Hi Joe,
That decision will not affect me because Balance has stopped coming to our house since I cancelled my standing order to Diabetes UK around a year ago.
These days, I go to places on the internet that offer me much better advice than anything that I ever got from Diabetes UK or my healthcare professionals. I'm a non-insulin-dependent Type 2 who, like many others, was told "do not test" by my healthcare professionals. Because I wasn't testing that meant that I wasn't aware that the "eat plenty of starchy carbohydrate" and "eat starchy carbohydrate with every meal" advice, given out by healthcare professionals and Diabetes UK, sent my blood glucose levels into double figures.
After eight years of getting worse - i.e. the "inevitable progression" that healthcare professionals and Diabetes UK tell us about - I started "eating to my meter" and following advice that some of the diabetes forums told us about and my situation has reversed totally. All my health indicator numbers are now better than at diagnosis and at any time in between. My HbA1c is down from 9.4% to 5.3% and, just recently, my GP has taken me off metformin altogether after having been taking that for three years. Moreover, just about all the diabetic symptoms that I'd ever experienced in ten years of being a Type 2 have disappeared altogether.
What I'm saying is that, in my opinion, the "eat starchy carbohydrate with every meal" advice that Diabetes UK pushes out is very poor advice indeed to give to non-insulin-dependent Type 2s. So, while Diabetes UK is giving out such bad dietary advice, maybe the less frequently that Balance magazine is issued the better. Why? Because, in my opinion, the advice is making the situations of people with Type 2 get worse.
However, I chair the local Diabetes UK Support Group and I am very aware that there is a large group of people with Type 2 diabetes who I feel so very sorry for. That group comprises the very many, mainly oder members, who don't ever use a computer and aren't ever likely to start using one. All they ever do is interact with the various healthcare professionals who give out such appalling "do not test" and "eat plenty of starchy carbohydrate" advice that ensures that their diabetic situation worsen - i.e. the "inevitable progression" they talk about.
Unfortunately, a very large number of people with Type 2 diabetes who aren't dependent on insulin are caught up in a very bad situation - i.e. being given quite appallingly poor "do not test" and "eat plenty of starchy carbohydrate" advice by healthcare professionals and not receiving much better dietary advice by Diabetes UK with their "eat starchy carbohydrate with every meal" advice. How are these people ever going to hear the much better "start to test", "eat to your meter" or "eat less starchy carbohydrate" advice given out by people on these diabetes forums?
Diabetes UK will become much more effective organisation when it starts warning non-insulin-dependent Type 2s to be careful about eating starchy carbohydrate and to eat less of this food group. Once that day comes, Balance magazine will then become a much more important publication and will maybe become well-worth reading because it will be giving out a message that will likely improve the lot of so many people with diabetes instead of making them get worse as it does today.
I really do look forward to the day that Diabetes UK and Balance improve the dietary advice that they give out. Maybe then we can all look forward to improving trends on blood glucose control instead of the very depressing figures of ?inevitable progression? that we are all so used to reading about today.
Good luck and best wishes - John
