I'm diabetic. Where do I begin?

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July 31, 2007

Q. I just found your site and think it's wonderful! As a newly diagnosed diabetic, I'm overwhelmed and extremely nervous, mainly because there are so many "yes, but.." scenarios with food. In using your site to develop a diet to lose weight and control blood sugars, where do I begin?

A. First of all, good for you for meeting your new challenge head-on by seeking to take control of your diet and its effects on your health. At NutritionData.com, we really believe in that old chestnut, "Knowledge is power." Our mission is to empower you to make better choices by providing you with detailed and reliable information about the foods you eat.

But I also understand your nervousness...there's a lot of new information for you to absorb and it can be overwhelming at first. You might want to start by reading our article on glycemic index, an indicator of how foods affect blood sugar levels. Most diabetics find it crucial to monitor the glycemic index or glycemic load of their diets.

When you search for foods or analyze recipes on ND, you'll see the estimated glycemic load as part of the analysis. To keep blood sugar levels steady, you'll want to choose foods and plan meals with a low to moderate glycemic load. As a general guideline, aim for a total daily eGL of less than 100, divided evenly over the course of the day's meals and snacks.

ND can help support your weight loss efforts as well.

You might also find it helpful to read our article on Weight Loss. Ultimately, losing weight is a matter of reducing the number of calories you take in and/or increasing the number of calories you burn. But reducing calories can leave you feeling hungry. To control your hunger, look for foods that fill you up with fewer total calories. To help you identify these foods, ND created the Fullness Factor™. For more about this index, please see our Fullness Factor page.

By the way, don't overlook the "burn more calories" part of the equation. Exercise not only promotes weight loss but also enhances insulin sensitivity, which is a big help for diabetics. Start by doing some form of physical activity every day, even if it's just walking briskly for twenty minutes, and increase the intensity as you get fitter.

To get the most out of ND's tools, I suggest that you set up a personalized pantry, where you can store your favorite foods, compose recipes and mealplans, and analyze your diet. If you haven't already registered, you'll need to establish a username and password for your ND account. Click on "Pantry" in the navigation bar to get started. Our Pantry Help page will guide you through the features.

Finally, remember that you are not alone! We have thousands of ND users who are also diabetic and who use ND to make their diets and lives healthier. If any ND diabetics have words of advice or encouragment for our new user, I hope you'll add your comments below.

Posted by Nutritiondata Blogs 8:36:00 AM

Start by reading Eat to Live by Joel Fuhraman. This should help to alleviate many of the problems that caused/lead to the diabetes as wellas to well as the issues that will stem from diabetes improper control. Once you have reas this book you can use ND to fully captialaize on everything Dr Furhman has to say. Really as simple and incredible read. Should help you to adress blod sugar problems, blood pressure problems, cholesterol issues, body weight, and the like. His book adressese many of the topics ND covers such as fullness factor in combined with high nutrient density. Being a diabetic myself I would tend to stay away from carbohyrates as a aw whole with the exception of fibrpus vegetables and leafy greens. Even moderate GI foods can have a substatial affect on blodd sugars. Also try reading The Diabetes Solution by Dr Bernstein, its a bit specific but goes into great deal about bothe Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and could be helpful to help you set up an ideal eating plan. I have combined his moderate protein meal plan with Dr Fuhrmans high vegetable intake to achive a hemoglobin A1c of 4.3 which is a blood sugar of about 75 which is excellent for a Type 1 diabetic.

In short moderate protein + high vegetable + healthy fats = excellent blood sugar conntrol + high vitamin intake + no hunger + when combined with moderate excersize issues weigh issues should subside.

Posted by: Neal | Jul 31, 2007 6:33:17 PM

Don't rely on average reactions to foods discovered in research conducted with non-diabetics (the GI and GL stuff).

Heck, don't even rely on what another diabetic can or can't do. You are not them.

Don't rely on anyone's theories about diet - whether low-carb, low-fat, recommended by someone with piles of credentials or none at all.

None of that matters. Unfortunately, it's YOUR diabetes. You are the one who will live with it and manage it. If you do it well, you will live with the increased health; if you do it poorly, you will live with the diabetic complications.

We have the tools to manage our own diabetes because we have blood glucose meters. Get one right away if you don't have one. The cost of the meter doesn't matter, it's the strips that are expensive. Get one with strips you can afford easily.

http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/NewlyDiagnosed.htm

GET YOUR OWN BLOOD METER AND TEST, TEST, TEST!

Posted by: | Jul 31, 2007 9:31:23 PM

How do you stand on Carb counting as an alternative to acheive blood sugar control? How many carbs per meal or day do you advise? What is the role of protein and fat in the control of diabetes? Are all foods on the glycemic index? Should I be concerned about alcohol? Should I attend some classes? Thanks

Posted by: Mary | Aug 1, 2007 7:48:59 AM

Mary,

All good questions and ones that fellow ND diabetics will probably have input on. Let me address one question: "Are all foods on the glycemic index?"

The answer is "No," and this is one of the frustrations of using the glycemic index or glycemic load. To address the many gaps, NutritionData has developed a formula that estimates the glycemic load of foods that have not been tested, using a formula derived from existing glycemic data. Read more about this tool on our page "estimated glycemic load" (http://nutritiondata.com/help/estimated-glycemic-load)

Posted by: Monica Reinagel | Aug 1, 2007 8:47:37 AM

Protein and fat are both good sources of calories in the control of diabetes. Protein will still be broken down in to sugar but at a much slower an prolonged rate. Healthy sources of fat from nuts,avocados, and good oils like extra virgin olive oil are excellent as they dont require the body to release insulin and if they do it will be much lower amount. The trick here is not to over do it an ounce or two of nuts should not be a big rpoblem. If however you snack attack full assault on the peanuts it could have a big effect on the blood sugar.

One excellent way is to keep a meal plan in which the carbs and protein amounts stay fixed at each meal from day to day. For example always having 24grams of carb at breakfast with 3(18g)oz protein, 36 grams of carbs for lunch and 4oz(24g) protein, etc. This should allow you two keep things in control and you could swap different carbohydrate choices and protein choices as you see fit and your appetite craves. You can incorporate the healthy fat sources around the carb/protein fixed ratios with not to much of a concern on blood sugar.

Posted by: John | Aug 1, 2007 9:53:56 AM

Tip: you can use the food category explorer (http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/explorer) to identify foods with a specific percentage of carbs, fats, and proteins. Simply position your cursor anywhere in the calorie ratio pyramid. As you move the cursor, you'll see the percentages of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins change. When you see the percentage you're after, click to receive a list of foods with those percentages!

Posted by: Monica Reinagel | Aug 1, 2007 12:33:58 PM

Fat has almost no direct effect on bg. However, fat slows the rise due to carbs, so is generally considered a good thing for bg control.

Protein has some effect. If you overeat protein, your bg will also go high. Up to 50% of protein can be converted to glucose, so you basically want to get enough protein to meet your needs, but not significantly beyond that.

Carbs are obviously the most critical nutrient. And yes, you need to count them.

I'm of the opinion that no one can tell you how much carb to eat. I eat *very* low carb, around 50g non-fiber carb per day, because if I go higher my bg goes up. I know a few diabetics who must restrict carbs more tightly than me and many who can eat a lot more than me. Diabetics vary a lot.

I am also of the opinion that if you *can* control via diet and exercise, even if it's very strict, that is better than medications. However, everyone can't get control without meds. Diabetics vary a lot.

I'm also of the opinion that metformin is the best med to start with if you need meds.

Personally, I am now on insulin - a Lantus/Humalog regime. I was diabetic for 2 decades before going on insulin. I had an acute pancreasitis attack a year or so ago and lost the ability to control my bg at all subsequent to that.

You should get a copy of the book "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution". I think his diet is a bit extreme, but it's an OK starting point. And more importantly, you learn about how diabetes works, treatment options, what the potential complications are, how to avoid them.

But I'll reiterate... it doesn't matter what ANYONE thinks about how you manage your diabetes, not even Bernstein. What matters is what YOUR METER SAYS.

A diabetic who's writings I respect says, "My body, my science experiment" and that is absolutely TRUE. No two diabetics are the same. No matter what education anyone has, no one can become a better expert at YOUR diabetes than you.

Get a meter and TEST, TEST, TEST!

A good place to learn about diabetes is the Usenet group alt.support.diabetes

Posted by: jpatti | Aug 1, 2007 3:46:34 PM

I am out of control with my eating. I've tried everything but just can't seem to get my self to exercise and avoid ice cream. Is there someone out there that would be willing to help me one on one through the internet. I'm a nurse and have lots of information about wt. loss and understand the risks but am so frustrated and feel hopeless. I think if I could find a buddy to lose wt. with it would help.

Posted by: Ruth Pilote | Aug 24, 2007 9:24:09 AM

I have been trying to find out how many grams of sugar a day would be a safe amount to lose weight. Sweets are my problem and I need to know an amount to go by, or is there such a thing?

Posted by: Cathy Mannion | Apr 2, 2008 3:01:06 PM

Ruth, are you still there. Lucky to be a nurse and fully understand the true consequences of your eating habits. I had those habits for many years, I ate with abandon. I love potato chips, ice cream, anything unhealthy was something I loved. Now, I'm diabetic and for the first time in my life I've managed to control myself and my diet for nearly a year, which was 70lbs ago. I'll hope you read this and reply as I still have a ways to go on my weight loss journey and would be happy to have a buddy. Darla

Posted by: Darla | Apr 12, 2008 6:45:37 PM

I posted a comment for the first time at this site about a week ago and it hasn't appeared yet. It was directly in response to the post by Cathy Mannion. I've been checking daily and so far I haven't seen my comment. Is this site still active? Is there some reason my comment didn't appear? It was a good response to her post, IMHO.

Posted by: whimsy2 | Apr 27, 2008 8:07:31 PM

Well..you posted my query about why the post hadn't appeared but I still don't see my original response to Cathy so I'll re-write it as best I can remember.

I think I said, "Cathy, you need to erase sugar from your life. As a diabetic, this is pure poison. Learn to love artificial sweeteners. I like Splenda because it IS sugar, with one molecule missing.

And it's not just sugar you need to avoid. If you want to gain control of your diabetes and avoid all the terrible things that can happen to poorly-controlled diabetics, you need to change your way of eating to exclude all foods that fall in the grain category. This includes cereals, pasta and breads except for those specifically labeled "low carb". And there are precious few of those, now that the "low carb" craze is finished, alas.

This may sound drastic but I'm here to tell you, it WILL give you good blood sugar numbers. And after a while you'll be so pleased with those good numbers that you won't miss those foods. It's perfectly possible to eat well while at the same time avoiding grain foods and sugar foods. Give it a try. Check your BGs frequently during this time. You'll feel so good seeing your numbers go down that you won't mind so much the foods you've given up.

I would suggest you read "Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solutions," by Richard K. Bernstein, M.D. It changed my life.

It's now 10 years since my diabetes diagnosis. I feel great and I have no diabetes-related complications whatsoever and I'm working very hard to keep it that way.

Posted by: whimsy2 | Apr 27, 2008 8:16:14 PM

Thanks for your helpful comments and suggestions for Cathy. Sorry you had trouble getting your first comment to post. We do use a verification process (where you reproduce a random sequence of letters and numbers) in order to keep robots from spamming the blog. If the verification step wasn't properly completed, that would have kept your comment from displaying.

Posted by: Monica Reinagel | Apr 28, 2008 6:56:01 AM

> Dear *webmaster*,
>
> We recently found your site by searching for sites that are relevant to our own site. We are hoping that you will become our link partner. This would involve your posting a link to our site in exchange for one or more links to your site. As you may know, acquiring new links is the best way to promote a site in the search engines.
>
> I think the best way to do mutual links is to include them in an article as embedded links. If you agree to a mutual link with this arrangment I can supply an original article with my links embedded for you to post on your site and would ask for an appropriate original article from you to post on one or more of my sites. Diabetic-Diet-Secrets.com is a google PR 5 site. Other of my sites that I would concider are PR 3 - PR 5. I am on a mission to reverse or at least slow the trend of diagnoses of type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases linked to an inflamatory diet. Diabetes is just one of these but it has increased by over 800% in the past 60 years. By linking good type 2 diabetes sites together we can go higher in the search engines and in the search placements and just maybe reach and help more people.
>
> As you probably already know, the search engines do not like duplicate content. That is why I am offering and requesting an original appropriate article. if you agree to this arrangment we will be glad to do this immediately.
>
> If you will agree to supply a link for us, we'll maintain your link indefinitely.
>
> **
>
> I’m anticipating a positive response from you...
>
> Toma Grubb
> Administrator - Diabetic -Diet-Secrets.com
>

PS, I have more websites that I own or control that are not included in this email.

Posted by: Toma Grubb | May 7, 2008 2:41:25 PM