Diabetes and pred - and diet
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There has been quite a lot of discussion about pred being a risk factor for developing Type 2 diabetes. Another factor with pred is the weight gain. Both are, at least in part, due to the way pred changes how our bodies metabolise carbohydrates and store fat. One of the things I (and others on the forums) often say is that cutting the amount of carbohydrate in your diet will help avoid the risk of both (maybe not entirely but to a great extent) and, if you are unlucky enough to develop diabetes, will also help you manage your blood sugar levels better meaning you should need less medication and you may even find you don't need any at all.
Today there is an article in the Daily Mail about the same things I have been saying for some time. It isn't often I recommend health articles there but this is one worth reading. I'd give you the link but it might disappear so if you look online in the Daily Mail for this article under Health you should find it with no bother.
"Are diabetics being given diet advice that just makes their problems WORSE?"
3 likes, 26 replies
pat38625 EileenH
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Silver49 EileenH
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Silver49 EileenH
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Anhaga EileenH
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EileenH Anhaga
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Anhaga EileenH
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EileenH Anhaga
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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.
Anhaga EileenH
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EileenH Anhaga
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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.
gee013 EileenH
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is that really true?!! I always thought type two DIabetes was mainly due to xs central fat increasing the body's resistance to Insulin. Insulin production is reduced in type one but not in type two.
i would also echo Angaha's comment about double cream. Surely control of blood fat/cholesterol is just as important to avoid complications of diabetes namely peripheral vascular disease and heart attacks/angina. Anyway I think anyone with diabetes who is overweight knows that they need to lose it but often prefer the easier option of a pill or two than cutting down on cakes.
Now I wait for the howls of outrage!
EileenH gee013
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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.
Anhaga EileenH
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gee013 EileenH
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EileenH gee013
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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.
gee013 EileenH
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EileenH gee013
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