[itissteve]

The ketogenic diet is not a fad diet, it's what we used to treat people with before the advent of insulin.

Sarah Hallberg, D.O., spoke recently at the World Congress on Insulin Resistance, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease.

we also misused [insulin] in type 2 diabetes. Instead of counseling people the way we used to about the food that they're taking in to control their blood sugar, we've just been putting [them] on medication, including insulin

95% of patients in the low-carbohydrate diet group were able to reduce or eliminate the number of medications they were taking, compared with 62% of patients in the low–glycemic diet group

Here's the rest of the story. n.b., her definition of a ketogenic diet is 50 g of carbohydrates or less.

 

[Apercula]

She has a great TEDx Talks video on youtube:

 

[PhoenixFire]

I had 50g of carbs in one chicken caeser salad wrap...

 

[Vagabond]

My friend lost over 70 lbs in 10 months just by doing keto and very little gym. It does work.

 

[xring]

My friend lost over 70 lbs in 10 months just by doing keto and very little gym. It does work.

I'm not so sure that any method that results in weight loss is good. After all, weight loss is one of the first signs of diabetes.
I lost 95 lbs. just by limiting processed foods & eating more vegetables & 3-4 fruits/day. And none of the weight came back.

 

[moon]

I'm not so sure that any method that results in weight loss is good. After all, weight loss is one of the first signs of diabetes.

I gained weight before my diabetes dx. In the prior year I started baking sweets (pastries, whatever), bought a pizza stone and made pizzas regularly, got an ice cream maker and keep myself supplied, ate lots of rice, potatoes, dumplings, drank fresh-squeezed OJ constantly - all this was not characteristic of me and while I noticed the change, I was clueless as to why. My carb cravings were relentless.

When I was extremely sick, collapsed, I went to urgent care and learned I was diabetic with a 14.6 A1c and bg in the 600's. Came to understand then the why of my weight gain. As soon as I stopped gorging on all those carbs, the weight fell back off.

 

[kyteflyer]

I gained weight before my diabetes dx. In the prior year I started baking sweets (pastries, whatever), bought a pizza stone and made pizzas regularly, got an ice cream maker and keep myself supplied, ate lots of rice, potatoes, dumplings, drank fresh-squeezed OJ constantly - all this was not characteristic of me and while I noticed the change, I was clueless as to why. My carb cravings were relentless.

When I was extremely sick, collapsed, I went to urgent care and learned I was diabetic with a 14.6 A1c and bg in the 600's. Came to understand then the why of my weight gain. As soon as I stopped gorging on all those carbs, the weight fell back off.

Interesting. I’ve never actually craved carbs in the sense of wanting to gorge on them. But I have struggled with being overweight all my life, even as a child. Mum never overfed me, and we didn't have sweets and biscuits etc, or cakes... just a “normal” diet. I went on the Dr Atkins diet when it was a thing, everyone I knew who did that lost weight... not me. The main benefit for me was being able to give up having sugar in coffee and tea...

I once went on a calorie reduction diet, it was crazy... to lose weight, I had to go under 800 calories a day. I found it impossible to stick to.

I love the keto diet but alas, the food requirements are so expensive, I just can’t afford to keep on it, so I do the best I can with what I have. With all the fires in the last few months, many food crops have been wiped out, and now in some of those same areas, floods. Thats pretty crazy too, and vegie prices skyrocket. I paid $8 for a small cauliflower head the other day. Brussells sprouts are $12/Kg. Carrots are still cheap. Eggs are not, really, unless we buy cage eggs. I try to go free range when I can. However... with all that, I find I need to supplement with potato and occasionally rice. My weight is extreme (I’m obese, morbidly so) but at least I am not gaining, and have not, really, since being diagnosed 13 years ago (fluctuations +/- 5Kg).

Oh well, one must not give up!

 

[moon]

I love the keto diet but alas, the food requirements are so expensive, I just can’t afford to keep on it, so I do the best I can with what I have.
Oh well, one must not give up!

For me, keto is the cheapest way to eat because I eat so much less. It kills my hunger pretty much, and fat is relatively cheap for how much one eats. Several years ago when I went keto I was amazed at the thriftiness of it. When I was hovering outside keto or bouncing in and out, eating low-carb, it was more expensive for me too.

Congrats on not gaining any weight the last years. That's a definite accomplishment.

btw - did you go back to the Libre? Or get a CGM?

 

[itissteve]

I love the keto diet but alas, the food requirements are so expensive, I just can’t afford to keep on it

Being aware that you are in Australia, not the U.S. (with some of the cheapest food on earth), I would suggest that the expense depends in part on what kinds of food you're buying.

As I look at other keto support forums, I see a number of them do some "gatekeeping" -- an insistence that one cannot "do" keto properly without organic grass-fed beef, pastured chickens and eggs, cold-press virgin coconut oil, etc. And it's not true. A person can do keto just fine with "cage" eggs, cheap sausages, the least expensive butter and olive oil in the market, and so on.

Not to chastise anyone or shame them for what they can (or choose to) spend on food; just noting that some "experts" put up artificial barriers to following a keto eating plan.

Personally, I think if a person can lose weight with keto, that lost weight and lower carb intake is far better for their health than whatever marginal nutritional difference exists between grass-fed beef and grain-fed beef.

Beyond that, some things are just more expensive. Brussels sprouts here in the U.S. tend to be very expensive fresh; they're much better priced frozen. Since I live in a part of the country where local fresh produce simply isn't available for most of the year, I often get by on frozen vegetables or cabbage, which we like a lot and is almost always cheap (unless we want fancy cabbage). We eat a lot of chicken and I pass by the meat and fish packages that cost US$15-20/kg. All this kills a little variety in the diet, but we all make choices.

Again, not to lecture or "mansplain", just mentioning that there are some barriers others put up to eating keto but that they don't necessarily have to exist.

 

[kyteflyer]

For me, keto is the cheapest way to eat because I eat so much less. It kills my hunger pretty much, and fat is relatively cheap for how much one eats. Several years ago when I went keto I was amazed at the thriftiness of it. When I was hovering outside keto or bouncing in and out, eating low-carb, it was more expensive for me too.

Congrats on not gaining any weight the last years. That's a definite accomplishment.

btw - did you go back to the Libre? Or get a CGM?

The foods I can eat are also constrained by other sensitivities (phytoestrogens, salicylates and sulfites) but I abandon them in order to be able to eat someething I like.

I want to go back to the Libre, it really did help a lot with controlling BGL and keeping me on the straight and narrow, but I cannot afford it, as an ongoing thing. It costs around $200 a month and thats nearly 1/4 my pension. Added to food costs increasing because of a) drought, b) bushfires and c) COVID-19 and price gouging... its not going to happen. ON a brighter note, at least the Type 1 people can now get it free. I wish they had considered those of us not Type 1, but insulin dependent.

Onward!!

 

[kyteflyer]

Being aware that you are in Australia, not the U.S. (with some of the cheapest food on earth), I would suggest that the expense depends in part on what kinds of food you're buying.
.

I go as cheap as I can, within the constraints of the marketplace. At the moment, its pretty bad.

If you can buy meat at $15-20Kg you’re doing well. Over here its $30-40+. I get cheap mince when I can (when people arent panic buying) and sausages from the butcher which dont have heaps of fillers. I like cabbage, but I didnt look at the price when I bought it the other day, I just needed to have it. Bacon can be got fairly cheap, but I have to be careful, too much salty stuff is bad for my heart and lungs... it never ends.

 

[moon]

I wish they had considered those of us not Type 1, but insulin dependent.

Dexcom really has its sights on the T2 market and the G7 is supposed to be thinner, cheaper, and so become more accessible. I do think/hope the T1/T2 thing is changing - may it speed up! - and more T2s are being prescribed CGMs. Still have a way to go but ... there's hope.

A lot of insurers in the US allow CGMs for insulin-dependent T2s, as does govt insurance. May Australia come aboard with this next.

 

[kyteflyer]

Dexcom really has its sights on the T2 market and the G7 is supposed to be thinner, cheaper, and so become more accessible. I do think/hope the T1/T2 thing is changing - may it speed up! - and more T2s are being prescribed CGMs. Still have a way to go but ... there's hope.

A lot of insurers in the US allow CGMs for insulin-dependent T2s, as does govt insurance. May Australia come aboard with this next.

In Australia, any Dexcom gear is 4x the cost of Libre. I looked at it to see if it might be a good alternative and decided not. Only Type1, too, for subsidy.

We need a change of government to gt change in this area