Study challenges "carb counting" in diabetes

Reuters ^ | March 11, 2011 | Frederik Joelving

[decimon]

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – How many carbs you eat might be less important for your blood sugar than your food's glycemic load, a measure that also takes into account how quickly you absorb those carbs.

That's the conclusion of a new study of healthy adults, which questions the way people with type 1 diabetes determine how much insulin they should take before meals.

In type 1 diabetes, which affects about 3 million Americans, the pancreas doesn't produce sufficient amounts of the hormone insulin, which helps ferry sugar from the blood into cells. So people with the disease are quickly overwhelmed when the sugar in their food hits the bloodstream.

To avoid the dangerous blood sugar surge, diabetics inject insulin before a meal -- usually based on how many carbohydrates they will be downing.

But the new study, by Jiansong Bao at the University of Sydney in Australia and colleagues, hints the number of carbs alone might not be the best way to go.

Instead, the so-called glycemic load of a food, which also takes into account how quickly it makes the blood sugar rise, might work better. Foods with soluble fiber, such as apples and rolled oats, typically have a low glycemic index, one of the contributors to glycemic load.

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Foods with a low glycemic index cause the blood sugar to rise slowly, and so put little pressure on the pancreas to produce insulin.

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[decimon]

Ping

[hinckley buzzard]

Managing the glycemic index has been the state of the art for Diabetes II diet for a long time. Makes sense it would be useful for Diabetes I as well.

[Yaelle]

Avoid all grains. All grains and anything made from them. Eat fruit only after a protein meal. Do not eat anything with sugar in it either, or fake sugar.

You will be cured of Type 2 diabetes.

Believe it or not, it is only hard for the first 4-5 days. I promise. Enjoy all the meat and full-fat dairy (no nonfat - it is full of sugar) and veggies you want.

[Paradox]

Old news to anybody who has been following this stuff...

[Viking2002]

I was on Glucovance for seven years, and once I lost some weight, switched to lean protein, increased my intake of vegetables, and put the kibosh on all the carbs (bread and pasta are death beyond small portions for a Type II), my A1C came down to a healthy 5.5-6.0 level. And being sedentary doesn't help - you have to get some sort of cardio exercise, even if it's just going for a walk three times a week.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Avoid all grains. All grains and anything made from them. Eat fruit only after a protein meal. Do not eat anything with sugar in it either, or fake sugar.

How horrible, to be restricted to only lots of seafood, butter, steak, prime rib, pork, sausage, fried chicken, vegetables, salted nuts, cheese, cream, eggs BARB-AU-QUE!

I do it, and I don't even have diabetes.

[sheikdetailfeather]

I eat eggs and flax toast (homemade) in the morning with a pc. of cheese melted on the egg. Lunch and dinner I have veggies and meat. I have found that my appetite is not out of control as it was when eating a lot of carbs. My appetite is suppressed due to the fats in the butter and cheese, etc, that I eat.

Recipe for the low carb flax bread:

http://lowcarbdiets.about.com/od/breads/r/flaxbasicfoc.htm

If you add some banana and walnuts, you will have banana nut bread.

[sheikdetailfeather]

For exercise I dance to this song: (LOL!)

Bob Seger - Old Time Rock n Roll - The Distance Tour 1983

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQswfILThsY

[sheikdetailfeather]

Dancing to this will give you a good workout too:

Tulsa Time Sheryl Crow Eric Clapton Vince Gill Albert Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S52XN2S8I5I

[Finalapproach29er]

It’s called the Atkins diet.
(net carbs)

Read the book if interested.

[GOP Poet]

Thanks Yaelle. Why no fake sugar though?

[GOP Poet]

yummy—awesome. excellent points regarding how you eat. That is how I eat as well. Honestly has changed my life. Look forward to trying the bread :-).

[Egon]

Ping for later perusal.

[filbert]

Wow. Eat the diet humans were designed to eat.

Meat, nuts, greens, berries, and the occasional root vegetable and fruit, as a delicacy. (You can skip the grubs and insects and stuff . . . just throw another steak on the barbie instead.)

Humans weren’t designed by the Maker to consume grains.

Except in the form of beer, of course. And I’m going out on a limb there, but I’m out there with Ben Franklin, so I think it’s OK.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

Why no fake sugar though?

We're conditioned to sugar consumption, just the sweet taste of artificial sweeteners triggers insulin production.

[chris_bdba]

I agree! My BG spikes if I have whire rice or white potatoes rapidly but whole grain I can eat much more and no spike at all.

[chris_bdba]

This is about type 1 it never goes away.

[chris_bdba]

Folks this is about type 1 not type 2 it’s a different diease.

[Yaelle]

Me too.

Hey, where have you been on the AI threads? You always had such great posts.