[VeeJay]

There are so many diets out there that when one is faced with a need to make dietary changes. Most of us instinctive know that we need to reduce carbohydrates, but have no clue just how to do this, so need to at least start out with a diet plan someone else has put together.

I probably had more understanding of carbs and diabetes than most, and already had done low-carb the Atkins way, so when I was faced with a diabetes diagnosis, I went back to the Atkins plan. I found their website (when I was on it before there was only the book.... that's how long ago it was) and printed out the food lists, and found that to be just what I needed.

What other eating plans or diets have you followed during your diabetes journey. Was it successful for you?

 

[itissteve]

I didn't take my initial diagnosis of T2 seriously but I start my own form of "lower-carb": I pulled the bun off burgers if I wanted to eat the french fries; I rarely ate two starchy side dishes with entrees; I settled for two slices of pizza and a side salad rather than three or four slices of pizza; I rarely ate donuts and kept to a single scoop of ice cream; and so on.

This kept my A1c in the low 6s for several years before finally it started nearing 7.0. When that happened, I used the low-carb/high-fat plan outlined on the Diet Doctor Web site as a guide and kind of did my own thing. Seems to be working. :smile2:

 

[ShottleBop]

Within a couple of months, I found Dr. Bernstein's book, The Diabetes Solution, and started using that as a guide.

 

[PhoenixFire]

I bought this as my stepping stone toward keto:

The Paleo Diabetes Diet Solution: Manage Your Blood Sugar
https://www.amazon.ca/Paleo-Diabete...&sr=8-1&keywords=paleo+diabetes+diet+solution

I'm excited to read it. The preview shows some of the recipes and they look easy to make.

 

[NSDad126]

When I was first diagnosed, I wanted to stay away from fad diets so I resolved to only reference the CDA and ADA.

Interesting enough, they kept telling me to eat a high carb diet yet cut out sugars. Whenever I ate according to my blood glucose readings, I found that 120g of carbs worked but the high carb diet that they were recommending didn't.

I knew that my results were contradicting their recommendations so I convinced myself that 120g of carbs must actually be considered a high carb diet - lol. it never crossed my mind that they might be insane.

 

[PhoenixFire]

I was searching the web for paleo and keto recipes. Diabetes comes with the bland-food lifestyle from hell.

 

[itissteve]

Diabetes comes with the bland-food lifestyle from hell.

There's no reason why it should. In fact, when I think of the foods I don't eat anymore (potatoes, bread, rice, ice cream, etc.) -- those (to me) are the definition of bland.

Spices and herbs have no carbs and most peppers have only a few. You do have to be careful around things like sriracha sauce ("rooster sauce"), ketchup, many tomato sauces, and most barbeque condiments because they're loaded with sugar (Americans like their food sweet). But I've cooked Chinese stirfries and Vietnamese pho soup and some really savory Middle Eastern stews. There's no bland food here unless that's what I feel like eating. :smile2:

 

[mbuster]

I'd say my foods are far from bland and much more diverse than prior to LCHF. The biggest thing missing from what I eat now vs what I used to eat, are sweet and starchy foods. I think the low fat, low salt fad is what is making foods bland. I can't think of much I eat that is not salted, peppered, spiced, or some form of fat (oil,butter) added.

 

[VeeJay]

I was searching the web for paleo and keto recipes. Diabetes comes with the bland-food lifestyle from hell.

Have you browsed the meal threads in the Diet forum? Very far from bland. Very tasty indeed.
https://www.diabetesforum.com/diabetes-diet-nutrition/

 

[PhoenixFire]

Thanks for the comments everyone, I'll take a look at this site's recipes.

Since I'm not doing keto yet, should I stop snacking on nuts and also orange cheese with triscuits for now? (I don't control myself well with these anyways but I have a problem where I'm hungry an hour after eating so I have to resist the urge to eat and this makes me "hangry".

 

[itissteve]

Since I'm not doing keto yet, should I stop snacking on nuts and also orange cheese with triscuits for now?

The cheese is fine, though it does have protein and, with keto, you shouldn't over-do on protein (so don't, like, eat half the package at a time :smile2. The Triscuits should disappear; they will affect your blood glucose because they're mostly grains/carbs. Nuts can go either way: some nuts (peanuts, cashews) are higher in carbs and others (like macadamias or pecans) are not. Also watch out for "honey-roasted" or "glazed" nuts (added sweeteners).

But, again, my take on it is that you're better off eating orange cheese on Triscuits than you are eating salty carby snacks like tortilla chips. (You'd be even better off by putting the cheese on thick-cut cucumber slices or pork rinds.) And even the higher-carb nuts are a better nutritional bet than, say, a snack of a handful of breakfast cereal or popcorn.

The goal is to move away from carbs, and if the jump to no crackers at all is too big to make in one leap, then restricting yourself to non-sweetened crackers is better than going cold turkey and failing. Just my humble opinion....

 

[PhoenixFire]

The cheese is fine, though it does have protein and, with keto, you shouldn't over-do on protein (so don't, like, eat half the package at a time :smile2. The Triscuits should disappear; they will affect your blood glucose because they're mostly grains/carbs. Nuts can go either way: some nuts (peanuts, cashews) are higher in carbs and others (like macadamias or pecans) are not. Also watch out for "honey-roasted" or "glazed" nuts (added sweeteners).

But, again, my take on it is that you're better off eating orange cheese on Triscuits than you are eating salty carby snacks like tortilla chips. (You'd be even better off by putting the cheese on thick-cut cucumber slices or pork rinds.) And even the higher-carb nuts are a better nutritional bet than, say, a snack of a handful of breakfast cereal or popcorn.

The goal is to move away from carbs, and if the jump to no crackers at all is too big to make in one leap, then restricting yourself to non-sweetened crackers is better than going cold turkey and failing. Just my humble opinion....

I've been thinking of trying celery sticks with Jif peanut butter (that was recommended in a youtube video). How many should I eat as a snack and how long should the pieces be?

 

[VeeJay]

I've been thinking of trying celery sticks with Jif peanut butter (that was recommended in a youtube video). How many should I eat as a snack and how long should the pieces be?

Test your blood sugar before you eat them. Calculate the total grams of carbohydrates in what you plan to eat and keep it at, say, no more than 12 grams. Then test your blood sugar one hour after you started eating. If it were me, I wouldn't want what I ate to raise my BG more than 20 points.

You see, everyone is an individual. No diabetics are alike - some can handle more carbs and others not so much. If you systematically calculate carbs and test, you will find out what is your body's limit when it comes to a carb load.

That said, celery is almost a no-carb food - so unless you eat great gobs of peanut butter, it should be okay (spread the peanut butter thin on the celery so you're eating more celery than p.b.)

Mixing peanut butter 50/50 with cream cheese will reduce the carbs per serving of the peanut butter so you can have more.

 

[itissteve]

That said, celery is almost a no-carb food - so unless you eat great gobs of peanut butter, it should be okay (spread the peanut butter thin on the celery so you're eating more celery than p.b.)

Mixing peanut butter 50/50 with cream cheese will reduce the carbs per serving of the peanut butter so you can have more.

Choosing a different peanut butter will help a little, too. The big brands' most popular varieties of PB all contain sugar. In my experience reading the labels, the house/private-label brands have fewer carbs per serving. And the natural PBs (usually the ones where the oil separates out and must be mixed in) typically are nothing but peanuts and oil -- no sugar added at all.

 

[hftmrock]

once I was diagnosed and found my BG almost at 400, I was determine to fix it via diet and not ever need medication

I reasearched hours and hours and hours and came up with the keto diet and have not looked back ever since. This site was helpful as well but I only chose the keto diet because it made the most sense to me right away

 

[fjk2013]

When diagnosed with Type 2 in early 2013; physician recommended and gave me a script to go see a certified diabetes instructor. Before I did that I figured I would try Atkins since it helped me loose weight a few years before. For three months on Atkins; I was able to lower my A1C from 6.4 to 6.1 but could not get it to lower further. I chose to see the diabetes educator and was steered off of Atkins even though I had success. I was told that I was creating serious harm to my body; not knowing better I listened and was put on a variety of diets. First DASH; it lowered my Blood Pressure a little but not enough to lower my medications. Then of course low fat, low calorie and an exercise program. OK lost some weight; felt always hungry and miserable; and my A1C rose to 6.6; then back to DASH with the recommendation to increase my fruit intake to at least 5 servings a day. OK results were an increase in my A1C to 6.9 over a few years; weight I lost on Atkins returned.

When asked why its going up physician said " diabetes is progressive plus you need more exercise; follow the diabetes educator's advise". Which I replied ... "I am and my progress is going in the wrong direction".

Fast forward to July/August 2017 when I decided to get a second medical opinion via Doctors Google and YouTube and I started following ketogenic. I have ditched the diabetes educator and my doctor's advise. He still would prefer I not be on a ketogenic diet even though he admits all my lab results; weight and blood pressure are going in the right direction. He still reminds me not to consume so much fat; that its really unhealthy. I just ignore the comment.

In a year's time I was able to loose 80+ pounds and drop my A1C from 6.9 to 5.9; why would I want to follow American Diabetes Association or the standard medical advice when this approach is working for me.

Best,

fjk2013

 

[Snowynight708]

It's been my experience that eating carbs makes me hungry more often than not. The one thing I do eat that has carbs is plain steel cut oatmeal and I add blackberries in it for taste. It keeps my full from Breakfast to lunch. It's one of my favorites but when eating bread, cracker, anything like that, I'm hungry an hour later. Carbs do that. Cheese is good and I buy nuts in portion sized packages so I don't over eat. It's super easy to overdo nuts!

 

[Snowynight708]

I've been eating Dr Atkins Low Carb, on and off since 1998. I've tried other plans, Bernstiens, South Beach, Keto. I just have better luck with Atkins. It's easier for me to follow.

I find it funny that when he first came out with this plan, in the 70s, people said it was a fad diet, it will never work, it's hard to stick with. And now, not only are people sticking with it, there are several variations of low carb. You can just go through and try them and pick which one works for you. And it is definitely better than the low fat diets.

 

[1r1shayes]

Sad to say, when first diagnosed in 2008 I went to a nutritionist who put me on me American Diabetes Association diet. I drank the Kool-Aid about being able to eat everything I wanted just in moderation and fooled myself into thinking that the meds were keeping the diabetes at bay. Fast forward to 2017 when the three meds I was on were still not keeping me controlled and the doctor wanted to put me on insulin. That's when I got serious and realized it is progressive and unless I do something drastic it's just going to keep progressing. I went on strict Keto and have been able to come off of all three of my meds. My last A1C was 5.2 on no meds, just diet controlled.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

 

[soapluvr]

I found Dr. Bernstein on Low Carb Friends forum and have pretty much stuck it most of the time since being diagnosed prediabetic. I'm not perfect and do cheat now and then. Rarely am I in ketosis but his formula is my guidline. I don't go over 40 grams of carbs a day and mostly stick to thirty.