Diabetes and pred - and diet

Why? I mean I would because I do like Greek yoghurt - though preferably full fat (all 5% of it!) But in the context of a low carb diet it doesn't matter, in fact the yoghourt has sugars, the double cream doesn't to all intents and purposes. So the double cream wins for counting carbs. Berries are the fruit with lowest carb content so if you want to continue eating some fruit they are the way to go. 

I do believe moderation is the key.  And double cream is over the top.  He might as well be scarfing a spoonful of butter!  He'd be better off with no topping at all, especially if this is his daily breakfast, not just an occasional treat.  And does low carb = no carb?  I'm seeing a lot of odd dietary advice.  I mean, it's ridiculous to be told to stop eating carrots because they grow in the ground. 

No low carb is not NO carb - and it is hardly "odd" dietary advice. If you are aiming to cut carbs considerably and decide you are going to eat large amounts of fruit and vegetables you defeat your object altogether as both fruit and almost all veg that grow beneath the ground contain considerable amounts of carbohydrate. No-one has said "don't eat carrots" and in fact carrots aren't too bad kept, as you say in moderation. However, if you continue to serve up large portions of potatoes and other starchy underground veg - and that includes sweet potatoes which so many people believe are "healthier" than ordinary spuds - then you soon achieve a carb count that is too high for weight loss and avoiding high blood sugars. It's simply an easy general way to remember what you can eat in unlimited quantities - leafy veg and salad foods. After all - asparagus grows underground and it is to be recommended!

If you had read the article, which is what we are discussing here, you will have seen they are saying that diabetics (and pre-diabetics) are being given false advice: to eat a healthy balanced diet of the sort recommended for the healthy population - a diet that contains a large proportion of starchy foods, bread, rice and potatoes. But it isn't just potatoes that are a starchy vegetable, so are parsnips, swede and other ROOT veg and too many carrots. And diabetics aren't the healthy population.

When we take pred it changes the way our bodies process carbs and leads to weight gain, fat deposition in particular places and can, for many people, take them to the state of pre-diabetes and even full blown Type 2 diabetes. The way to avoid all of that is keeping your diet in check. Yes, much of it applies to processed carbs and they shouldn't appear in our diet at all. But if you want to lose weight or even avoid putting it on in the first place, if you eat an apple or banana of the sort that you find in the shops these days, each one is actually 2 standard portions of fruit and if you eat a couple of such fruit you will have already got to a carb level where you will no longer lose weight. Generally it is felt that more than 100g useable carb is not going be conducive to weight loss.  

Try weighing your food and calculating the useable carb you are eating - you are likely to be shocked. An apple has 14% useable carb, but the apples these days can weigh between 150 and 200g - 1 apple is at least 20g useable carb. Potatoes of any sort are nearly 20% useable carb - a portion is going to give you a good 20g and probably far more. A portion is 10 French fries - not fat British chips - or a 3in diameter potato - it isn't a lot compared to that pile of roasties you put alongside your meat! Even your leafy veggies have carbs that you need to take into account - but a big bowl of salad that is very filling will only have a few grams of carb (as long as there isn't sweetcorn in it, loads of carb there).

This is all relatively new research - confirming what many have believed but not been allowed to publish for years because of the food manufacturing lobby who were making such massive profits on the back of the advice derived from one flawed study that fat was the great enemy and we should eat low fat products which just happen to be packed with loads of sugar, in particular HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). Inexorably, obestity has become rife - because of that advice we now are finding. You can't eat large amounts of fat - but you can eat large amounts of sweetened junk which leads to raised blood lipids and weight gain. And to the development of insulin resistance, which is the point in this article.

Oh I did read someone saying they weren't eating carrots, and only eating vegetables that grow above the ground, and saw that above the ground thing mentioned more than once.  I eat a very healthy vegetarian diet, weigh around 105 at height ot 5'6" so not concerned about calories, just about actually eating enough to get the nutrition I need, and regaining some of my lost weight without bloating up. I don't eat foods like fries except as a very rare treat at a restaurant (maybe a couple of times a year). I just get irked when I see extreme dietary advice because it really is all about balance.  I would prefer to see advice on avoiding commercially prepared food which in North America at least are full of genetically engineered ingredients, as well as the usual chemicals and additives. Or drinking water instead of soda pop or juice.  I completely agree about the size of apples - and recently oranges.  It is becoming increasingly difficult to find a piece of fruit that is just the right size for one person's lunch.

Don't worry - the advice about avoiding processed foods is preached here on a regular basis. The vast majority of the people on this site are in the UK and while there is a lot of junk food around it is nowhere near on the scale of the US and the portion sizes are still less extreme here - and as a European on a UK-based site I write for a European market in general.  

This here was a fairly specific discussion about dietary carbohydrate quantities aimed at mainly non-vegetarians who have gained weight while on pred - and some background for that discussion about lowering carbohydrate intake. 

I don't think (personally at least) that the use of pills is a better option. Apart from anything else one of the side effects of metformin is weight gain! And the fat that is dangerous is the fat that is in around the organs - so the fat in the liver and the fat around the liver are also implicated.

If you want to reduce cholesterol (and other fats) in blood one of the ways to go about it is reducing carbohydrate intake. It is beginning to be realised that fat in your diet has not that much to do with your blood fat levels - hence the rehabilitation of eggs and other fat in food. 

Yes I agree that it is difficult to not know when you are overweight - but obestity has become normalised. I went to the GP concerned about weight gain that nothing seemed to shift - I was attending Rosemary Conley classes at the time and had lost some but got stuck at the point the PMR started - I wasn't moving as much as I had been. He not only didn't recognise the PMR but he also told me I didn't need to lose weight - but I was already verging on being obese! People really do go by "there are a lot of people fatter than me" - and this article is presenting the fact that diabetics and overweight people are told they MUST eat carbs. I was told by a dietician I needed the equivalent of 6 (yes, SIX) slices of bread! I've never eaten that in my life and I know that Nefret who posts on here was also given similar advice as a diabetic. 

It is all part of the fundamental change that is finally happening over diet - and at last the US food manufactuers are having less influence on what is being said. 

Six slices of bread?!  Maybe if it were melba toast! 

There are a lot of people with diabetes who have complained of weight GAIN - and some of them came to the conclusion that the gastric effects metformin can cause in many patients led to their weight loss.

You're right though - officially it doesn't cause weight gain - I've confused it with another anti-diabetic drug but I'm blowed now if I can remember which it was. Thanks for correcting me. However - that statement was for non-diabetic obese patients, maybe there is a difference in diabetics?

This paper: Antidiabetic medications and weight gain: implications for the practicing physician.McFarlane SI    says

"Obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, and most people with diabetes are overweight or obese. Weight reduction has been shown to improve glycemic control and reduce cardiovascular risk in the diabetic population. While physicians strive to achieve better glycemic control for their patients with diabetes, they are faced with the problem of weight gain that is commonly encountered with the use of antidiabetic agents, particularly insulin, insulin secretagogues, and thiazolidinediones..."

so it is a problem with some anti-diabetes drugs.

There is a big difference between Type 1 and Type 2 though. Lifestyle changes will achieve a lot and even "cure" in Type 2 - not in Type 1 where there is often a total lack of insulin rather than either too much body for the available insulin or resistance to its effect.