Concerned about advice

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Yup - 3rd year Biology - The Endocrine System of the Body.

Dave Willetts our teacher sticks his hand in a 'Mothers Pride' thick white sliced wrapper on his bench and pulls out the crust which he placed on the usual 'specimen' chopping board. Invites the lad on the end of the first row of benches facing him to approach and gives him the bottle marked 'Iodine', instructs him to pour some onto said crust.

Wow!! - instantly turns an brilliant, deep purple. Ooohs and Aaahs emanate instantly from Form 3A.

And that showed that the bread contains Starch.

And he then went on to explain how the body deals with starch - and turns it into Glucose by the action of Insulin, produced by the Pancreas .......

8 years later - married and living miles away - I had a flashback to that morning, and it's still with me now!
 
trophywench said:
and turns it into Glucose by the action of Insulin,
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Ok, I've not understood one of the few pieces of information I'd thought I'd got. I believed that insulin helped/allowed the cells to used the glucose that's in the blood.
 
Actually you are right Ralph, maybe TW's teacher was doing a simplified version! I didn't actually spot that when I read it earlier, lol...
 
My first year advice over 10 years ago was low fat, low sugar fill up on rice, pasta and potatoes, and I carried until recently because I trusted the professionals. I would kill for a chip butty LOL
 
I feel lucky with my DSN. The first thing she told me was to cut back the carbs. The second thing she told me was that fat makes no difference. And my doctor recommended the 8 week blood sugar diet book by Michael Mosley!
 
SlowRunner said:
I think I understand where they are coming from with the low fat thing - if you're prone to your blood being bit thick & syrupy then you don't really want big globs of fat stuck to your arteries as well... However, they normally replace fat with sugar in "diet" foods so which is actually worse?
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Eating fat neither makes us fat, nor does it significantly impact on the cholesterol in our blood. The vast, vast majority of our cholesterol is made by our bodies, with carbs being the baddies in so many previously misunderstood ways.

For most people, eating full fat, but reduced carbs, they will see an improvement in their lipid scores, with a particular improvement in the triglycerides. It's taking many HCPs a while to catch on.
 
Presumably eating more calories than you expend whether they be from fat, carbs or whatever will make you gain weight. No?
 
AndBreathe said:
Eating fat neither makes us fat, nor does it significantly impact on the cholesterol in our blood.
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That's good then, I've never been an advocate of low fat foods. They all seem to be full of sugar & chemicals! I'm not sure that I've ever had a cholesterol test before diagnosis - I had one sent off on Monday but not had result yet. Might be interesting to see what - if anything - a lifetime of low-fat avoidance has done?
 
Matt Cycle said:
Presumably eating more calories than you expend whether they be from fat, carbs or whatever will make you gain weight. No?
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Yes. That's my understanding too! More easily done with fat as it comes in at 9 cals per gram where carbs & proteins are only 4 cals per gram
 
SlowRunner said:
Yes. That's my understanding too! More easily done with fat as it comes in at 9 cals per gram where carbs & proteins are only 4 cals per gram
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But you also have to take into account that your body has to work a lot harder to get those calories out of the fat, I.e.you use some up in the process so the net effect is not so bad as it sounds! The reason your body goes for the carbs first is because they are the easiest to break down, everything else is harder.
 
My point was that it's much easier to eat far more than you need with high fat foods. Especially since they are so tasty too usually 😛
 
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SlowRunner said:
My point was that it'such easier to eat far more than you need with high fat foods. Especially since they are so tasty too usually 😛
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I know what you mean, especially when it comes to nuts, with me! I think generally, though, high fat meals take longer to digest, and make you feel fuller for longer, so you're less tempted to snack in between meals.
 
True about the insulin and the glucose guys - BUT for 13/14 yos on their way to an O level not specialising in Diabetes, it was enough to make me realise that not only sugar, glucose, fructose and lactose was hard to cope with - that it also included starch in any form - which was the important bit since in those days with animal intermediate insulins, the carb restrictions in the diet and timing of food, were STRICT.
 
I'm just impressed that you can remember the name of your teacher! 🙄 I don't remember mine... probably wouldn't even be able to pick him out of a line-up 😳
 
SlowRunner said:
My point was that it's much easier to eat far more than you need with high fat foods. Especially since they are so tasty too usually 😛
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In my experience, not all calories are equal. I don't do mega high fat, but still manage a fair few calories a day (2000-2500 q day), and I'm only 160cm tall and weigh in at a stonking 47kg, so a slight little person.

Currently, I struggle to keep my weight up, which before cutting the carbs, I would have found to be an astonishing concept.
 
SlowRunner said:
I'm just impressed that you can remember the name of your teacher! 🙄 I don't remember mine... probably wouldn't even be able to pick him out of a line-up 😳
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Mine was mr murray-that was 47 years ago-don,t remember the rest. Do remember chasing mercury along cracks in the desk
 
AndBreathe said:
In my experience, not all calories are equal. I don't do mega high fat, but still manage a fair few calories a day (2000-2500 q day), and I'm only 160cm tall and weigh in at a stonking 47kg, so a slight little person.

Currently, I struggle to keep my weight up, which before cutting the carbs, I would have found to be an astonishing concept.
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Me too! As well as not all calories being equal, neither are all carbs.

After my op, which created the diabetic me, I was given no dietary advice whatsoever. It was only many months on and a bit of foot stamping that I saw a diabetes dietitian, who helped a bit.
Since having the cgm and really getting bg's under better control through reducing carbs, I am now losing weight which I don't want to do.🙄 It's all a bit of a conundrum to which I can't work out the answer. I have to eat about 3000 cal a day to maintain my weight - which is a lot when you can only eat relatively small amounts, most of the time. (Though I did manage a 'normal' lunch at the Southampton meet yesterday, which is quite unusual)
 
pottersusan said:
Me too! As well as not all calories being equal, neither are all carbs.

After my op, which created the diabetic me, I was given no dietary advice whatsoever. It was only many months on and a bit of foot stamping that I saw a diabetes dietitian, who helped a bit.
Since having the cgm and really getting bg's under better control through reducing carbs, I am now losing weight which I don't want to do.🙄 It's all a bit of a conundrum to which I can't work out the answer. I have to eat about 3000 cal a day to maintain my weight - which is a lot when you can only eat relatively small amounts, most of the time. (Though I did manage a 'normal' lunch at the Southampton meet yesterday, which is quite unusual)
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And that in itself makes you different from regular Type1s, (from the point of view of getting your cgm funded) We don't regularly have to try and calculate how much insulin we've got left on board, because we're not normally having our next meal way before the insulin for the last one has run out.
 
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