Rationale of Low Carb High Fat (LCHF) diet

[Sugu]

If you are a type 2 D, training your body to live with the impaired beta cells and the resultant low supply of insulin is what LCHF all about. You have to arrive at a suitable food, exercise and drug regime to lead a healthy life. As we cut down on carbs, increased fat intake becomes inevitable for a balanced diet. Key to success lies in selecting the right food items, exercise and drugs in that order. Drugs should obviously be the last resort. Each individual responds @ different efficiency levels to the changes we make in food and lifestyle, as the metabolism, body response, attitude to life, activities, calorie burning, etc vary from person to person. This means no "one size fit all" remedies. One has to experiment continuously with food ingredients, food habits and workouts. All you need is a small kitchen scale, a glucometer and readiness to improvise and experiment.

I am a living example of keeping blood glucose level under total control over the last 13 months without any chemical drugs whatsoever thanks to this forum, especially the brilliant research of medfree who shares his knowledge to this community.

I have arrived at a number of food items that enable me to enjoy a variety of food in spite of being a diabetic. I am no longer disappointed of being a D. Neither do you have to. Similarly, I have evolved my own exercise and yoga regimes to suit my needs considering my restrictions in moving my lower body due to disc prolapse.and a repaired hip joint.. My fasting and pp glucose levels is on par with non diabetics and the last quarterly value of HBA1C was a remarkable 5.1. My next quarterly test on A1C, lipid profile etc is due in June first week that I will share with you,

Take control, be smart and beat diabetes !!!!

[burma]

Excellent n God bless u

[sapta123]

Sir,

If you can share some of your food regime, it will be extremely beneficial for people like me. You may choose to share it on the forum or send me a email on my personal mail id ([e-mail]). And congratulations on the fantastic control you have achieved.

[Sugu in reply to sapta123]

Dear sapta123,

I have described my food choices several times in this forum. Again, as I said, it is not "one food for all" You keep trying different low carb and low GI food and keep checking your pp after 2 hours. Over a period of time, you will know what food you can take and in how much quantity.

The basic rule here is you should weigh the portions and count their carb content. Choose menus for the day keeping in mind that your daily cap of 100 g carb. Second rule is keep sugar, jaggery, honey, sweetmeats, potato and starchy vegs totally out of picture.

Moderation is the key word for fruits. When it comes to mango, grapes, banana etc (high GI).it should be extreme moderation or avoidance. Take in moderation, low GI fruits like kiwi, strawberry, guava., orange etc. Rice and chapathies are high in carb so carefully weigh them and take them in the right quantity.

Maida is a taboo so white bread and porottas (the weakness of kerala) are out.

I dont give you prescriptive menus because the response varies from people to people. You will have to evolve the best menus for you using good ingredients.

Include salad as a key dish in all menus.Sky is the limit for salad components (cucumbers, lettuce, chinese cabbage, ivy gourd, cooked mushrooms & broccoli) , and you have large scope for improvising on dressings. Have an undrained veg soup (I have shared recipe very recently).

My choices of breakfast food ingredients are raggi powder, atta of long wheat, upma and puttu made of samba wheat (powders available in stores). Occasionally poori or iddly (3 pirces each). I take a small quantity (150 g) of cooked (drained red boiled rice) for lunch which in my case never spiked my pp. I take fish and chicken too. Dinner should have minimum carb. Try veg soup, salad and one phulka chapathy. Include vegetables liberally in your meals so that you can eat more food with lower carb input. It also helps you to consume more fiber.

I take two milked tea in a day. Mid-meal snacks are peanuts, almonds. My mid-meal drinks are fresh lemon soda made at home or butter milk.

To begin with, you should have an idea about GI status and carb loads of food items (information available in the net and also in this forum). Then start your experiments using your kitchen scale and glucometer. You will arrive at your happy menus in a period of time.

Occasionally you may be forced to cheat/deviate like when you go for kerala type marriage and find yourself looking at tempting payasams. The mantra is "MODERATION". Also you can adjust the carb in other meals of the day.

I take some home remedies too. These include 1. Slit bindi (okra) kept overnight in water and drinking the stock water in the morning 2. One teaspoon fenugreek (methi) powder mixed in water every morning. 3. Freshly blended juice of karela (bitter gourd) and cucumber with a small piece of tomato.

Another tip I can give u is: I take care to include a lot of bindi, cucumber, ivy gourd (avakkaya in malayalam kovakkaya in telugu and tindora/kundroo in Hindi), and other gourds in my food and salad. These are known for their blood sugar lowering powers.

Finally, follow all the tips in this forum. Check your FBS and PPBS at home every day and HBA1C at lab every three months. Track your lipid profile twice a year. Keep reporting progress/problems. Good luck.

[sapta123 in reply to Sugu]

Thanks a lot for the prompt reply sir !!

[Hidden in reply to sapta123]

there r funny diabetics who do not like to repeat the same food second time and never at least within 3-5 months. Understand the funda from Medfree and then do as Sugu says. Balance, Test kit and move ahead boldly. We are all with you.

[sapta123 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks a lot !!!

[Hidden in reply to sapta123]

pls see my earlier posts.

[shirishmuzumdar]

From where we can get virgin CO in Pune.

[shrisamarth Volunteer in reply to shirishmuzumdar]

Lakadi Ghana in Mayur colony Kothrud manufacture CO without any processing. (old conventional method)

[vijendrashirahatti]

Sir

I would like to know your food habits and exercise.I a, pure vegetarian.My Email ID is [e-mail].I am also experimenting I would like know yours so that I can improve stop taking drugs.

[Sugu in reply to vijendrashirahatti]

Dear Vijendrashirahatti, Plese see my reply to sapta123.

[norreal]

Has Diabetes not reversed for you?

[kshanky]

Excellent performance...kindly share your food pattern & habits on same forum as everybody like to know about you experience

Thanks.

[Sugu in reply to kshanky]

Please see my reply to sapta123 on this post

[chipsforfree]

Congratulations. I have been doing this diet and had good results for the short term, however I tend to lapse as I run out of recipes and when hunger strikes, I tend to break the regime. My HDL went up when I did the diet for 3 months, but i felt perpetually hungry. The most difficult was to stop chapatis and bhakri. Can you share what you did?

[Sugu in reply to chipsforfree]

There are physiological and psychological reasons for your problem. The former is explained by medfree. Coming to the latter, we all attach "feel good" tag to rice and chapathy. This is an unwanted baggage thrust on us by the society. Even if I stuff myself with everything else, my wife says I did not take my "meal" if do not eat rice. Same with roti in the north. We need food to satisfy our taste needs and meet our nutritional requirements. Do not bother about anything else. I used to live in Europe Africa and Latin American countrees. Trust me, I was perfectly alright without roti and rice for months without any emotional stress. Fill yourselves with fibre fat and carbs as per our plan. There will be no hunger pangs.

[Sugu]

Dear Anik Verma, please see my reply to sapta123

[Hidden]

Medfree, there is a Kerala Food shop near by. I get my EV coc oil from him. He has not been able to get more for a while and now my supply may run out soon. Pls can you advise abt yr supplier. Thx.

By the way, 2 Pizza hut Medium size pizzas in 12 hrs. one between 7-8 pm and the other in morning. At 11.45 am, BS was 145. It would hv crossed 470 in the old days. You are a great guy brother.

[norreal in reply to Hidden]

Anil Gupta if you do not have Dawn Syndrome, you are as per my perception, Non Diabetic!

[Hidden in reply to norreal]

Of course I have Dawn Syndrome. So I take my Daibetes medication at night.

[norreal in reply to Hidden]

Thanks. (I take two snacks, approximately 20 g carb, between dinner and breakfast)

[Hidden in reply to norreal]

Take Bajra, besan, methi mathris with mango pickle and a nice juicy mango. The soluble fiber will help digest yr dinner slowly and give bette control. Mango is said to help reduce Diabetes, if yr doctor does not agree, pls tell us his age and if he browses the net well.

[norreal in reply to Hidden]

Mango good for diabetes and pre diabetes

diabetes.co.uk/.../mango-go......

American Diabetes Association

Nov 27, 2006 - Mango was recently identified as a particularly useful food when it comes to the fight against diabetes, and a new study conducted in Australia . . .

[Sugu in reply to norreal]

This link is not opening

[norreal in reply to Sugu]

Sugu if you search 'Mango good for diabetes and pre diabetes' on google, it is the first item there and clicking on it opens it for you.

[norreal in reply to Sugu]

Sugu, I copy paste it here: Mango was recently identified as a particularly useful food when it comes to the fight against diabetes, and a new study conducted in Australia concretes this. Furthermore, mango could also have a role to play in the treatment of metabolic disorders, although research is at an early stage.

Eating a mango every day could protect people against high cholesterol as well as diabetes. The study, conducted by PhD student Ashley Wilkinson at the University of Queensland, indicates that components within mango operate in a similar manner to some diabetes and cholesterol drugs.

Miss Wilkinson said: "There's been a lot of research looking at nutritional bioactives but it's focused on more temperate fruit like broccoli and grapes. And there hasn't been any research looking at tropical fruit in the context of looking at modulating cellular processes."

A doctor of the school of pharmacy at UQ agreed: "We don't know yet how the whole thing's going to play out but we know some of the individual components activate these receptors or even inhibit them. That could end up with positive nutritional health benefits for diabetes and high cholesterol."

High cholesterol is a major indicator of metabolic syndrome, a by-word for pre-diabetes in many cases.

[Sugu in reply to norreal]

Thanks norreal. Good to read this. Worth trying in our experiments.

[Hidden in reply to Sugu]

Yes, medical science is developing all the time and it is wise to keep an open mind.

Mango not only does not send my blood sugar up (after rigorous testing) it may even help reduce my blood sugar levels a wee bit.

[Sugu in reply to Hidden]

This music to my ears, bcz I love mangoes. Thanks. I will experiment with this.

[plus in reply to norreal]

R u kidding ?

[Sugu in reply to plus]

Dear type 2 and plus, Please see medfree's reply to one of today's posts

[norreal in reply to plus]

plus: Different people have different outcomes! I read on the net some people have had success with mango leaf extract. Most experts see my daily diet quota and can not believe I reduced it from average of over 285 in the beginning of this year to average of less than 140 now, without any sugar control medicine, because they find too many carbs in it. The fact is, I have tripled the fiber intake, reduced carb by two thirds and doubled the daily walk. In addition I eat 7 - 10 times a day!! (When I was in US I had only one supplement i.e. cinnamon 2g daily but than in six weeks it came down from over 285 to 185... )

[shrisamarth Volunteer in reply to Hidden]

BS rise after eating pizza is very slow. It may spike at odd timing . Better to check additionally at 180min and 240min.

[Hidden in reply to shrisamarth]

When there r two pizzas waiting, only Baba Ramdev can have such a control. Sorry -when i enjoy, i enjoy.

[chipsforfree]

Hunger pangs come when sugar spikes? I would have thought that it would be when there is not enough sugar. Thanks for the tip anyway.

[shrisamarth Volunteer in reply to chipsforfree]

It is false alarm by the body. The sudden drop causes the hunger. It will happen even if BS falls below individual baseline level.

[Hidden]

Medfree, you stopped my nuts for reason of weight gain. I have a cube of cheese in place of nuts sometimes.

[ranj]

Earlier, I had bought from ebay. This time I have contacted Keranidhi and got the supply of two bottles of 500 ml. They have sent the VCO even without making the payment in advance. I will make the payment through netbanking tomorrow.

[rnpath]

I had diabetes,hypertension,ischemic heart disease with unstable angina(cardiac pains), in 2002

With altered life style,simple vegeterian diet of low carb,30%,protein 45% and less than 15%fat as the minimal ,with gods grace I have steadily been able to reverse to manageable sugar status with metformin, glymiperide,to near normal lipid profile,and a normal blood pressure with no more cardiac pains(my coronaries threatening to close down are now seem to have adjusted to my diet and I am no more symptomatic for the past 12 years

I was advised this diet by the dietician in MV diabetic centre, chennai and from 68kg weight, I am now around 58kg.

everything you say is fine but I find no rationale for taking high fat,which is potentially harmful for diabetics, in the long run

and not needed at all.

[Sugu in reply to rnpath]

How long you had been diabetic before you became heart patient ? Are you taking any statin drugs to control cholesterol ? With 30 % carb intake, glymiperide, is squeezing your pancreas every day to extract maximum insulin. Soon it will exhaust your beta cells. That much for "long term". Statin might give you a "feel good" lilpid profile results, but how is it going to help you I am not sure. Good luck.

[rnpath in reply to Sugu]

Thank you for your concern.

Yes you are right, I was on high carb diet for many years,before diabetes precipitated as symptomatic with urine frequency,which again I neglected thinking it to be due to prostate.

for some more years,

I wasted time hoping on homeopathy and ayurvedics to control my sugar

When I developed angina, My BPwas 150/100, and i had no choice except to be on glimiperide ACE inhibitors for my BP and statins for my bad lipid profile.

statins were discontinued 5years ago due to my nagging leg cramps,after my anginal pains became less oftenl,and my lipid profile improved on my diet suggested by MV diabetic centre.

The carb and protein are in the proportion as in whole grains or in grated form,making it difficult for my body to extract the sugar from it indirectly keeping the sugar lower than with flours.like maida

I otherwise follow all your diet recommendations and recipe except for your high fat content

[norreal]

medfree. Yes you caught my goof! I addressed it to Anil Gupta instead of sugu. Reason for probe was: My fasting and pp glucose levels is on par with non diabetics and the last quarterly value of HBA1C was a remarkable 5.1.

[Sugu in reply to norreal]

Dear norreal and medfree, Yes I have to deal with this Dawn syndrome. Many a times I clock 100-110 fbs. I am trying various means to bring it down permanently in consultation with medfree.

[Sugu]

Thanks. When I take veg soup at 7 pm followed by a meal without cereals (salads and a couple of pieces of chicken or fish) at 9 pm the fbs next morning is around 95.

[Sugu]

Happy that my post evoked a long and useful discussion. 50 replies !!!! It was a learning experience.

[Sugu]

It was a nice discussion. 51 replies. A learning experience !

[georgekuttickal]

Thanks for this very positive and encouraging report.

[Sugu]

Plesse see my reply to sapta123 above

[shrisamarth Volunteer]

Check FBS few more times if the results are same then it is dawn phenomenon.(BS rises in the morning when you wake up and have not eaten anything) If it continues for some time then you need to attend it. There no specific remedy for it. From person to person different approach is needed.