On September 13th,
two days before my 54th birthday, I came to the
realization that I needed to do something about my health and
welfare. Diagnosed as a type 2 diabetic back in 2013, I quickly went
on the oral diabetic metformin and slowly over time the dosage was
increased in an attempt to get my blood sugars and my hemoglobin A1C
under control. While I did not engage in any consistent exercise
routines, I attempted to follow the recommended diabetic diet as
proposed by the American Diabetic Association (ADA). At the time, for
a guy my size 5'9” 248 pounds that was an 1800 calorie diet. The
ADA interactive 'Create A Plate' tool on their website suggested that
I eat a diet that consisted of 25% protein, 25% grains and starchy
foods, and 50% non-starchy vegetables, plus a serving of diary and
fruit or both as your meal plan allowed.
I attempted to cut
almost all sugar intake, we stopped purchasing sodas, and started
making all of our tea with Splenda low calorie sweetener, I counted
calories to keep my caloric intake below 2000 calories a day, with
the occasional cheat day. I will admit, I often strayed because I
simply felt hungry all the time, even on 2000 calories a day. As a
registered nurse, I have to admit, I trusted all the information that
I read from The ADA, after all they are medical professionals right?
Surely something must be wrong with me if I cannot seem to make any
headway with my blood sugar control and my weight. I kept looking for
what I was doing wrong, until I discovered the low carbohydrate high
fat (LCHF)lifestyle as proposed by a Swedish physician Dr. Andreas
Eenfeldt. In this article I will attempt to explain to you while the
dietary guidelines as proposed by the ADA are simply wrong, and why
they are simply unhealthy.
Because Results
Matter (Our Progress)
Because I want to
encourage your to continue to read this article and do your own
research, I am going to share with you my results of eating a LCHF or
Ketogenic (Keto) eating program up front. I have been following a
strict LCHF eating plan (less than 20 carbohydrates per day) for four
months, my wife eats about 20 – 30 carbs a day. My wife and I
started this new lifestyle as I mentioned previously two days before
my 54th birthday on September 13th. As of
January 1st, 2017 I have lost 45lbs and my wife 23lbs.
Below are our individual results.
My Result's
(Diabetic)
Weight: Sept 13th,
2016 (248 lbs), January 1st, 2017 (203lbs).
Waist: Sept 13th,
2016 (46 inches), January 1st, 2017 (38 inches).
Hgb A1C: Sept 13th
2016 (7.3), January 1st, 2017 (5.5)
My Wife's Results
(Non-Diabetic)
Weight: Sept 13th,
2016 (197 lbs), January 1st, 2017 (174lbs).
Waist: Sept 13th,
Dropped 2 pants sizes.
What is amazing
about these results is that while I have lost 48lbs, my wife lost
23lbs without having to do any additional exercise. What I am saying
is that she made no other changes to her lifestyle other than
choosing to eat LCHF. While I exercise, walk on my treadmill an hour
on my off days, and 30 minutes before I go to work, and perform
strength training exercises three times a week (lift weights), my
wife is unable to do so because of her arthritis. My point is, that
eating a LCHF or Keto diet will change your life for the better. If
you are a diabetic, it will help you not only improve your Hgb A1C,
but help you lose weight, and the best part is you will never be
hungry.
Carbohydrates and
Blood Sugar
It's funny that the
ADA stated in their position statement 'Nutrition, Recommendations
and Interventions for Diabetes' back in 2008 “The amount of
carbohydrate ingested is usually the primary determinant of
postprandial response.” In layman's terms eating carbohydrates is
the primary factor to increases in your blood sugars, therefore, the
more carbs you eat, the higher your blood sugars. Yet, they still
recommend that a good diabetic meal consist of 25 to 50%
carbohydrates (25% grains and starchy foods, 25% non-starchy
vegetables and a serving of fruit and or dairy at each meal). I say
50%, because non-starchy vegetables still contain some carbohydrates.
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
(NIDDK) on their website state: “Experts suggest that carbohydrate
intake for most people should be between 45 and 65 percent of total
calories”.
In fact, the ADA
recommends that a diabetic male should consume somewhere between 45 –
75 carbs per meal, and 15 – 30 carbs per snack each day. For women
their recommendation is 30 to 60 grams of carbs with each meal and 15
– 30 carbs with each snack. So even if we use the low end of the
spectrum that's 165 carbs per day for a man (45x3 = 135, two snacks
per day 15x2 = 30), and 120 carbs per day for a woman (30x3 = 90, two
snacks per day 15x2 = 30).
So why are the ADA
dietary guideline for consuming these amount of carbohydrates a
problem? In order to better understand the problem, we have to look
at how carbohydrates increase the insulin response in our bodies. In
order to do so we need to examine the following chart that indicates
how 1 gram of carbohydrate raises your blood sugar.
Weight In Pounds
(Kg) 1 Gram Of Carbohydrate Raises Blood Sugar
< 60 (>28)
6-10mg/dL (.33-.55 mmol/L)
60 – 100 (29 -
47) 5 mg/dL (.28 mmol/L)
101 – 160 (48 –
76) 4 mg/dL (.22 mmol/L)
161 – 220 (77 –
105) 3 mg/dL (.17 mmol/L)
> 220 (> 105) 1 – 2 (.05 - .11 mmol/L)
A quick examination
of this data indicates that 1 gram of carbohydrates increases your
post prandal blood sugar anywhere from 1 to 6 points per carbohydrate
consumed. The lower your weight, the more of an impact that it has on
your blood sugar. For most people who are diabetic and obese (greater
than 220lbs) for each carbohydrate you consume your blood sugar
increases by 1 to 2 points after a meal. That's 45 to 90 points if
you eat the least number of carbohydrates as recommended by the ADA.
Unfortunately eating like this will cause you to live a life in which
your are dependent on oral diabetic medications and possibly insulin
for the rest of your life. So what is the solution? Actually, It's
pretty simple. By restricting your carbohydrate intake you can make
great strides in controlling not only your diabetes, but your weight
as well.
Fueling Your Body
(Carbohydrates, Fats, and Proteins)
The human body is an
amazing biological adaptive machine that can run on a variety of
fuels. All things being equal, your body will first burn
carbohydrates for fuel, when there are not enough carbohydrates
available to support your bodies needs, it will adapt or change it's
fuel source to burn stored fat, once those fat stores are depleted
and there is not enough carbohydrates or fats to support life, then
it adapts again to burn protein (muscle mass). Reducing your
carbohydrate intake to less than 20 carbohydrates a day, does two
things. First, it forces your body to adapt to burn the next widely
available energy source which is fat. Second, reducing the number of
carbohydrates decreases your overall blood sugar and insulin levels
(extremely important for those of us who are diabetic).
Once your body
becomes adapted to burning fat, then you will see a significant
amount of body fat reduction as well as weight loss. What that means
is that if we are not feeding our body carbohydrates for fuel,
eventually you will run out of fat stores and your body will begin to
burn lean muscle mass, and that is something we want to avoid at all
costs. The solution is fueling your body with the necessary fats via
a low carbohydrate high fat diet.
Low Carbohydrate
High Fat (LCHF) Diets
While there are
slightly different levels of LCHF diets, when I speak of LCHF I am
referring to strict LCHF recommendations of keeping your overall
carbohydrate count to less than 20 carbohydrates per day. This
restriction in carbohydrates causes your body to eventually change
it's fuel source to burn stored fat as opposed to burning
carbohydrates. By restricting our carbohydrate intake, we are placing
our body in a state of nutritional ketosis, hence the term 'Ketogenic
Diet'.
Typically a person
on a LCHF or Keto diet regimen should get their calories from the
following: 5% from carbohydrates, 25% from proteins, and 70% from
fats. Quite a bit different from the ADA recommended guidelines for
diabetics. I guarantee you that if you are reading this type of
information for the first time you are simply floored by the thought
of getting 70% of your carbohydrates from fat. I know I was when I
first started looking into the LCHF and Keto lifestyle. After all,
both your doctor and the FDA have been telling us for years that fats
are bad for you, right?
Some fats are not
good for you that is correct, mainly trans-fats. However the fat
intake while you are eating a LCHF and Ketogenic diets relies on the
healthy saturated and monosaturated fats (for more information on
fats see my article 'The Skinny On Fats'). These healthy fats
encourage your body to stay in a state of nutritional ketosis which
makes your body a fat burning machine which promotes weight loss. In
addition to making your body a fat burning machine, LCHF and Keto
eating plans will do one thing for you that no other diet can, they
will keep you from being hungry, something we will discuss in the
next section of this article.
LCHF or Ketogenic
Diet
Carbohydrates: 5% (includes
non-starchy vegetables)
Protein: 25%
Fats: 70%
ADA Recommend
Diet
Carbohydrates: 25%
Protein: 25%
Fats: 0%
Non-Starchy Vegetables: 50%
The Saiety Of Fats
The biggest obstacle
that most of us have when we embark on a low fat diet regimen
(because your doctor and the FDA says it is the healthiest choice for
you) was the constant hunger pangs. It is not that we do not want to
eat better or make significant changes to our health, it is simply
that a low fat diet leaves you feeling hungry all the time. If you
are reading this article, then you know I speak the truth. It is this
constant state of hunger that causes many people to give up their
health goals to lose weight and better manage their diabetes. So
let's look at why a high fat diet works were other's fail.
Despite what many
studies have shown in the past, our personal experience as well as
many who follow the LCHF or Ketogenic diet have found that a high fat
diet helps you to feel more satisfied than a high carbohydrate or
high protein diet. Hundreds of thousands of people have changed to a
LCHF or Keto lifestyle and the one thing they all mention (us as
well) is how they do not feel hungry when eating this way. On the
contrary, they all remark about how they always felt hungry when on a
low-fat or fat restricted diet.
Here is just one of
my personal experiences as an example. Before I started eating a LCHF
diet, I would eat a homemade breakfast burrito once I got to work at
0630 in the morning that contained the following: 2 eggs, 1 slice
American cheese, 1/8 pound of beef sausage with one tablespoon of
green salsa verde (Calories – 471, protein 23.5 grams, fat 21.9
grams, carbs 39 grams). By 0930, I was hungry again, and looking for
a snack, which often contained a lot of carbs (cheese crackers or
saltines and peanut butter). Now, every morning I eat three scrambled
eggs cooked in two tablespoons of butter with one tablespoon of heavy
cream, and three pieces of bacon (Calories – 655, protein 31 grams,
fat 57 grams, carbohydrates 1 gram). So now I am eating almost three
times the fat, as before, and I am never hungry, even 6 hours later.
And BTW, that is after walking on the treadmill for 35 minutes before
I go to work.
My point is that I
am eating three times the fat than I was before, and I am not hungry.
Why? Despite what many studies say, good, healthy fats help to
satiate you making you feel full, thereby curbing your hunger pangs.
Simply put, we have never been hungry eating LCHF foods like we were
on previous diets. The great thing is that our results are typical
and experienced by almost everyone who engages in a LCHF or Keto
lifestyle. The Bottom line, a high fat diet helps to keep you from
feeling hungry.
Glucose Control
While weight loss is
an added benefit, the primary reason we embarked on a LCHF eating
regimen was to help control my blood glucose levels. I am a diabetic,
and diabetes runs in my family, my grandmother was a type 1 diabetic
(insulin dependent), like many Americans, I am a type 2 diabetic
(insulin resistant). When I followed the ADA dietary recommendations
for diabetics, I could never get my blood sugars under control. In
fact, before I began this LCHF journey my last Hgb A1c was 7.3. The
last straw for me was my my endocrinologist put me on 20 unit of
lantus insulin. I had tried to avoid this for as long as possible,
but two weeks into taking insulin shots, I knew there had to be a
better way to control my blood sugars.
That's when I began
to research the LCHF as proposed by Dr. Andreas Eenfeldt after
watching a video on YouTube on low carb fat lifestyles. From there I
have researched many different ketogenic and paleo eating plans. Two
weeks after embarking on a LCHF eating plan, my fasting blood sugars
had decreased by 30 points, and my blood sugar was less than 100
before I went to bed. I was able to stop taking my lantus insulin at
this time, although I am still on oral diabetic medication (metformin
1000mg twice a day). My fasting blood sugar this morning was 92, my
Hgb A1c was 5.5 only four months after being on a LCHF eating
program. According to the ADA, a normal non-diabetic person has a Hgb
A1c of around 5. So I am close to normal, but still taking oral
medications. I am hoping that within the next 5 months when I go back
to see my endocrinologist that I may begin to taper my oral
medications.
Better Blood
Pressure Control (Reducing Anti-hypertensives)
Since starting on
the LCHF lifestyle I have been able to decrease my blood pressure
medication to half of the original prescribed amount. I was
previously on a dose of lisinopril 40mg once a day, and am currently
taking 20mg once a day. This morning my blood pressure was 107/72,
with a heart rate of 72. When I started eating LCHF my blood pressure
was 126/84, with a heart rate of 84, taking 40mg of lisinopril once a
day. All I can say is that eating a LCHF lifestyle works.
Conclusion
So what does this
all mean? If you are a diabetic and or are morbidly obese, then you
need to seriously look at the LCHF and or Ketogenic lifestyle. I am
not going to lie to you, it does take some mental discipline to
change your entire way of eating an thinking about nutrition. There
will be many people who will want to discourage your from meeting
your goals and possibly chastise you for making these changes to your
lifestyle, but you have to take control of both your diabetes and
your weight before you suffer severe medical complications that you
cannot recover from. Uncontrolled blood sugars in diabetic patients
increase their likelihood of having a stroke by 2 – 4 times
according the the National Stroke Association (NSA). While I can find
no specific numbers, all of the medical journals indicate that
diabetics are at a greater risk for myocardial infarction (heart
attack) and complications after a myocardial infarction than
non-diabetic patients.
I am not a doctor,
and this article should not be misconstrued as medical advice. I am
simply sharing with you the changes that both myself and my wife have
made to make us not only healthier, but happier. It should be noted
that before you embark on any change in dietary habits you should
consult with your physician regarding your current state of health
and any medications that you are currently taking. He or she may want
to discourage your from this lifestyle, but ultimately you have to
decide what is best for you and your body.As always, I hope that you
have found this article informative and beneficial for you and your
family, if so please take the time to share it with your friends so
that they can benefit as well. Don't forget to follow our blog, or
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