Posted on 07/08/2003 12:20:27 PM PDT by Nov3
Diabetes diet war By Dara Mayers
The nutrition advice given to most diabetics might be killing them
The bible says "make starches the star." That's the Diabetes Food and Nutrition Bible, published by the American Diabetes Association. "Grains, beans, and starchy vegetables form the foundation of the Diabetes Food Pyramid. The message is to eat more of these foods than of any of the other food groups." For 17 million Americans with diabetes, diet is a crucial part of treatment, And what the ADA bible preaches, many doctors, nutritionists, and patients believe.
But what if the ADA's high-starch diet--another way of saying high-carbohydrate--is not healthy for people with diabetes but harmful to them instead?
This possibility is now the source of heated debate in the diabetes community. It is "the most controversial aspect of diabetes treatment today," says Scott King, editor-in-chief of Diabetes Interview magazine. How controversial? "Malpractice!" is how physician and diabetes specialist Lois Jovanovic, chief scientific officer of the Sansum Medical Research Institute in Santa Barbara, Calif., describes conventional high-carb nutrition advice.
Excerpted, click for full article
(Excerpt) Read more at usnews.com ...
That is a question that has plagued cooks from time immemorial! My understanding is that the ease of peeling the egg has a lot to do with the age of the egg. Older eggs peel better. Never go out and buy & immediately boil 3 dozen eggs for Easter -- they'll stick every time. Better to boil the eggs that have been sitting around your regrigerator for a week, or more.
My other trick is to bring the pot to a boil, add salt to the water (I don't know why, I think it is supposed to make the water hotter). When the pot is really boiling hard, lower the eggs gently into the water with a slotted spoon, or spaghetti server. Bring the pot back to a boil and then turn it off. Cover and let it sit 20 minutes. Then plunge the eggs into cold water until you can handle them and put them in your regrigerator. They should be perfectly cooked and peel easily for you, but I think the age of the egg is more important than the cooking method. Good luck.
Now to your other tip. I've blown it today with an omelate for breakfast and a hardboiled egg for lunch. But I'll be good from now on. Thanks.
Thanks for your encouragement and food tips. We probably should start a new thread when there is another article to post and ping everyone to it.
Your story about WW is interesting. I can just imagine their reaction! The leaders have 6 inch thick manuals that tell them how to deal with people like you! But they'll take your money and take the credit when you lose weight. It's a business, after all. I still think the WW plan is good, but I am so far over my lifetime goal (after being one of their model members and an employee) that I just can't go back.
I also don't like what I know of their "new" system. I think that their program got way too permissive with carbs in the mid 90s. The program I lost my weight on in the late 80s was much more restrictive and I always would go back to that for a week before weigh-in. I kept the weight off for more than 6 years, but then I went back to school, changed jobs, and brought a lot of stress into my life and the weight piled on. To say nothing of my age and the HRT and blood pressure meds that the doctor put me on. All of a sudden the old weight loss methods would not work any more.
The last time I tried WW (on my own, which is dumb BTW) I was on it rigidly for a couple of weeks and exercised a lot (for me). I didn't lose anything. Then I tried Slim Fast for a jump start and kept up the exercise. I still didn't lose anything. Then I quit altogether and quit the exercise too and I gained 20 more pounds. My major problem is that we eat out ALL the time because our business takes so much of our attention and energy.
I'm going to give this 2 or 3 weeks, as long as I feel good. If I haven't lost anything in that time, I really don't know what to do next. Certainly I don't have the excuse that I'm so close to my goal weight that it makes it hard to lose! LOL. If I do lose weight and fell OK, I'll continue until I get pretty close to my goal. I may switch back to modified WW for attaining my goal and for lifetime maintenance. And pay attention this time!
LOL I'll tell you what, the dieting industry sure can be a cut-throat business, can't it? An employee of Curves here was seen by one of their clients at a Weight Watchers meeting, management found out and she was let go. Since I accept their little rewards for achievements and am there for accountability and support, I go with the flow and don't say much other than my diet is different than Weight Watchers. (BTW, I did hit my 10% today - FINALLY!!) However, if someone ever comes right out and asks me what diet I am on, I will tell that person I'm doing Atkins.
And I agree with you completely about the amount of carbs you can wind up eating with WW. Some of those days of low or no fat and high carb meals and snacks added up to almost 200 carbs, yet I was within my points. Then to have eaten so much junk like hydrogenized oils, aspartame, modified flours and corn products, and tons of chemicals, it's a no wonder I started feeling yicky again.
But to give credit where credit is due, they do have some good insights and tips on staying focus on your goals. And their distorted mirror that makes you look thin is a hoot! If I could just get a photo of that and put that up somewhere! Oh my! :o) And occasionally they do have a recipe that is (or with minor modification) Atkins safe...
Your first weight loss will be the old water thing - Atkins is a great diuretic. Hang in there these first two weeks and get that sugar out of your system so your body will start burning the fat instead. My overall average loss is about 2 pounds a week so far, lately it's usually around 2.5 pounds a week. Juilette Hutty and 5 daily Atkins bars - lol - one of the bar or the shake is all you're allowed a day. I can tell when I've had 2 bars a day due to being too lazy to fix something. And since they're pricey little buggers, I'm making myself eat more celery-and-cream cheese type snacks.
Just looked at the time and am amazed how I don't have hunger pains yet. 2 fried eggs and 2 sausage links this morning, a salad with tomato, tuna, and dressing for lunch, with a full day of yard work - and I'm not hungry. This is like - Twilight Zone - I'm usually fighting cravings at this time of night...
Dinner tonight was extraordinary. I shelled 28 peanuts (1 oz.) and put them in a plate. Then I took 4 oz. of Swiss cheese and thinly sliced it. I then grilled 8 hot peppers and sauted onions and a clove of garlic. I sliced everything up and threw it on the plate with the peanuts, mixed it all up and drizzled olive oil over it. I tell you, that was the best meal I've made in quite a while. The rest of my family had pizza and they were in shock over what I made for myself. I could tell they were jealous.
Wow! And I think I'm being creative by ordering a Chicken Ceasar Salad in a restaurant! LOL. I tried the chopped avocado, tomato, Mozarella cheese omelette yesterday for breakfast that's in the sample Induction menu. It was extraordinary, but it was all downhill the rest of the day. I got really busy and ended up out at dinner with another chicken salad because I ran out of time to cook!
Today will be different. I have all the ingredients in the house, and I'm ready to go. I have not exceeded my carb limits yet, and I hope to add exercise next week. I really have to admire your walking each day. I just can't seem to do it. I am determined not to weigh myself until I've been doing this for a week -- maybe two.
This must be a new addition since I left their employ! Do they really have a distorted mirror? That's a hoot.
I never did the point system, which is one of the reasons I can't go back. We were doing exchanges when I was active. But they kept upping the carbs and lowering the protein, and I found it too easy to over-indulge on the later diets. It is so easy to lie to yourself about how many exchanges, points, calories, carbs is in what you have just eaten. That is the whole trick to any plan -- unless you are using pre-prepared food like Jennie Craig or WW's old "Personal Cuisine Plan" that they scrapped; and that gets so boring and expensive. I used to manage a Personal Cuisine Center where you come in and buy a week's worth of pre-planned frozen and dried food at a time (different from what is available in supermarkets), but they canceled the division around 1996 and closed all the centers.
That's when I left, although I had originally lost my weight the old fashioned way by doing my own meals and going to meetings in church basements, etc. Then Heinz sold the whole WW company. Who is making their food now?
I looked at "low carb" bars at Sam's club yesterday afternoon and found that they weren't very low carb and awfully pricey -- so I passed. I really have an aversion to prepared, branded "diet" food because of my length of service at WW Personal Cuisine and using Slim Fast (which doesn't work for me at all). I hope I will be able to avoid those diet aids and just rely on cheese, or celery.
1)I just ate a McDonald's Grilled Chicken Clifornia Cobb salad -- 2 cups mixed grerens, 1 grilled small chicken breast, 2 TBS crumbled Blue cheese; 2 Tbs. crumbled bacon (not imitation), and about 1/2 crumbled HB egg with 1/2 pkg Paul Newman's Light Balsamic Vinigraitte over it. I was appalled to read their nutrition pamphlet later and see that they claim that salad has 11 carbohydrates in it. My count, according to the Atkins carb counter, comes up to 5.5 carbs. Is this a descrepency between digestible and non-digestible carbs? Or am I entirely out of whack with my count and estimate of measurements?
2)What is the carb count of a Communion wafer? Size of a quarter and very thin. Looks like white flour. (Non-Catholics can ignore this request. LOL)
I'd appreciate any input you can give me on the above two BURNING questions.
Atkins bars also have glycerine, which I think is also a sweetener, and some people report that that spikes their insulin. But they work fine for hubby & me. YMMV.
(Best price I've found: $1.79 each at Trader Joe's - almost as cheap as the best Internet prices. See my LowCarb Savvy Shopper site for price breakdowns in the Northwest.)
Ah, but those are good carbs. :-)
As to the communion wafer, insignificant carbs.
You're not going to get every carb out of your diet, unless you eat nothing but meat and cheese.
Better get some ex-lax if you do that.
So where your salad is concerned, it may be about 5 grams of carbs once you subtract the fiber carbs.
Aha. So that's the formula?
2) As far as asking the priest, I'm afraid I might raise some eyebrows, LOL. Our Pastor looks as though he's never met a carb he didn't like! :~) I think I'll take Sink's advice and count them as negligible.
Thank you all for your advice. I made Ladysmith's bacon wrapped, cream cheese stuffed chicken rolls for dinner and served them with asparagus spears and a tomato, cucumber, green onion vinaigrette salad-- very good, but rich. I shall be quite content to split the remaining one with my hubby later in the week!
Yes. 3 fibers. Deducted from 11 carbs brings the total of digestible carbs to 8, a little closer to my estimate of 5.6. Naturally I must have "misunderestimated" the quantity of greens and garnishes in that salad. I'll accept 8. That's a good lunch. :~)
I'm going camping this weekend and am trying for the second time to camp and do Atkins. It was really tough the first time around. This time I'm going to allow myself a relatively low carb bread (10g carbs per 2 slices) which will make things a lot easier. Tuna salad or egg salad prepped ahead for quick sandwiches, or hot dogs or burgers on bread. GNC also has Atkins chips so we now have some of those to try out. Diluted heavy cream for milk, cream cheese in a container (although it's just occurring me I really don't have anything planned to put it on...hmmm!) Regular mustard, Atkins ketscup, won't need to bring mayo if tuna and egg salads are made up before we leave. Hard boiled eggs *all ready peeled*! Precooked sausage links.
I'm figuring that with the extra activity the bread should burn off faster than normal. Once the weekend is over, no more bread again. I think this'll work...what do you think??! OH! Celery sticks - that's what the cream cheese is for. :o)
BTW, how are you feeling physically since you've started this?
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