Members have criticized me for taking HbA1C so frequently. I have even taken BS on Accu Performa ten times a day.
This brief advice on phlaunt. com supports that and I copy/paste the abstract:
The advice you will find below is an edited, updated version of the excellent advice written by a lady named Jennifer, which she posted for many years on the alt.support.diabetes newsgroup. It has helped thousands of people bring their blood sugars down to the level that gives an A1c test result in the 5% range. Note: The Jennifer who wrote the advice is not the Jenny Ruhl who maintains these pages.
How to Lower Your Blood Sugar
Step 1: Eat whatever you've been eating and write it all down
Eat normally, but use your blood sugar meter to test yourself at the following times. Write down what you ate and what your blood sugar results were:
Upon waking (fasting)
1 hour after each meal
2 hours after each meal
What you will discover by this is how long after a meal your highest reading comes... and how fast you return to "normal." Also, you may learn that a meal that included bread, fruit or other starches and sugars (carbohydrates) gives you a higher reading.
Step 2: For the next few days cut back on your carbohydrates
Eliminate breads, cereals, rice, beans, any wheat products, potato, corn, and fruit. Get all of your carbohydrates from veggies. Test your modified meals using the same schedule above. See what impact you can make on your blood sugar by eliminating various high carbohydrate foods.
The closer we get to non-diabetic readings, the greater chance we have of avoiding horrible complications.
Here are what doctors currently believe to be non-diabetic readings:
Fasting blood sugar under 100 mg/dl (5.5 mmol/L)
One hour after meals under 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/L)
Two hours after meals under 120 mg/dl (6.6 mmol/L)
If you can do better than this, go for it. At a minimum, The American College of Clinical Endocrinologists recommends that people with diabetes keep their blood sugars under 140 mg/dl (7.8 mmol/L) two hours after eating.
When you achieve normal blood sugar targets, you can start cautiously adding back carbohydrates, making sure to test after each meal. Stop adding carbohydrates as soon as you get near your blood sugar targets.
Recent studies have indicated that your "after meal" numbers are those most indicative of future complications, especially heart problems.
Step 3: Test Test Test!
Remember, we're not in a race or a competition with anyone but ourselves. Play around with your food plan. Test, test, test! Learn what foods cause blood sugar spikes and what foods cause cravings. Learn which foods give you healthy blood sugars.
No matter what anyone tells you, if a food raises your blood sugar over the targets you are aiming for, that food should not be part of your diabetes food plan. Your blood sugar meter will tell you what the best "diabetes diet" is for your body. Use it and regain your health!
Written by
norreal
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Honestly, your hunch about her being the same person occurred to me earlier but I did not probe.
Now I will.
I am terribly impressed by Dr. Bernstein and I think he himself has given away summarized action line of his book at various platforms making it unnecessary to buy his book.
I particularly prefer the three steps Jennifer has put out in that summary that I copy-pasted. My hunch is that a number of our members do not do something like that with conviction. After going through Mendosa's glycemic index and glycemic load, I have tried to identify foods and combinations that give me a spike and approximate life of the spike.
What about portion control? If a food sends your blood sugar up, there are logically, several things you should ibserve. How much did you consume? How is it processes/ cooked? What did you eat it with?
I can have good numbers with idli or bread in reasonable quantities if I combine it with eggs and butter/ ghee.
It is not so simple. But it is not traditional diet that makes one diabetic, but traditional diet , combined with new lifestyles.
Over eating, sedentary and stressful life styles, sorrow, bereavement can all bring on diabetes. It is just the tip of the iceberg.
LCHF is an excellent way to manage diabetes and perhaps has no complications. In Kerala, Syrian Christians who eat more non vegetarian food was reported as having a higher incidence of colon cancer. So Veg LCHF could be the answer to managing type 2.
History of my diabetes:
I was told to stay off sweets by a GP after checking my BS in the 1980s. He did not explain anything and I went on as before. Probably it was pre- diabetes. I was in my 30 s.
I had type 2 diabetes and high BP in 2000. I was a mess, with having to manage sick inlaws, alcoholic brother, Dyslexic son in 10 th etc. i took a sabbatical from work. I reversed both diabetes and BP with a vegetarian/ vegan high carb diet with intermittent fasting. I did not lose much weight either. I came down by 3 kg or so. But I did exercises : Canadian Airforce Exercises for women, available on the Internet now. I could not cross level 1 even then.
I also did a kind of Surya Namaskar 3 times a day and meditation. I was free for 5 years.
Diabetes appeared again in 2005. During these five years I was back at work, I was cooped up in a flat, no exercise or meditation, non veg daily with carbs, sitting at computer for 9 hours, barely standing up for 10 minutes in between, chronic stress, father's serious illness etc. I had no energy or will to try to reverse it again and opted for medicines. I had a choice and the doctor had asked me whether I would try again. I had too much on my plate literally and figuratively , to make the effort
I am a worrier and broods over things and this makes me seek comfort foods. I am reasonably trim, weigh 55 kg and am 5 ft3 inches tall.
Diabetes like your faith in God, is very personal and subjective. There are some common aspects and many are subjective. It also has an emotional aspect.
What is right treatment for me must also assure me a quality of life. I should not have to eat what I do not like for all my meals. I ought to be able to balance things and it should be accessible to all, even the poor. I just don't like too much meats / fish or high protein foods. I hate to cook smelly fish, however full of omega3 it may be, and clean up the smell with candles later. I like everything in small quantities. I have to live with the treatment, haven't I?
I guess I should try a vegan diet with emmer added, intermittent fasting, the full round of CAF exercises and meditation and find out what that can do. I will wait for that till Dec1, Christmas Fast.
I do not have BP even now. Had I succumbed to the advice of the doctors in my family and had taken the medicines, I would still be on treatment for both.
That is why I believe we must address the cause, not just manage.
This is just my view point, shaped by my attitudes and experiences. I cannot claim it as the absolute solution.
For disorder like diabetes there is limitation how much one can address the cause. If someone's beta cells are not producing sufficient insulin then the person has no other option except manage. At the most he can take insulin but he can not address the genetic cause and can do nothing about dysfunctional beta cells. So managing itself is addressing the cause. Only taking drugs for lowering BS is neglecting the cause.
But then why do you have the id, Reversing Diabetes? Reversing is going back to the old position, not managing.
Genetic cause did not suddenly happen. It was there through out, as I understand it.
Beta cells of some have revived, haven't they?
I believe in Wheat Belly and also suspect the rice we get. That is why I have gone back to old grains and millets.
The day I switched over from rice based diet to millets, I nearly fainted from hypoglycaemia. Some millets can easily be substituted for rice.
I believe in you, I believe that reversing diabetes is possible .
You drive to the edge of the cliff. You can stop there, or you can reverse to some point on the route. I have already reversed to some degree which is why, with carbs, fruits and less medicines, my blood sugar levels are lower.
Less stress, exercise, different carbs, resistant starch., Vitamin D, zinc.
But if I use the machinery to move forward, the cliff is still there. Those without genetic predisposition do not have the cliff on their scenery.
This is about rices. Njavara is medicinal . Some organic shops have diabetic rice which is unpolished
Of the old wheats I think only soochi or emmer grows in India
Millets details are listed in millets.wordpress.com
There are traditional rice varieties for each state.
Jeerakasala and gandhakasala are I think, available in Karnataka also.
Original Basmati is supposed to be low glycemic.
Of the millets, I was asked to use Sama instead of rice and ragi for breakfast because it is highly nutritious and cools the body.
Ragi is high carb. I went to a tribal medical guy who prescribed me these diet changes and told me modern grains are meant for those who do strenuous physical work.
It did bring down my blood sugar. But I kept breaking the rule about fruits.
Thank you sir . I bought some Jeerakasala. I will try it and check my blood glucose response. I am quite OK the way I am, but my mind keeps driving me to find out more. I am convinced that all illnesses are the body, mind and spirit crying out for attention. Holistic healing brings real health.
Hi norreal, it was a tribal med practitioner, (TMP)with no registration who told me about ancient grains. A relative with newly diagnosed diabetes reversed it under the tMP's direction. We were asked to eschew rice because he said that the rice we eat as Chamba rice, the old rice of kerala, is a hybrid and had the wrong kind of starch. He asked us to start the day with an ivy gourd smoothie, breakfast on ragi and lunch on Sama ( little millet). It improved my blood sugar drastically and boosted my energy no end. But I still used ordinary wheat at night. I did this for 3 years. He had told me that my diabetes was the results of decades of wrong eating and would take 3 years or more to reverse.
Shooter George really reversed his. He is a colleague of my brother in law and his wife, both scientists retired from ISRO. He is also a retired scientist with a questioning mind. No pecuniary interests at all. Soochi wheat has been the diet for Malayali diabetics even before my grandfather's time, but no one has stuck to the regime as diligently.
Emmer is a hulled wheat like the other ancient wheats. I think they are called spelt.
I hear of old rice varieties being grown by some farmers. Will try Jeera and check BS.
Barley is good. Corn might be a hybrid. Millets like Ragi and Sama might not have changed much. The TMP told me that I should not take some of those, because they are not suitable for my constitution (Kamba, thina etc are some.) they are all bird feed.
I keep saying -ancient grains because this TMP was against the hybrids.
But then why do you have the id, Reversing Diabetes? Reversing is going back to the old position, not managing.
Genetic cause did not suddenly happen. It was there through out, as I understand it.
Beta cells of some have revived, haven't they?
I believe in Wheat Belly and also suspect the rice we get. That is why I have gone back to old grains and millets.
The day I switched over from rice based diet to millets, I nearly fainted from hypoglycaemia. Some millets can easily be substituted for rice.
I believe in you, I believe that reversing diabetes is possible .
You drive to the edge of the cliff. You can stop there, or you can reverse to some point on the route. I have already reversed to some degree which is why, with carbs, fruits and less medicines, my blood sugar levels are lower.
Less stress, exercise, different carbs, resistant starch., Vitamin D, zinc.
But if I use the machinery to move forward, the cliff is still there. Those without genetic predisposition do not have the cliff on their scenery.
Initially frequent testing is needed, But once the diet and BS levels are achieved frequent testing for non-insulin dependent diabetic becomes useless. It becomes obsession.
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