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Hello

My friend who has become a diabetes expert has said I must not eat any cheese absolutely none. Read on the traffic light food it is in the green section, full fat cheese, hmm
 
Cheese is OK - protein & calcium, low in carbs and good vitamins.

It's main drawbacks can be salt content, saturated fat and calories.

Pair it with other good stuff and it's fine - I use feta with avocado and tomatoes to make a nice salad.

How did you friend become a 'diabetes expert?'
 
Ian Robinson said:
My friend who has become a diabetes expert has said I must not eat any cheese absolutely none. Read on the traffic light food it is in the green section, full fat cheese, hmm
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My 'anti D' regime is probably high cheese, at least by todays standards - I am sure some 'health experts' would come over all faint if they looked at my fridges and freezer contents.
It has, however served me well for over 8 years now, and I am doing well for an 84 year old - so I am told.
I use butter, cream, full fat yoghurt and cheese. The amounts are quite modest though as I find that the foods I chose to eat seem very nutritious so I am not hungry. I certainly find an appetite when taking the lid off the pan in which I have cooked steak, mushrooms and onion - but only need to eat twice a day.
 
harbottle said:
Cheese is OK - protein & calcium, low in carbs and good vitamins.

It's main drawbacks can be salt content, saturated fat and calories.

Pair it with other good stuff and it's fine - I use feta with avocado and tomatoes to make a nice salad.

How did you friend become a 'diabetes expert?'
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Because I got diabetes lol
 
Do you lot spread your carbs out equally between you meals?

I don't have carbs for breakfast now I just have two hard boiled eggs and coffee, it lasts me well until lunch. So I have the carbs for lunch and dinner
 
Ian Robinson said:
Do you lot spread your carbs out equally between you meals?

I don't have carbs for breakfast now I just have two hard boiled eggs and coffee, it lasts me well until lunch. So I have the carbs for lunch and dinner
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It depends on the individual as to how your body copes with carbs, some people would get high levels if they have more than a certain amount at any one meal and therefore tend to have them more evenly during the day with perhaps slightly less at breakfast as people are often more sensitive to carbs in the morning.
That is the value of having a home testing monitor so you know what your tolerance is to carbs and you can tailor your meals accordingly.
 
I would be very sad if I had to give up cheese. I have given up pasta and jacket potatoes. I sometimes have cheese with an oatcake or on scrambled egg. Today I bought some Norfolk Pinkfoot and will have some as a side dish with cauliflower and yoghurt. Obviously you need to factor in salt and calories but it isn't high carb.
 
Burylancs said:
The DiRECT 'study' was restricted to T2s under 6 years, it couldn't have shown benefits for 10 and 25 year duration T2s. In addition DiRECT specifically made no record of complications even over its 5 year reporting period - an egregious error since the impact of any management system on T2 complications is one of the most basic things we want to know. Lean and Taylor quoted the UKPDS and weakly assumed any improvement in control would lead to reduction in the risk of complications. Of course the UKPDS has been exposed as an example of classic 'bad science' by Ben Goldacre in his book Bad Science.
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harbottle said:
Yes, I saw that.

The book by Goldacre that mentions this study was Bad Pharma, not Bad Science. And its criticisms were mainly about the scrutiny required on large trials to ensure the conclusions are good, so the comment above is very misleading as 'Bad Science' is about quacks who sell vitamin supplements and homeopathy.

The study was highly influential and is still cited by the ADA, NICE, and WHO. And it was the study that led to the use of Metformin as a first line treatment.
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Ben Goldacre's criticism of UKPDS was that it used a particular trick. Studied four variables at once and then conflated the results and averaged them out. UKPDS studied laser treatment for retinopathy, cvd, neuropathy and kidney issues ( from memory). It found Good Control reduced the risk of complications by 22%. Good news and a basic glimmer of hope although it does suggest even with Good Control a T2 retains 78% of the risk of complications. Ben Goldacre dived into the detail and found that in UKPDS Good Control reduced the risk of laser treatment for retinopathy by 83% but for the other risks the reduction something like 2,1 and 2 %. Add the four figures together and get 88, divide by 4 and get 22% reduction in risk of complications with Good Control. The best news we've got but basically averaging results like that is a bit of a fiddle as Ben Goldacre pointed out. And his main aim was to call out that technique of massaging results not the UKPDS in particular. It's widely quoted because we've got precious little else to cheer us up.
 
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I try and keep my breakfast, lunch and evening meals to around 30g max carbs each, leaving me with 30-40g spare for snacking, although it doesn't always work out that precisely. I still end up under my 130g per day target on the majority of days.
 
There have been other studies that have shown reductions in risks of complications, but you right, they did combine the variables (But you can see the individual variables and how much of a reduction of risk was obtained per 1mmol/mol reduction in hba1c if you furtle around on the internet.) They also had different treatments which showed different outcomes, with Metformin being the best.

That study was only on overweight patients and the recently diagnosed, I believe.

A US study showed that aggressive treatment on people who were eldery/frail or had the disease in its late stages was dangerous,
 
I like Ian Marber's basic formula for every meal. One third of the plate each for protein, vegetables and carbs - and you can always swap more veg for the carbs
 
Ian Robinson said:
Do you lot spread your carbs out equally between you meals?

I don't have carbs for breakfast now I just have two hard boiled eggs and coffee, it lasts me well until lunch. So I have the carbs for lunch and dinner
Click to expand...
I try and spread them evenly across 3 meals. I rarely snack these days so the only extra carbs I have is a small amount of milk in tea or coffee.
Breakfast is a bit more difficult as I don't like strong flavours early in the morning so it's invariably yoghurt with berries or poached/scrambled eggs on toast.
 
Burylancs said:
It found Good Control reduced the risk of complications by 22%. Good news and a basic glimmer of hope although it does suggest even with Good Control a T2 retains 78% of the risk of complications.
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How did they define "good control"? If it was purely HbA1c then we know that can be flawed because highs and lows can cancel each other out and result in a good HbA1c but I believe it is glucose variability/instability which is most likely to cause complications. I think with increased use of CGMs, better diabetes management can be achieved with less variability and perhaps result in improving those percentages of complication risk.
 
rebrascora said:
How did they define "good control"? If it was purely HbA1c then we know that can be flawed because highs and lows can cancel each other out and result in a good HbA1c but I believe it is glucose variability/instability which is most likely to cause complications. I think with increased use of CGMs, better diabetes management can be achieved with less variability and perhaps result in improving those percentages of complication risk.
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I believe good control was < 54 as this was the average of the ‘intensive’ therapy group. (They had two groups, intensive and non-intensive)

None of the treatments involved low carb diet, weight loss or exercise.
 
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