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Dr Bernstein diabetes solution???

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Kate1987

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Type 1
Hello all, I'm new to this site, I'm a 27 year old female who is has had type 1 diabetes since I was 4, I've always struggled with my weight and blood sugars and I jus have run out of options, I've come across this doctor on the internet called dr bernstein, he has several books and is also a type1 1 diabetic, he really believes that people who go on a low carb diet really improve on weight and blood sugars, I'm just wondering if there is anyone on here who does the same diet or who has tried it before.
 
We have quite a few low carbers on here, including me and, speaking for myself I find it helps, not just with the blood sugar levels but in terms of general health. If I eat too many carbs, I feel especially bloated and lethargic afterwards and I have enough issues without that. I haven't tried your Dr Bernstein's diet but would definitely recommend low carb as a sound option.
 
Hi
I agree with Alison - too many carbs make feel lethargic and bloated. In preparation for getting my pump I cut the carbs down resulting in more energy and a 21 pound weight loss. Still on low carbs but finding it hard to lose more weight now but can blame my age for that. But still got more energy.
Why not try cutting the carbs and see how you feel. Watch out for hypos though.
Good luck. 🙂
 
How many carbs do you eat a day ? You must be very strict on yourself and is it not difficult to find lots of alternatives ? so you are not hungry...Tintin
 
Thanks so much for all your replies, I've been on a low carb diet for 3 weeks now by doing it myself, I do feel so much better in myself, all the bloat has gone and there is improvement with my blood sugars but I havnt lost that much weight only 3lbs, my current weight is 11st 5lb but I'm aiming to get to 10st but 3lbs in 3 weeks doesn't seem a lot, my insulin requirements are slowly coming down so hopefully will lose weight because I heard that insulin is a fat storer, am I right?
 
His book is very good at explaining about your condition and what food does for you. I would suggest you get the book (probably a second hand one via Amazon to reduce the cost). Don't know what the diet book is like.

His diet is very strict and hard to stick to. I don't. He must be doing something right as he is 80 and was diagnosed at age 12 in 1946.
 
Bernstein is pretty much the extreme end of a spectrum of low-carbing. His approach personally isn't for me, but I will say this; low-carbing DOES work.

You don't need to dramatically reduce your carbs but there is no reason whatsoever why someone with T1 on MDI has to eat 300g of carbs a day. There is no reason to base your meals around starchy carbs and there is no reason to restrict your fat intake.

Put it this way; I've been trying to keep my carb intake under 50g a day for the last year or so - not religiously, but generally just being aware.

I took my A1C down to 6.3 (almost 'non-diabetic) without an increase in hypos. My cholesterol level went from 5.2 to 4.8 but my LDL:HDL ratio improved dramatically, while my trigs are actually lower than than the normal range.

You are right that insulin is a 'fat storer' but it only stores fat when you have too much glucose in your blood. If you eliminate the spikes, you pretty much eliminate the fat storage. My gut feeling is that for T1s, weight loss on low-carb isn't as pronounced as it is for T2s (as T2s have a variety of insulin related issues going on that most T1s don't) so I wouldn't get too hung up on that at the moment.

It is a complete myth that you 'need' carbs - your brain can run on both ketones and glucose. Ketones are not bad as long as you're metabolising them in a controlled manner and you can derive glucose from protein. Meanwhile, the rest of your body can run on fat. If you use up all your dietary fat for energy, it doesn't get stored. Carbs are also an appetite stimulant - your body is designed to feel full when it eats fat, not carbohydrate, so it is very easy to not feel hungry on a low-carb diet provided you break free of the idea that fat is bad.


The upshot of this is that you should eat the amount of carbs you're comfortable with, be it 3 or 300g.
 
DeusXM i have to say those words are uplifting, i didn't realise that insulin s a fat storer and i to are trying to eat around 50 g carbs per day. I've eaten more protein this last week than I ever have and that is due to knowledge, here with all u guys and trial and error.

I woke with a reading of 2.3 this morning sweating but not shaking and bad head like i have had in the past with severe hypos but i was too tired to go to the kitchen (with recovering from back surgery) to get lucozade so i ate a blue ribband wafer chocolate and i tested again 30 mins later with a reading of 21.2 i was mortified arrrgghh!!!
 
LOL - I don't think they Blue Riband would have done that on it's own Laura - I think the timing just coincided with your liver helping out!

Trouble is with the liver, it pleases itself when it chips in (well, I'm sure there is something physiological that it takes its cues from, but I've never heard an explanation simple enough to remember) and it forgets to turn itself off !

Sort of 'overkill' - just like us when being hypo and faced with a new packet of Jaffa cakes .... !
 
Laura davies said:
DeusXM i have to say those words are uplifting, i didn't realise that insulin s a fat storer and i to are trying to eat around 50 g carbs per day. I've eaten more protein this last week than I ever have and that is due to knowledge, here with all u guys and trial and error.

I woke with a reading of 2.3 this morning sweating but not shaking and bad head like i have had in the past with severe hypos but i was too tired to go to the kitchen (with recovering from back surgery) to get lucozade so i ate a blue ribband wafer chocolate and i tested again 30 mins later with a reading of 21.2 i was mortified arrrgghh!!!
Click to expand...

Careful - don't fall into the trap of assuming that a lower carb diet has to be a high protein diet. Protein can actually be a major problem. Aside from the fact that protein overload will shred your kidneys, as a T1, protein can also be an absolute PITA when it comes to insulin dosing. That's because protein turns into glucose just like carbs - but in a way that's both unpredictable and doesn't match up with the insulins on market. If I have something like just a large steak, I end up playing 'catch up' with my insulin for a good 3-4 hours afterwards.

For a low-carb diet to work, you need to swap out the lost calories with the only thing that doesn't affect your blood sugar - fat.

Atkins is not a high protein diet. Bernstein is not a high protein diet. Low carbing is not a high protein diet. They are all high fat diets.

As I said before, the whole thing that underpins all this is breaking free of the mindset that fat is bad.

Put it this way. I eat pork rinds instead of crisps. I eat nuts. I eat rib-eye steaks with plenty of marbling. I cook most of my food by frying it in real butter. I eat eggs most days a week, with the yolk. Everything I do with my food makes dieticians scream in horror that I'm storing up heart disease. Everyone else is convinced I must be full of cholesterol. Yet my cholesterol is below the average. My LDL/HDL ratio is better than average. My trigycerides, which are widely accepted as being the marker for heart disease, are actually below 'normal', the complete opposite of what you'd expect. Simply put, the only thing that annoys my doctor more than my diet, is my bloodwork, because every single time they want to start a discussion about heart disease but they can't unless they choose to just ignore the actual evidence right in front of them.

But the only reason this works for me is because I eat a lower amount of carbs, a normal amount of protein and a high amount of fat - something like like a 10/30/60 ratio. If you still eat a lot of carbs or protein, this doesn't work.

Still having trouble converting yourself? Think of the 'fatty' foods that make people gain weight - pies, pasties, chips, crisps, cake, chocolate. Then look at the nutritional information for these and find out what is the biggest macronutrient in them.

Because it's not fat. It's not fat at all. And that's the problem. All the assumptions about a high fat diet are actually assumptions about a high fat, high carb diet, which is a very different thing.

And as a final point..if you do cut your carbs in favour of fat, cut your insulin. A lot. Otherwise you will end up on the very low blood sugar situation you found yourself in, and it's not healthy or fun.
 
Hi Trophywench, thank god the blue ribband didn't do that lol. Im learning all the time, i don't know much about the liver with its function to kick in.

Your right about us with hypos and a new packet of Jaffa cakes! Lol

What do you eat or drink when hypo i know the recommendations I've had is lucozade or jelly babies!
 
Orange Lucozade, I happen to like orange pop and always have.

BUT I measure it now, and have 15g carb-worth ONLY. I got a Tabasco sauce shot glass - or someone did, dunno where from - and marked the 100ml level on it with a permanent marker pen. It lived in the kitchen coupboard right next to the Lucozade.

And I had to stop buying Jaffa cakes altogether quite a while ago cos they are completely irresistible to me even when I'm not hypo.

Only biscuits we have in the house usually are McVities digestives - no other sort is as nice, and they are just about 10g carb each so they are easily measurable. So if I feel I need back up from some longer lasting carb, it's a digestive. It's not usually so essential though now I'm on a pump.

I mean by that the hypos don't seem as deep.
 
Hi trophy wench i have shot glasses which i used for sambuka but now that I don't drink alcohol i have a use for it.

I love digestives and even though its mind over matter i crave something sweet couple of days before my menstrual cycle so digestives for easy measurement is nice.
 
Not ideal for first treatment of a hypo though Laura - too much fat - which I'm afraid, combined with the sugar - is exactly what makes em so more-ish! (and why cheaper and/or low-fat versions are so hard and well, just nasty LOL)
 
It's usually jelly babies for me since I can take anything from 1 to 6 of them depending on how low I am. On the jelly baby scale 1 is a mild hypo and 6 is "CALL AN AMBULANCE!".
 
Kate1987 said:
Hello all, I'm new to this site, I'm a 27 year old female who is has had type 1 diabetes since I was 4, I've always struggled with my weight and blood sugars and I jus have run out of options, I've come across this doctor on the internet called dr bernstein, he has several books and is also a type1 1 diabetic, he really believes that people who go on a low carb diet really improve on weight and blood sugars, I'm just wondering if there is anyone on here who does the same diet or who has tried it before.
Click to expand...
Some years ago I discovered that there were research by 2 universities over diabetes, carbs and wheat. They concluded that hard wheat was the problem. So question, do you feel bloated, fatigued and knackered after eating bread? I bet the answer is yes. Next question, do you fall asleep after having a beer or a whisky. Well after contacting yet another university in Paris it seems that France has a little often fatal problem, its called drivers falling asleep in the afternoon about an hour after eating midday meal, of beer, and a lot of bread.
So I tried not eating hard wheat, beer made from "orge" as we call it, bread made from rye, or oats, no problem, eat as much as I like, so I went further, I can drink literally brandy, or Calva all night without getting tired, one small glass of whisky, out like a light. I imated this to a proffessor at the said Paris university and he said he would do a "controle" and as the problem would affect about 305 of the people in France (also most western countries) the effect could be calamitous on the wheat industry.
Further to this I found hard and soft wheat, in both red and white, soft wheat does not cause the problem, and guess what wheat that a UK breakfast cereal ending in 'bix only uses, Only soft, the same goes for another also. One has to ask why, and it is not price, hard is cheaper!
Anyway try it for yourself, it will cost nothing apart from what you normally eat. Drinking alcohol experiments can be fun. Some cautions, you could get caught, Ciabatta bread SHOULD be made with Durham wheat but unscrupulous suppliers use cheap ordinary hard wheat. It goes on, so do make sure that you avoid hard wheat if necessary by contacting the supplier. I still get caught today, here in France soft wheat is called Froment but again unscrupulous or ignorant bakers use hard wheat or just ble. It also gets thrown into (illegally) cheap wine and out I go!
 
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