Healthy Diet? It is neither Low Carbs nor L... - Diabetes India

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Healthy Diet? It is neither Low Carbs nor Low Fats- Both could be equally Bad or equally Good...

namaha profile image
namahaAdministrator
18 Replies

Very recently, I came across a couple of very thought provoking articles..

As per the studies, which seem to have originated from USA, one needs to be careful while choosing the quality of the Macronutrients one eats namely Carbs, Fats and protein.....

The all cause mortality is linked to an un-healthy diet - whether it is low carb or low fat and it appears to be a non- biased view....

theladders.com/career-advic...

medpagetoday.com/primarycar...

insider.com/healthy-carb-he...

nature.com/articles/s42255-...

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article is that of the author...if you are type 2 Diabetes, please consult your medical professional before any major dietary changes. Also any diet suitable to one person may or may or may not be suitable for another..

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namaha profile image
namaha
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sandybrown profile image
sandybrown

What is your view on low carb high fat diet?

namaha profile image
namahaAdministrator in reply to sandybrown

Dear Sandy

I am also a learner like you...and learning is a never ending process.. ☺️

We only tend to keep ourselves updated based upon some information or published studies or based upon our own experience ...

(1) The thumb rule of a healthy diet for all is whole natural food with minimal processing keeping in mind that you don't harm and degrade the environment i.e. Global Warming/climate change, and receding water tables.....

(2) Your body is different than mine! Every body is different....

Some one is a celiac i.e he can not digest Gluten and so he can not take Wheat and wheat like products life long ....

Some one has lactose intolerance ( Lactose is a Carb) due to deficiency of an enzyme called lactase and so he avoids milk and milk product life long...

Similarly, someone can not tolerate casein or whey protein... and someone is Lysinuric i.e intolerant to amino acids Lysine and Arginine....

And yes, there are people who can not tolerate Fat due to lack of an enzyme called Lipoprotein lipase which could be due to a familial gene. This could lead to high Triglyceride levels and consequently to Diabetes.

If your body can not accept some kind of food, it may result in body inflammation and finally results into some kind of metabolic disorder....

Then, there are people who are obese/overweight with high circulating blood insulin levels and some are underweight with extremely low insulin levels....

The obese find it difficult to reduce weight and sustain it and the underweight find it difficult to enhance their weight...

(3) Therefore , your diet has to be tailor made for you and there is no short cut....Tryout all permutation and combination and find out what suits you the best....

(4) However, For a type 2, if you want to eat a Low fat Diet, you can not eat 2000 kcal diet from carbs and protein alone, you definitely need more fat to meet 2000kcal diet... (1 gm carb/ protein gives you 4 cal and fat gives 9 cal). If you try to eat more carbs, your blood glucose could spike...

(5) However, after having said that as per my understanding as of date, I would not suggest anyone to go overboard by adopting an extreme condition of keto diet, Low carbs as low as 20%.... though it may be suitable to some extent for some obese type-2 with very high insulin levels.....

.... In general what is more important is the quality of fats and the quality of protein/ carbs. you eat....

.....A good way forward as it appears to me would be eating low glycemic index whole plant food with a lot of soluble and insoluble fiber, Phyto-nutrients, eating adequate quantities and varities of Nuts and seeds, olive oil as a source of fats, Leafy greens, varities of non starchy vegetables, eating varities of Low GI fruits (exclude high GI banana, Mango, chikoo etc )....

Avoiding plant based food could be a disaster since all plant foods have dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals, several phyto chemicals and phyto nutrients , antioxidants which are so helpful in maintaining a healthy body...

(A) Beta carotene and other carotenoids in fruits and vegetables- precursor to vitamin A..

(B) Resveratrol as in red wine

(C) Polyphenols in tea

(D) Isothiocyanates in cruciferous vegetables (members of the cabbage family that include bok choy, collards, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, and cauliflower)

(E) Vitamin C as found in orange, Strawberry , plum, Guava ..

(F) Vitamin E as found in almond and pea nuts.....

(G) ALA as found in chia seeds/ walnuts

(H) Lycopene as found in tomatoes

sandybrown profile image
sandybrown in reply to namaha

Thank you for giving a lot of information. It is going to take me a lot of reading to fully understand.

I found this link this afternoon on carb counting.

medium.com/dawaibox/carbohy...

Giving examples on Indian food.

ramana42 profile image
ramana42Volunteer in reply to namaha

Totally agree with namaha. Each should workout what is best suitable for himself.

sandybrown profile image
sandybrown

My carb counting:

Breakfast, Time 10AM, porridge with milk, total carb, 40g, low GI.

Lunch, time 1PM, Brown bread with cheese and butter, total carb, 60g, medium GI.

Evening meal, rice, chicken and veg curry, 2 cans of lager, total carb, 120g, medium to high GI.

Breakfast and lunch more or less the same days of the week.

Dinner, rice twice a week, roast two days a week, other home made items the rest of the week, two tabs of olive oil on food. Keeping total carb to 120g.

The counting may be not correct, looking for a good discussion.

namaha profile image
namahaAdministrator

Dear Sandy

It seems to be a well thought diet plan...

However, there is always a scope for improvement. you may like to revisit your diet plan in order to make it wholesome and further enhance its overall nutritional value...A lot of good ideas are available in this forum...

I would avoid white rice and bread. White rice is devoid of micro-nutrients...no fiber....

Bread is a processed food if made in a factory with synthetic preservatives, synthetic antioxidants/ stabilisers, synthetic colours......

Meat is a Low GI food with a good nutrient profile. But saturated Fatty Acid in meat is a controversial topic in health studies and it is being debated that animal rearing affecting climatic changes....in fact Australia govt recently decided to kill some 10,000 camels, as these camels are depleting water reservoirs and also emitting methane which is a strong green house gas affecting climate changes...

I would like to avoid meat , with all due respect for others who take it 🙏and though it is very popular. I find good substitutes are available in a varities of plant food...

Apart from the controversial studies on health benefits of meat, i would like to avoid it due to the following reasons:

All the new age Virus are proven to have originated from animals/ birds to human and then spreading from human to human:

Now Corona virus spreading across the globe killing people.... and it is not the first time that it has happened......

In the past if we refresh our memory or just google it out SWINE Flu, SARS virus, Ebola virus, Nipah virus, MERS ( middle East respiratory syndrome ) when thousands of people died ......and it was decided to kill millions of birds and bury under the earth to contain the disease... ..everytime ....History repeats...

Even HIV/AIDS virus are believed to have come from Chipanzees to human and then from human to human....and we still continue to fight with the disease.....

Then Rabies, Plagues, common influenza are originated from animals...

People with diabetes live up to 80-90 years with a healthy diet, physical exercise,.....but this kind of deadly virus could kill a human being within days....☹️

Disclaimer:

It is my personal view and not the views of HU...

It is not my recommendation for any particular diet...

Before changing your diet plan, please consult your physician and always check for your lab blood parameters, and other necessary tests required for assessing your health condition...

sandybrown profile image
sandybrown in reply to namaha

I appreciate you taking time to give me a very detail response. I can plan a better diet.

Thank you.

namaha profile image
namahaAdministrator

Dear Sandy

Some of the tips on healthy diet which I practice of late:

(1) Breakfast: 1 cup Probiotic yoghurt topped with 30 GM's chia seeds (soaked overnight)

Mushrooms sautéed with Olive oil along with any one or more of the vegetables such as Capsicum, onion, Green peas, Broccoli, Asparagus ...

Almonds 20-30 numbers........

Baked Beans with tomato sauce ....

2 servings of seasonal fruits such as kiwi, plum, strawberry or any other berry, Guava, cherry, Papaya, cherry tomato ... And all other low GI fruits

Decide on your portion size as per your Calori requirement.. usually a heavy breakfast.

{2 & 3} Lunch/ Dinner : 2 servings of Green raw vegetable salad to be taken first consisting of Cucumber, Carrot, tomato, onion, green peas, cabbage , capsicum , lemon....

Then i prepare a street food chat prepared at home which is my staple - dry roast peanuts ( ensure you are not allergic to pea nut ). Allow it to cool a bit. Then toss with extra virgin olive oil... Add little turmeric and chilly/ pepper powder along with rock salt to taste...mix it with grated tomato and onion and corriander leaves with little bit of green chilly...

What a great taste ! And look at the nutritional profile of the mixture..amazing.... Once I start eating , it is mouth watering ... I can not stop....i am lucky i am not allergic to the humble peanut which is full of Macro's and micro's nutrients... If you are allergic to peanuts, may be you can substitute with almond , pistachio, walnut or Boiled chick peas ....walnut and pista should not be roasted...

You can have a cup of Vegetable Spinach soup and a Cup of Lentil or Green gram soup ....

You can have all seasonal vegetables preparation to your choice - 2-3 servings ....

If you would like to have some grains , you can have two or three pieces roti's made out of whole wheat flour mixed with one or more of the ingredients such as Chick peas flour, methy flour, almond flour, Oat bran, etc etc...

Thanks Dear and wish you all the best..

kamtadale profile image
kamtadale

I think a balanced diet is most suitable in place of so much mathematics in taking food.A good balanced diet with a free and Jolly mind, brisk walk and medicine ,whatever suits you...this will take care of your life...... whatever is left.

kamtadale profile image
kamtadale

Why we look to USA always ?Plenty of materials available in our own country.Look for it and be healthy.

sandybrown profile image
sandybrown in reply to kamtadale

Could you please give us the web link that gives information on blood glucose, blood pressure, blood cholesterol, allergy, type 1 and type 2 in Asia.

What links do you get when you Google, cholesterol and blood glucose?

kamtadale profile image
kamtadale in reply to sandybrown

Dear Sir,get English translation of Charak samhita,the ancient Indian medicine book which have all the answers.And surprisingly what the "studies" of USA is telling now,it was known to Charak in 2nd BCE.You might be aware that thousands of westerners come to India, particularly Kerala and Karnataka to get themselves treated by Indian traditional medicines.Charak samhita is available in Amazon...

The recent bush fire in Australia is said to be man made blunder . Going for meat , producing more meat for which more animals are reared , fed with hormone injections , steroids ,antibiotics . all have a say in the ecological destruction , KITO DIET is good for epileptic patients and not for ordinary healthy individuals . A well balanced , nutri dense food in right proportions of carbs , fats and proteins procured from farm fresh vegetables and fruits is the correct way of eating to stay happy and healthy . We have a responsibility to allow other beings on planet earth to survive for the health of the planet .

kamtadale profile image
kamtadale in reply to

If you observe closely,our traditional everyday meals are always balanced and the way we prefer to take it like sitting cross legged on floor, etc,using home made spices as far as possible,having freshly cooked items.I particularly like South's way of having food on banana leaves.And Gujrat tradition of having fresh butter milk after meals.

in reply to kamtadale

Food taken when it is hot in banana leaves allows the leaf juices to be mixed with food and is very good for digestion . Similarly if food is served to children who have speech difficulties in plate of peepal leaves very soon they start talking clearly .In the olden days natural manures were used and no chemicals or fertilisers which never exposed the people to toxic poisons . Where we are going in the name of scientific and technological advancement , God only knows .

sandybrown profile image
sandybrown in reply to kamtadale

I agree, traditional home cooking in mud pots, sitting on the floor to eat on lotus life or banana life or any other large leaf has been healthy, there were no chemicals. Water kept in mud pots to keep it cool, also healthy. In western world it is difficult to practice.

I used to wash a mug at work before making tea, people used to laugh at me. The chemical from dish washer rinse aid can cause health issues!!!

HellzAngel profile image
HellzAngel

It matters not because everyone has to die one day anyway. There is too much information on the Internet and since much of it is unverified, anyone can make any kind of claim. Keto/ LCHF or Atkins diet is not feasible in the long run. My opinion is that everything in moderation, emphasis on blood sugar control, medication and diet control with intermittent fasting is the best way.

sandybrown profile image
sandybrown in reply to HellzAngel

Did our grand parents or parents knew about any other diet than local diet diet?

Possibly no.

WE all need to watch what goes into our mouth!!!

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