Low Carb Diet May Shorten Life

[MichaelJH]

Having been Type I Diabetic since childhood my ears pricked up when I heard this on the news his morning := bbc.co.uk/news/health-45195474

Because of my diabetes I have been carb counting for over half a century. Some consultants have had different ideas (mainly in the seventies) but these always ended in disaster. When I was first diagnosed on average Type I diabetics were given a diet of 200gm CHO and 2000 calories, and Type II 100gm CHO and 1000 calories. In my teens this went up to 250gm CHO to keep up with me! Interestingly (maybe not) the early diet sheets included 1 pint of milk, and unlimited butter and cheese! In the last two decades lower carb diets have started to catch on. Whilst my diet has no been updated by the professionals for many years once I passed 50 I started reducing carbs as I was starting to gain weight (most now lost). As a result my carb intake has virtually halved. However there are people who suggest far less, in fact as low as 50gm per day. I have also seen it suggested that fat intake (to make up the calories) is irrelevant and that cholesterol and statins are both a myth and a con. For myself I will stick where I am now diet wise. What are your thoughts on low carbing? I know some people doi t for health not just diabetes.

[Zena166]

Hi Michael yes I saw this. Interestingly even the high carb diet fares better than the low carb one. Which I am relieved about as with my vegan diet I am obsessed with raw jumbo rolled oats!!! Occasionally I try and do cold turkey with my oats but all attempts so far have failed!!!

I note that this study relied on people self reporting so it’s only as good as the person reliably writing everything down which is a potential flaw as I am sure we have all been tempted to tell small fibs about what we eat!! I think it’s interesting still that we don’t have definitive decision on the absolute optimal diet. However consensus appears to be less saturated fat and more vegetables. Interesting developments always interested in food related research!! 🍎🥦🍟🍰🥗

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

Interestingly the kcals you quote equate to 120 to 160 gms CHO andy daily intake is near the lower end of that. The extreme low carbers I mentioned eat 50gm per day, i.e. 200 kcals, which is unhealthy in my view

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

Typo by me! 1gm CHO equates to 4 kcal - I just converted the values you quoted.

[Twobells]

All this mad ides mad diets this is good, that's bad etc been T1 for decades also. Like you 250 g, but for the last 20+ years I have stuck between 120-150 per day. My weight has always been stable never been overweight. I sometimes go over, but only occasionally. If your happy with carb counting just carry on. Sometime, being the most stable of diabetes I still got the complications. My motto is if I'm hungry I eat if I'm not hungry I don't eat, but I do cab count all everytime.

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Twobells]

Sadly complications are unpredictable. I know one doctor who is Type I and was one of the first people on a pump. Despite being utterly carefully about BGs they developed severe retinopathy and had a detached retina at year 25.

[Twobells]

It happened to me at 20 years post diabetes I have very little sight have a guide dog. HA last year triple bypass but apart from that pretty much OK still have my legs and feet ans sense of humour

[gal4God]

I’ve done the Daniel plan and they talked about cutting any man made food and onli eating natural foods. That means anything that had ingredients you won’t find in ur kitchen if u where to make something like wat u are buying is man made. E.g high futsoise corn syrup and I’ve bought stuff in the uk with ingredients like that on. I thought the really bad stuff was onli made in the us but had to stop buying snacks I thought was healthy as ingredients was changed and I stopped reading the food labels as I’d been buying these products for a while. Some randomly re check labels of stuff u regularly buy.

[cachaciero in reply to gal4God]

Indeed read the labels except that they keep dumbing the contents label down. Take FLORA for example, FLORA original has new packaging, however you would expect the contents to be same as the original FLORA I mean it says original right?

Well as far as I can work out it from the list of constituent parts quite comprehensive on the old packaging much less so on the new ,the New FLORA original is NOT the same as the new FLORA original

[ali161]

I have personally tried low carb for a few days and I literally felt sick in it and had to stop. I was really dizzy and weak! I never tried it again. There are still nice whole grains like quinoa, whole wheat, wild rice, etc. It's also not just the type of carb but the quantity we eat.