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Low Carb

This article appears to focus on Keto diets, very low carb diets and super low carb diets. I've been on a low carb diet (130g per day) for 6 years and have experienced none of the downsides covered in the article.
 
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Nobody in their right mind (so that includes me) actually advocates anyone with or without diabetes to embark on a diet that low in carbs it classes as keto - and especially not anyone newly diagnosed with diabetes. Occasionally - like @Drummer - people can find that a very low carb diet suits their body better than one not so low.

The major thing where Type 2 diabetes is concerned is to attempt to reduce the amount of unnecessary carb in the person's diet. But not to reduce it by a very large proportion immediately, because that can cause unnecessary side effects - instead reduce it gradually, until you get to the level your body can handle and you are happy with.

You have to learn to be a plodder, not a speed merchant because diabetes is a marathon, not a sprint.
 
nonethewiser said:
Let's be honest any extreme diet will have some negative consequences to health.
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For more and more people though, the extreme diet is proving to be the one high in carbohydrate - day after day year on year - it might have been not so bad for Homo sapiens Neanderthalis, but Homo sapiens sapiens evolved on a different diet.
 
Drummer said:
For more and more people though, the extreme diet is proving to be the one high in carbohydrate - day after day year on year - it might have been not so bad for Homo sapiens Neanderthalis, but Homo sapiens sapiens evolved on a different diet.
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Interestin...i went low carb and get kidney stones..
 
Tdm said:
Interestin...i went low carb and get kidney stones..
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Well, we never evolved to eat low-carb...so that might be part of the problem.
 
Tdm said:
Interestin...i went low carb and get kidney stones..
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Did you have an analysis of the stones to determine the composition?
I have been eating what I am told is very low carb, but have never felt better and everything seems to be working well - even my hair colour remains dark brown.
 
I have never thought that cutting out a food group was a good idea. Cats live on pure protein and they are prone to kidney problems. Just my opinion
 
Suedon said:
Interested to know what others here with experience thought of the article.
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I eat around 60g of carbs a day, as recommended by my diabetes nurse. She says less than that can affect your brain function and heart. I don’t think I ate 130g of carbs a day before I was diagnosed. Maybe on the odd occasion I had pizza, but being petite my food portions have always been smaller than usual.
 
Low Carb has been amazing for me.

(Not Keto - I don't count too much now but I'd estimate 60-80g carbs per day). I focus more on the type of spike I get with specific types of carbs.

I'm a (relatively) young T2 - not quite 50 and I know age can be a factor in glucose control so wanted to have the wriggle room to reduce my intake further in the years to come, if that proves necessary.

But, low carb (and, to be honest, TRE - time restricted eating: I don't eat until lunchtime and stop by 8pm most nights) has had benefits for me beyond diabetes (and I really enjoy my food!). I am in perimenopause and I was diagnosed with arthritis in my left hip just before my T2 diagnosis.

HRT was helping a little but a few weeks into managing my carbs, not only were my BG numbers beautifully stable but my brain fog has cleared, I'm discharged from physio care for my arthritis because I have no more persistent pain currently and I've had vastly fewer anxiety/panic attacks. My BMI has come down - my weight loss is slow but it doesn't fluctuate the way it used to - my BP is perfect (although it always was, much to the confusion of the nurse who tried to take it twice because she refused to believe a fat woman could have normal BP!)

The downsides: my hair has thinned a little - which can be a known side effect of low carb, not mentioned in the article. I'm take a multi-vitamin (when I remember) and I'm trying to get more collagen into my diet.

I have a strong family history of raised cholesterol. Mine was raised before low carb and has stayed stable at 6-ish on low carb - too high but it hasn't shot up the way I thought it might. My HDL has gone up and my triglycerides have gone down eating low carb so my overall ratio is better. I suspect medication for this will feature in my future but I don't see my cholesterol as a reason to ditch low carb and TRE because my cholesterol seems a family trait more than an unfortunate sequelae of eating low carb.

I made a choice when I was diagnosed with T2 - prioritise a way of eating that works for my diabetes first and then deal with any other health concerns that arose once I felt that I was managing my diabetes well. Nothing has occurred since my diagnosis last July to change my POV. Low carb works for me and the benefits hugely outweigh any risks/side effects for me.
 
Similar to @BobbleHat above, there have been many other health benefits to going low carb (mostly i aim to be 60-100g) on top of more BG stability. Less joint pain, migraines stopped and I had suffered them for more than 20 years and was at the stage of averaging an acute one a month causing vomiting and diarrhoea and loss of at least half a day, gut health is dramatically improved... there is a direct link from the gut to the brain via the vagus nerve, so likely the reason my migraines stopped and managing my disordered eating is easier..... much less craving comfort food binges.
My cholesterol has been stable between 4 and 5 and reduced slightly from before diagnosis when it was 5.2, despite eating lots of cheese and real double cream in my coffee every day and fatty meat and cooking some veg in butter. I haven't really found a downside to going low carb apart from it taking some time and considerable thought to adjust and find new foods to replace things like bread and tatties. I am not desperately strict and will occasionally share a single portion of fish and chips with my partner, but I am much more conscious of how many carbs I used to eat and to be honest find it quite shocking when I think back!
 
I suspect it makes a significant difference what you consider a ‘normal’ diet to be.

For some, that will be literally whatever they can get to eat. For others it will revolve on what they can afford. For the vast majority of us, it will be a product of our upbringing, our global location, and the food environment in which we are living.

The ‘normal’ diet now, is nothing like the ‘normal’ diet in the 1800s, or 1920s, or even the 1960s. One of the healthiest dietary periods in the UK was apparently the 1950s with rationing. But over recent years, certainly during my lifetime, a higher and higher proportion of the average weekly food shop has become highly processed ‘engineered’ foods. And I’m very aware of the very different food-environment I am living in now vs my childhood. What is available, what is accepted, what is normalised. Even simple things like the size of portions.

Like others I have an instinctive caution about any dietary extreme. Demonising one or other macronutrient, and attempting to avoid it entirely seems likely to swap one problem with another.

Getting the balance and proportion right between the varying parts of the menu, carbs/fat/protein, vitamins, minerals, and trace elements - such that weight remains stable/in target, blood glucose is well managed, appetite is met, and food enjoyment is high are my goals really.
 
'Ancient' humans probably had a diet that was dependent on the seasons and the location. Fruit and veg when it was available, meat during seasons when it wasn't. People in tropical climates had fruit all year round. They probably fasted a lot more and switched between being in and out of ketosis...

This idea that ancient humans existed on a diet of butter and meat is just narrative invented by the keto evangelicals, IMHO. Some of the ones on X/Twitter seem quite unhinged.

Without the problems of T2D (Insulin reistance and/or lack of insulin) the human pancreas can create a bucketload of insulin to bring blood sugar down. It can also, when it needs to, create energy via other means (Ketones.)
 
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everydayupsanddowns said:
The ‘normal’ diet now, is nothing like the ‘normal’ diet in the 1800s, or 1920s, or even the 1960s. One of the healthiest dietary periods in the UK was apparently the 1950s with rationing. But over recent years, certainly during my lifetime, a higher and higher proportion of the average weekly food shop has become highly processed ‘engineered’ foods. And I’m very aware of the very different food-environment I am living in now vs my childhood. What is available, what is accepted, what is normalised. Even simple things like the size of portions.
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Yes. There's known link between periods of 'rationing' and a fall in incidences of T2D.
 
harbottle said:
Yes. There's known link between periods of 'rationing' and a fall in incidences of T2D.
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It’s a pretty-much wide scale enforced dietary intervention isn’t it. The sort of data you’d never really be able to acquire in a clinical trial without locking people away on a remote island or somethig (which would be a huge confounding variable all of it’s own!) 😱
 
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