and most healthy diet. It is also the diet that man evolved to eat.

I know you hate hearing examples of just how excellent the low carb diet is but let us look at the Masai tribes who still live the traditional lifestyle. Their diet is almost pure fat and protein with little or no vegetables and zero sugar and grains. They are among the fittest people on Earth. It may have escaped your notice but the fastest people on the planet at the Olympics mostly come from these tribes. (not all, because American and Russians achieve the same speeds with banned steroids).

Your exhortations for young athletes to eat sugary and carbohydrate foods is just a nonsense, and are beyond contempt.

My God Buzy, do you ever stop ranting! The sensible advice that the OP's friend should consult the diabetic educator, and find out more about their own diabetes, would seem to be the best advice offered here.

Acrab reduced diet Buzzy aye! I don't eat alot of crab anyway :p

Now, with that, I do agree.I do not recommend eating too many crabs.

However, you have ascribed so much to me that I've never said that it makes me wonder how many thousands of words you've put into the mouths of all the other people you "quote".

Maybe I could give you an analogy to help you understand the point you are missing. If you wanted general information about an eye problem, you might go to the website of the New Zealand National Eye Centre.

If you needed a diagnosis you would not come to the Trade Me message board.You would see an ophthalmologist and perhaps an optometrist.You might be prescribed glasses.Your glasses would be very different from the glasses of another person with an eye problem.You would not see well through the prescription glasses of any other single person.

In the same way, the dietary prescription for a person with diabetes is just that - an individual prescription devised to finely balance food, exercise and medication.

Long may people who are serious about their diabetes continue to consult their own medical professionals and not Dr Buzzy!

That is quite sensible - but did you take your blood sugars after eating what the nurse said - as pixiegirl did! If yes - was it ok! If no - how do you know!

Many people with diabetes take blood glucose readings up to ten times a day and know quite precisely how their bodies are responding to their food input, exercise output and medication.and they respond with adjustments accordingly.Their meter records can be downloaded to their computers so that they can have a broader overview of their state of health.

People who are managing their diabetes well have all the tools to understand exactly what is happening with their metabolism and, as easygoer has re-stated, it is a personal and individual experience.

No ellie sorry to disappoint you - 51 years old (maybe you class that as elderly - who knows) diagnoised since early 90, always been under doctors care, 10 years ago started with the diabetes nurses and educators.So not new to this.What I was finding was that I was eating what was recommended but still not getting readings low enough - so answer to that more medication and so on and so on.Looking back the info given but a diet based purely on carbs with a bit of protein thrown in along with salad and veges and low fat option.The bulk of the meal was carbs.It never "clicked" with me as to what I was doing wrong and why still high readings.I would than fall off the wagon and go binge eating and of cause naturally - you guessed it - readings were worse.That was my fault and purely my fault for falling off the rails.Can you see a pattern here!What was being recommended by professionals wasn't working for me and I am going to say, generalising here, the majority of people with diabetes, because the problem is now bigger than ever and growing on a daily basis.Over the years the support for diabetics is getting better as such, if you have a good GP they will refer you to the diatician, diabetic educator, nurse plus visits to the podiatrist, eye specials etc - these are all so important as small problems can be detected at those stages.I had been to talks by diabetic people etc and they were quite good but never really stuck in my headhowever the key for me was reading buzzy's Food Lies thread in recipes.The way she explains things just seemed to make sense.It was there I was recommended the Dr Bernstein book and my trial and erroring had begun. I still have my ups and downs dont get me wrong there - I am my own worst enemy when it comes to some things or foods after all that is how I got to where I am today.But bit by bit I am chipping away at the old habits and installing new ones.I have a lot of things to deal with but doing slowly slowly so they make a life changing habit.I, personally, can now recommended a lower carb lifestyle and I ask one thing of any diabetic out there - give it a go - use your meter, do some research and trial and error for yourself - if it works thats great - if not trial and error other things but most importantly work out what works for you.Last time I spoke to my diabetic nurse we were talking about carbs and she basically said things are achanging and the emphasis now is not on so much of a high carb diet.So you see things do change and I have a feeling you will be seeing a lot of changes over the coming years with diabetes recommendation IMO.I cant emphiaze enoughto get hold of Dr bernsteins book and read it - even if you have not developed some of the symptoms he has - prevent it if you can - it is easier than undoing it - believe me.

I am grateful for people on this message board like buzzy and uli and others, people who take the time to find out info, post it for people to use.They have no ulterior motive for this except to get people thinking for themselves and take control of their own health and make the country a healthier place.These people changed their lives and what they eat and now reaping the benefits of it health wise and they just want to pass on what they have learnt.They are "passionate" about it - same as others who are passionate about a certain recipe or a certain piece of cookware.Dont shoot the messanger, keep an open mind, try things for yourself, meter your readings, work in with your health professional - just do it.

Hands up. My bad. I blame the lack of crabs in my diet for my Freudian slip. Obviously I need a bucket of crabs now to get my mind off them.

@@**Wanders away to climb into wetsuit and go crab collecting**@@

Thanks pixiegirl!

Great to read that someone actually is reaping the benefits of my research over the last years.

And yes - you are right - everybody has to do the trial and error themselves - if they want to (or even "dare" to) against that huge wall of advice from dieticians and nurses that have been told that even as a diabetic you need lots of carbs - and so pass on what they have been told.

Good luck on your journey!

Amen. Post of the day to Pixiegirl.

Thanks uli and dazz.

my dietician has jsut tried me on the carb counting thing, it did my head in and sent my levels through the roof. so its back to the minimal sugar, not eat what i want but smaller portion thing for me.

Sounds ominous - your dietician has "tried you" . "on the carb counting thing". what do you mean with that!

And what do you mean with "it did my head in" . you couldn't cope!

". and sent my levels through the roof"! why - because you didn't cope with counting!

Isn't it amazing that thousands of people can do it and have great levels though! Maybe give it another go .

Gosh southerngurl, I don't think I've ever counted carbs in my life. I just learnt what was high carb and then didn't eat it. I can pretty much be assured that I never go over 50grms a day.

Maybe your dietitian needed to be much more informative and helpful. It seems to me that neither of you really wanted to do it - you because you have no faith in the diet and her because it goes against everything she believes.

However, this does not make it bad, simply that the practitioner was uneducated in the diet and process and you didn't understand what exactly you were doing.

i found it so overwhelming. to try and work out what i was eating in portion size and rough carb denomination.

she lives by the whole idea.

Have you ever counted "anything"!
like calories fat, carbs - before!

It seems you were pretty over whlemed .

i tried calorie counting a few years ago.
that did my head in too

Please,dont bring me into your arguments thanks buzzy110