Coffee especially with Coffeemate raises my blood sugar. Try green tea as a coffee substitute.

Just to clarify, eve. There really is a distinct difference between benign dietary ketosis and diabetic ketoacidosis even for a type 1, that being how high blood sugars are. To develop ketoacidosis, blood sugars must be high as this is what causes the "acidosis" part of ketoacidosis. If blood sugars are within normal range, even for a type 1, dietary ketosis is not a problem. In fact, once blood sugar readings are high enough to cause acidosis, it becomes ketoacidosis (not benign ketosis) and the cause is high blood sugars; possibly because of gluconeogenesis, possibly for other reasons that aren't related to diet (infection, not enough medication, etc...).
That being said, if blood sugar control is a problem (as in freqeuntly very high), I would not recommend dietary ketosis for a type 1 or a type 2 until better control is achieved consistently. The catch to that, especially for a type 2, is that the best way to achieve better blood sugar control is to lower your carb intake, for some of us to the point that dietary ketosis occurs, but lower (below 20-30 grams per day) is not better for diabetics since, as you have pointed out before, gluconeogenesis then kicks in causing havoc with blood sugar control.
Of course, all diabetics should test the blood sugars frequently and contact their doctor if unusually high readings are happening as well as being careful to not cut carbs too low or to zero.

Well, I'll take your word for it since I'm not T1 and haven't spent a lot of time on this topic and how it affects T1. I do know that Bernstein is a T1 and doesn't appear to be having any problems with being very low-carb, nor does he have a lot of dire warnings about it for T1s either in his book. I would find it odd that, with his expertise in this area, that he would be off on this topic. Also, it's a tad odd that you want me to re-read those sections of his book to see the difference between the two conditions even though you infer that his book is in error about it.

Ah, well....I have no desire to get into a debate about it since it's not my area of expertise. Have a great day.

...was originally posted by you funkycamp, not me.

With regard to DrB and T1....I guess if I was male, and quite likely waited on hand and foot, and had no hand in preparing my meals, and those of family, I might take as gospel everything he has written---but I'm not, and I don't..!!

If you have read much on diabetes, and various forums, you will have learned that it is such an individual condition that 'one size does NOT fit all'.....

Omitting to warn T1 subscribers to his plan of the dangers inherent in going too low on carbs, is to me, negligent. If you look, you will find plenty of T1s who run into this difficulty and end up with a period of very erratic bGs.

Have a happy day yourself......Eve

Eve, I'm not looking to get into an argument with you over this, but I really am curious as to what difference you believe it makes in blood sugar control as to who actually prepares the food? A meal of broccoli and chicken is going to have the same effect on my blood sugar whether I prepare it or my husband does.
From Dr. B's autobiography, he himself was solely involved in preparing and testing the effect of various foods and amounts of those foods on his blood sugar readings, not his wife, and it seems to me that he's a firm believer in the diabetic taking control of what they eat and when, not the diabetic's spouse or significant other regardless of gender.
I'm not sure how things run down under, but over here in the US, men are generally not "waited on hand and foot", at least not among the couples that I know. My DH is a fair hand in the kitchen and can easily take over for me when I'm ill or not feeling up to preparing a meal. In fact, this week he prepared a complete Thanksgiving feast (from turkey to pie) for the 14 men in the addiction recovery home that he works in and got rave reviews on the meal. Granted, there were a few phone calls to "the wife" when some things didn't go exactly as expected , but he did all the work and can proudly claim credit.

Wow, where did this diatribe come from? I see nothing that indicates Dr. Bernstein was waited on hand and foot. In fact, it appears that he has a very heavy workload. I don't know what preparing family meals has to do with it. I prepare family meals. For the most part, my family eats like me. If they want something extra, sometimes I will prepare it even if I can't eat it or sometimes they will prepare it themselves. However, for all of our health, we don't have a lot of high-carb stuff and snack foods in our home.

Considering the huge success many T1 diabetics have on his plan as evidenced by posts here by many and others on other forums....specifically on the forums at Dr. Bernstein's website....I just find your adamant claims about this issue to be unsupported by the evidence. Are you saying that all the other T1 folks who have enjoyed immense success and don't have any problems with these issues are wrong? While I haven't read thoroughly the sections in Dr. Bernstein's book as related to insulin (since I don't take it), I understand that he has gives very good advice on how to watch for low BGs and how to treat them as well as the ketosis/ketoacidosis issues.

Well, for me..."There is but one God"......and it ain't Dr B.

His ideas are helpful, but not definitive. I guess I underestimated just how many people knew him personally.

Down Under, we all treat our men like kings.
See, I can write whatever I like, and you have no way of knowing if it is the truth or not...could hold true for everybody in NZ !!

Dr Bs solutions are no different...they can't be taken as gospel just on his say-so....ideas tested and retained, or discarded, on their merit. One size does not fit all---especially with this dx.


..... Eve

Well then...I'd be willing to bet that at least all the men there are happy.

Ketosis, (Atkins said he used wrong word should have used lipoylosis...spelling???) wont send you into a coma, ketosiacdiosis will. Only type I's can do both (if go so low while in ketosis…. and type II mainly wont go into ketoacdisis unless on insulin or totally uncontrolled. They are two different things; some signs the same maybe but not same issue as well. Ketosis is meaning your body is burning fat. It has nothing to do with diabetes unless you are low carbing but people get it confused.
BethM is you are that low you really are on Atkins, his starts out at 20 but work up and if maintain self that low that is good. Sounds though you have never read it.???? New book Atkins Diabetic revolution is excellent.
Atkins basically cured my diabetes and it is dormant unless I eat high carbs. I am a II though.
I think we each need to find out own balance.
Someone up above is using coffeemate which is laden in sugars and no wonder you are getting screwy readings.
lots here mentioned if they don't eat a long time they have high BG, well of course that is normal, the longer you go, the more freaked your body gets thinking it is starving thus your liver compensates and spews out some glycogen to keep you alive and no thermostat to tell it to turn off so you get a rebound hi reading. that is why aktins and Bernstein etc all say to eat something every few hrs and aktisn says NEVER go over five hs without eating while awake. One reason type II's have hi morning readings is due to the fast all night.That is how I understand it all.
If a type I and low carbing you can get hi readings from rebound effects so it is almost a magical act to get it all together. Evee sounds like you have found a good balance.

PS: in my next life i want to return as a male in NZ LOL
PPS:if going really low carb on insulin either need to drop insulin dramatically or will have rebounds.Type I's will always need some but such small amts of insulin and I know lots that eat low carb but have not dropped insulin enough, it is for sure a difficult task.
I also feel no diff on zero carb to low carb but once raise carbs and go to 70 boy do cravings, hunger, feeling tired come into play but Bg will still be normal at that level but dont feel as good.

PS: in my next life i want to return as a male in NZ LOL

Don't believe everything you read on here 4myfuture..haha

I like your thinking with regard to this dx....Cheers.......Eve

True as far as for us, so what does a person do to have a lower reading in the morning, get up during the night and have a snack? I am serious, the morning reading is always high and doesn't come down till after breakfast. Is it possible to get that am reading lower? (type 2)

Upback:
I'm in the same boat with you. My FBG is the highest reading of the day. I usually adjust it with a small snack right before bedtime, some plain yougurt, a slice of turkey breast, few nuts. If I don't eat a snack, my FBG will be around 110-120. If I do, in 100-110 range. FBG is used for dx since it's a best indicator of your BGs control in general, which is basically insulin availability and utilization. DP due to "liver dump" is absolutely normal, and the higher FBG is mostly due to insuffucient insulin before dawn to conteract the liver. I too have to eat as soon as I'm up to stop the liver from charning glucose and/or to get pancrease to pump some insulin. Most type 2 are have rather higher than lower insulin, so this FBG is actually an indicator that we are not in complete control, another words are diabetics, LOL. Interesting, that back in 1995 FBG high limit was <140, now it's <100. Since my Hb1C never was higher than 5.7% and current is 5.4%, I question the whole "low FBG" concept for non-diabetics too. DP was widely discussed on this forum and others as well, it's hard to deal with. I just can share what works for me, BTW, exercise before bedtime works too. So, try to workout after dinner and eat a small low carb snack as close to bed time as you can, and see if this works. It's trial and error, sometimes even more carbs at dinner time lowers my FBG, generally the lower 2 h pp after dinner, the higher my FBG will be. As for eating something at 2 am, I wouldn't do this simply because I need uninterrupted 8 hours of night sleep. Good night sleep is also important for better FBG readings. And last one, some folks swear by drinking alcohol before bedtime to control FBG. As much as I love my wine, alcohol at dinner always raises my FBG regardless what I ate. With this evil Dx, YMMV .
Good luck,
Dina

Upback, that depends on why you are having higher morning readings. If it's a rebound hyperglycemia due to the Somogyi effect (hypo during the night causing gluconeogenesis to compensate), a small snack at bedtime or during the night might help or less medication at bedtime (your doctor can help you with that one, if needed).
If it's due to the Dawn Phenomenon where a combination of hormones (Cortisol, Adrenaline, Glucagon and HGH) paired with the liver clearing circulating insulin are causing the morning increase, there isn't any therapy currently that is consistenly effective other than perhaps Glucophage (Metformin). From my own experience, it did settle down once I had been low carbing for a while and now my morning readings are better; not necessarily my lowest of the day but usually below 90 which is fine with me.
Here is a link that discusses the difference between Dawn Phenomenon and Somogyi effect as well as some strategies for dealing with either: http://www.diabetic-talk.org/dp.htm