Wed, Jan-15-20, 10:46
|
 |
Senior Member
Posts: 14,674
|
|
Plan: EpiPaleo/Primal/LowOx
Stats: 220/130/150
BF:
Progress: 129%
Location: USA
|
|
Diabetes control with high-carb, low fat, plant-based diet
If you just shuddered, then you are like ME  I've been reading about this approach to blood sugar control, but I had to wade through so much marketing my spidey sense was tingling.
My High-Carb, Low-Fat Experiment with Type 1 Diabetes
Quote:
|
This is a detailed article about what happened when I tried to experiment with a low-fat, high-carb diet lead by Cyrus Khambatta from Mastering Diabetes for “ultimate” sensitivity to insulin.
|
My ears perked up. I'm thinking... it didn't work for her. She began the article with reported success with low carb, and occasional, budgeted, splurges. To me, this indicated she wouldn't have success with the opposite.
Quote:
This is a lengthy post because I want to do the experience justice. I also want to give enough detail to give proper credit and acknowledgment to those who do enjoy and thrive while eating a high-carb, low-fat, plant-based diet.
But by Day 9 of this experiment, I’ve realized I’m not one of those people.
|
I kept reading because this seems like someone willing, and wanting to be honest. She's obviously good at handling her Type 1 through two pregnancies. And she said she was willing to try new things.
Quote:
The gist: Achieve ultra-sensitivity to insulin through an extremely low-fat diet that is high in carbohydrates from “plant-based, whole foods.”
Your daily fat intake goal is between 20 to 30 grams of fat. While 30 is considered within the goal, Cyrus emphasized that keeping your fat intake down at 20 grams per day leads to mega-mega changes in insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance.
|
We had a previous discussion of the Rice Diet, which is all carbs and no fat. And it worked, though I recall the researcher threatening violence to "keep them on it." But my intestines were already quailing at the thought of how much fiber this must entail.
Quote:
|
Cyrus and Robbie, on the other hand, teach folks to severely reduce their fat intake with a goal of 20 to 30 grams total daily, and thus make your insulin needs for large quantities of carbohydrates much lower.
|
Can someone explain to me how this would work?
Quote:
An aspect of their philosophy where I really disagree with Cyrus and Robbie is here: Within their program, you can find a detailed explanation of non-diabetic blood sugar “norms” and A1c goals vs. diabetic blood sugar “norms” and A1c goals.
They argue that non-diabetics have blood sugars fluctuating up to 140 mg/dL regularly. If this were the case, however, non-diabetic A1c levels wouldn’t be in the low 5s and high 4s. This argument, seemed to me, like an attempt to dismiss the issue that carbohydrates do in fact raise blood sugar more than any other food.
...
With so little fat in my diet, my insulin worked much more quickly in my system and affected my blood sugar much more quickly, too.
By Day 6: I had lost 1 pound according to the scale. I was feeling some momentum, and I clearly hadn’t even done it 100%. I was also enjoying the challenge of minimal fat intake.
But I should add that I’ve never been a “gassy” person and holy moly, the daily bean intake was making me extremely gassy. I eat a lot of fiber in my usual diet, so my digestive tract is plenty accustomed to high-fiber intake, but the beans are another story.
And this gassiness continued on every day. It also made me feel surprisingly constipated — something else I’d never felt on my usual nutrition plan.
|
And fun it was not:
Quote:
Despite my declining insulin needs, I was noticing that I felt like my blood sugar was high even when it wasn’t. I felt that sort of lethargic, thirsty feeling that comes with blood sugars around 250 mg/dL or higher.
I was checking my blood sugar more often to see if I was indeed high, but I wasn’t. Even at 90 mg/dL, I just felt that icky high blood sugar feeling. And brain fog like whoa.
I also had developed a headache that wouldn’t budge with more water or Asprin. Can I say that this headache was absolutely the result of this high-carb diet? No, but headaches are a truly rare thing for me, and this was the only change in my life at this time.
And, my digestive tract was continuing to fight off all the legumes. Gassy to the max. And while I was (TMI alert) pooping twice a day in my previous low-carb diet, I was now only pooping once a day and it was not an effortless poo, I’ll just put it that way.
But I continued to follow the program, eating entirely vegan all day long, whole foods.
|
So she did have declining insulin needs, which is a good thing. But she didn't feel well, either!
And here we have it:
Quote:
|
My understanding was that as long as my fat-intake was 30 grams or below (yes, I went 1 gram over), it was up to me how that dietary fat allotment was spent. But their definition of “plant-based” actually meant vegan.
|
Marketing.
Quote:
Cyrus later explained that they don’t use the term “vegan” when describing or teaching their program because of the negative connotations that can go along with it. Honestly, had I known he expected 100 percent veganism, I wouldn’t have signed up for it because I firmly disagree with it — but I’m not going to start a debate on that here — it’s unnecessary and my thoughts on it aren’t unique.
Do I want to be on a diet that makes my body over-react so severely to saturated fat that one serving of cheese suddenly spikes my blood sugar by 200 points?
This is another area where I really disagree with Cyrus’ and Robbie’s approach is that they’ve concluded that this means people with diabetes shouldn’t eat saturated fats or even most sources of fat because clearly they raise blood sugar.
|
Uh huh.
It's well worth reading. |
|
Linear Mode
