A caveat before you read the following - I'm not a so-called 'expert' on this stuff; however, I've done my homework, applied common sense & it works for me. Your mileage may vary. Before doing anything rash, check with your medical professional first.
Gary: There are a lot of misunderstandings out there wrt to diets, especially in the mainstream medical community. I'll list a couple:
I cannot get my doctors nor nutritionists to get on side with the idea of lower carbs supplemented with protein & fats. The 'official' line from our government agencies is that we need 300+ gms of carbs per day & minimal fats. For a diabetic (& perhaps for most people), this is plain lunacy. Fat has been a dirty word since the 70s & undeservedly so IMHO - excessive carbs are the real culprit & when combined with fats, then fat does become a problem.
Search 'Dr Bernstein'(a rogue US doctor who suffers from Type 1 diabetes - not the Canadian weight-loss doc). He lives with this condition every day & his writings got me on to this regime. I admire him greatly.
Beer/alcohol - for years I went to a local pub here for my weekly live Blues Night. I would drink six or so normal beers over the course of the evening & eat a dozen hot wings with a few raw vegetables & dip on the side. I'd blissfully wander home & take my sugar reading - always normal (certainly way better than if I had eaten a plate of pasta). My doc couldn't believe it! The official word is still no alcohol for diabetics - BS IMHO, at least in my case.
An interesting parallel can be drawn with the way that we've been feeding our pet cats. They are carnivores. When dry cat food was invented 30+ years ago, it was a wonderfully convenient way to feed them. The trouble is, dry cat food was mostly grains & they become addicted to these heavy doses of carbs. Some years down the road many cats started developing obesity, diabetes, thyroid problems (my oldest cat has this), etc - just like humans can. These high carb products caused a lot of needless health problems for cats. Ten years ago I finally woke up to this fact & my 4 cats now eat only protein, low carb foods. They are thriving except for our old girl (18 yrs old) who we switched over too late in her life - the damage was already done.
We really have to start rethinking some of this stuff because diabetes, heart ailments, thyroid issues, etc are natural consequences of our overall sedentary lifestyle & excessive carb consumption. I wish that I'd had known about this stuff 30 or 40 years ago & I hope that our medical professionals become more open-minded.
The sad fact is, diabetes alone with all of its devastating side effects is going to cost our counties billions in health expenditures - money that we don't have...
TAM
