The best diet for a type 2 or pre-diabetic to control their
blood glucose is Very Low Carb (VLC). How many grams of carbs you eat will
depend on your degree of Insulin Resistance (IR). Your meter will tell you.
Then, the number of carbs you eat will be up to you. How much do you want to
mediate your condition? Do you want to put your diabetes in remission, or do
you just want to let your doctor manage it as you go on with your old diet?
In the last 16 years I have tweaked how I eat a lot. My
doctor started me “cold turkey” on Atkins Induction (20 carb grams a day). I
few years later I switched to Richard K. Bernstein’s 30 grams a day (his 6-12-12
program). I transitioned to LC-HF (low-carb, high-fat), then to VLCKD (“keto”),
and finally VLC with lower protein and moderate fat, to allow
my body to burn its own fat, while I fasted or had one-meal-a-day (OMAD) and
was “fat-adapted.” All of these Ways of Eating have one thing in
common; the basic precept is Very Low Carb.
Besides always being fundamentally Very Low Carb,
it has also always been Moderate
Protein. It is not high protein as some
would have you think. People who say “high protein,” are thinking negatively in
two respects: 1) They think “high protein” is harmful to the kidneys and 2)
they are afraid to call it or think of it as “high fat,” which it is.
High fat, especially saturated
fat, they think, is harmful to the heart, which it is not.
With respect to PROTEIN, a moderate level means from 15% to 30%
protein, depending on the carb and fat calories. Mine has been 20% for many
years. Second, only a diet that is higher
than 30% protein of total calories (including body fat burned), might be
harmful to the kidneys and then only if you already have kidney disease.
Fear of FAT is not supported by sound
science, as the world is just now coming to realize. We have all been unwitting
subjects in a 60-year, world-wide, low-fat, public health experiment. In this
respect, I hope you’ve noticed that the 2015 Dietary Guidelines have quietly dropped the
“30% and lower” target for fat in their recommendations. You probably didn’t notice that the Dietary
Guidelines Advisory Committee told the full committee that “cholesterol is…no
longer a nutrient of concern for overconsumption.” Cholesterol accompanies
saturated fat in animal foods, and you no longer are being guided to
limit your CHOLESTEROL to 300 mg a day! Eat eggs! Eat shrimp! Enjoy!
Unfortunately, the Guidelines still focus – in fact they have
doubled down – on the dietary recommendation against SATURATED FAT, found mostly
in animal products (butter, ghee, lard, tallow) but also in coconut oil. They –
ahem, the United States Department of Agriculture, the co-authors of the
Dietary Guidelines with another government agency, HHS – want you to “shift
from eating solid fats to oils,” specifically the highly processed grain and
seed oils grown, manufactured and “baked into” foods, literally and
figuratively, by American AgriBusiness. Anyone see a conflict?
Basically, a diet that is very low carb, moderate protein and
high fat – or moderate fat if you are fat-adapted and need to lose more body
weight with fasting or just calorie restriction – is going to work
for you to manage your blood sugar and to lose weight without
hunger. When my doctor started me on Atkins Induction 18 years ago, for
weight loss, it worked. But we were both surprised that I had hypos for
a week until my doctor told me to stop taking virtually all the anti-diabetic
meds he had me on. I still take Metformin. And eventually I lost over 180
pounds!
My blood lipids also improved dramatically, cutting my
triglycerides by 2/3rds and doubling my HDL-C. And, with weight loss, my blood pressure went down, as did my systemic inflammation levels
(hsCRP). I am so much healthier today than before, and I feel
so much better. It all began with VERY LOW CARB. It is the basic precept for type 2s.
My apologies to my regular readers of this blog. I’ve told
this story many times; however, since my columns cover a wide range of subjects
and aren’t indexed, the majority of my readers find me through a “Google”
search. If that includes you, I hope you
will return often and make this one of your favorite sites, or even become a
“follower” and send a hyperlink to a friend. I accept no ads because I have no
products to promote or sell – only nutritional advice and encouragement for
type 2s and pre-diabetics.
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