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Conflicting advice

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H

hope123

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Has anyone else had seriously conflicting advice about managing T2 diabetes? When I was diagnosed about 7 years ago I was told to eat low fat. Fairly easy I thought as I'd lost weight a few years ago with Weight Watchers and Xenical, following low fat. Didn't work this time though!
Then it suddenly changed to watching carbs. Then sugar. Then sugar didn't matter and it became carbs again. At one point, last year, I was going to WW, seeing a 'Health Trainer' who obviously knew nothing about diabetes as she was encouraging me to buy protein shakes and make smoothies out of anything I could puree: bananas, apples, carrots, you name it and eat protein bars. Then, yet another diabetic nurse explained properly why I should not be liquidising fruit and veg.
I have a friend who has been T2 for 20 years and she says it's all rubbish, she just eats what she wants, including chocolate and cake, in moderation. Confused?
 
When I was diagnosed I was told to cut down on the amount of fruit that I was eating (I was eating 5-7 portions a day) cut out certain fruits altogether, reduce sugar intake and carb intake, dont worry too much about fats, but make sure you have "good" fats rather than the "bad" saturated type. My weight loss has slowed down but its working for me.
 
Well, here's the way I see it.

Diabetes management is all about keeping your blood sugar from going too low or too high.

The only food group that directly affects your blood sugar is carbohydrate, and carbohydrate can only raise your blood sugar, not lower it.

Logic therefore dictates that the one thing you don't want to eat a lot of as someone with diabetes is the one thing that raises your blood sugar.
 
Advice is changing, as evidence comes to light. It takes many years to see a study through from idea, through applying for funds, recruiting volunteers, sometimes recruiting staff too, monitoring volunteers, analysing results, getting results published in peer reviewed journal etc. Of course, no reason why people with diabetes can't decide to modify their own diet, if they can use home blood glucose meter to check effects on their own blood levels.
 
Yes - when first diagnosed I was handed some diet sheets, most of which advised eating starchy carbs at every meal, rice, pasta, jacket potatoes and so on; eat low fat foods; and go easy on cheese, meat, etc. No mention of testing. So I was left to get on with it.

Great! thought I, and merrily chomped my way through. Eventually I realised I was putting on weight, and I needed to start medication. Then I came here, and saw another side to the question....🙄
 
Even the experts are confused. I read this the other day. The spokesperson for PHE seems to be saying, maybe we got it wrong, with one breath, and then reinforcing the' saturated fat is bad' message with the next. And if it's going to take the advisory committee til next year to report, that's another year of confused advice being dished out to diabetics.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wellbeing/health-advice/why-butter-is-no-longer-the-bad-guy/

'Current advice has it that our saturated fat intake should be no more than 11 per cent of our diet......

'But even Public Health England (PHE) concedes that it’s time for a rethink on these recommendations.

“There have been several papers suggesting the current guidelines are not correct,” says Dr Louis Levy, chief nutritionist at PHE. “Having said that, Britons are still eating about 12.5 per cent of their diets from saturated fat, and that’s worrying.”
 
It's not worrying me, is it worrying you?

I don't actually worry about food at all other than the normal thing at this time of day 'What are we going to have for dinner?' LOL

I eat everything I like, in moderation. (Except lamb which I love but since the smell of it cooking makes my current husband feel nauseous, I try not to very often at home but sometimes treat myself when out, as long as I can have it 'well done'. Sorry purists - lamb should be served brown if you want me to eat it!) But there again I'm T1 and not massively overweight though I could do with losing a stone, always hope I'll lose it in the summer, let's hope I do this year!

I believe I still eat as much of a 'balanced' diet as I did in 1972 when they asked me in hospital what I ate at home, I told them, they went away and came back next day and said it was a balanced diet. And apparently 110g carb. So that was that. Insulin duly titrated for everything about me and my diet and off home I went.

But an awful lot of T2s couldn't possibly manage 110g carb a day. The only way to find out is test isn't it? - if your meter tells you it's OK well it pretty much is. If not, stop doing it and eat less of it or something else instead.
 
trophywench said:
It's not worrying me, is it worrying you?
Click to expand...
Well it's not worrying me either. It's annoying me, though, that it's confusing newly diagnosed people who feel they ought to listen to the advice being dished out. And it's annoying me that this spokesperson can concede the advice might be wrong, and then immediately reiterate it. And it's annoying me even more that my taxes are paying his salary!
 
True.

However I daresay there are a million other conditions that duff info is dished out for (have had it happen to me with other stuff as well as Diabetes) - BUT I do my homework first these days so I knew it was utter tripe - and it was a GP - so I just came out and asked the receptionist to make me another apt with someone sensible other than Dr XXXX 'fairly soon', please - luckily the receptionist has known me years and didn't bat an eyelid - and I was grinning at the time at her ......

By the way just so you know I'm not going potty (these things have been known) the sensible Dr heaved a deep sigh when I related the story - and then carried out the very examination on me that I'd been hoping for! - and I had got what I thought, and was referred to the hospital pronto. Otherwise I could be dead by now, that's all .........

You or I or anyone else on their own - cannot re-educate the whole of the NHS's employees in one fell swoop Robin and there's no point in us sitting in a corner of the internet getting frustrated.

I've joined the Patient Panel at my surgery, and I'm also a member of 'Diabetes Voices' that's run by DUK. Far better to spend the energy spent on personal frustration and annoyance in a constructive way, when we can.
 
It's not rocket science. Eat more calories (whether that's from fat, carbs or protein or a combination of all 3) than you use during the day and you'll put on weight. What's wrong with a balanced diet - as TW says everything in moderation - and plenty of exercise?
 
Demonising particular foods or nutrients does no good to anyone. I know I can tolerate a balanced diet with the occasional treat/splurge and yet still I get massive guilty feelings following my first piece of cake in a month, or my first bowl of chips since diagnosis. Many of the problems are in our own heads it seems :-/
 
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