melissa7662 wrote: »

So I have been told several diffrent things to follow with my meals.
1) to follow the Atkins Diet and really limit carbs.
Next person
2) to make sure I eat a protein, dairy, veggies, and 45 grams of carbs per mean and 15 for a snack. This is the one I have been trying to follow.
Next person
3) to limit my carbs and especially dairy (no milk or yogurt)

I have no idea what to do.
I honestly think the earrings from all food groups would be the best advice? But I have no idea.

CrisEBTrue wrote: »

You need to eat a balanced diet.
That means, you need items from each food group, including dairy (unless you are lactose intolerant)
Do not follow fad diets.

Here is the American Diabetes Association page and their guidelines for healthy eating.

The first, and most important thing is to learn the difference between "good carbs" (brown rice, whole grain flours etc) and bad carbs (sugar, white flour, etc)

http://www.diabetes.org/

Ask your physician if there are classes in your area, at a hospital, or given by the ADA, which offer help and guidelines, and support. Usually these classes are free, or very low cost. It is worth it.

Don't take advice from just any person on the internet; some people are mis-informed.

@melissa7662 -

(@CrisEBTrue - I don't mean to start a fight!)

For many diabetics, what @CrisEBTrue recommends in following the ADA diet is an Absolute Disaster and a recipe for meds and insulin.

Sure, it may work for some diabetics at some stages of their lives. But what @CrisEBTrue's advice completely overlooks is that one size doesn't fit everyone - and that includes one-size-fits-all recommendations. In fact, there is an enormous amount of individual variation among overweight people and folks with T2D.

I can vouch from personal experience (and the experience of many T2Ds in the low-carb group - I highly recommend sniffing around the LCD Launch Pad for starters and browsing the other discussions) that my BG levels and weight fell substantially after dramatically lowering my carb intake from what the ADA and similar resources advise.

After 2 decades of following that advice, ditching it led to real improvements that for the first time gave me faith that T2D need not be a chronic, progressive disease but in fact can be met by some people head-on with the right lifestyle and nutritional weapons.

For the millions of T2Ds and prediabetics, including me, who are carb-intolerant and insulin-resistant, what are misleadingly referring to as "good carbs" are serious BG spikers and might as well be poison. Doing things in a "balanced" way or exercising "moderation" may be good advice for some people in some contexts. But feeding "good carbs" to people with carbohydrate intolerance is like prescribing high-quality cognac to alcoholics.... Sometimes "balance" and "moderation" are terrible watchwords.

The best thing YOU can do is to figure out how YOU respond, which requires careful and frequent BG monitoring and regular lab tests (preferably under the supervision of an intelligent and open-minded endocrinologist) and to become as informed as possible.

FWIW, here's my simple suggestion for helping T2Ds individualize their regimens.

Being your basic simpleton, I've boiled it all down to The One Big Basic Point:

Make a religion of staying informed and in touch with educated people who are interested ONLY in their own health, and carefully test what you learn, with yourself as the subject of the experiment!

* It follows that you SHOULD .....

Develop an understanding of:

1) why low-carb diets are the only effective way for so many T2Ds to keep their numbers in line and how you in particular respond;
2) how exercise affects you; and
3) how the basic diabetes meds work and what it's worth to you not to take them.


* It also follows that you SHOULD NOT.....

Make a religion of simply following broad guidelines, especially the ADA's suggestions, unless and until you have determined through careful experimentation that you, as an individual with T2D, really can eat that many carbs without driving up your BG and insulin to unacceptable levels or being forced to take meds you'd rather avoid.

******************************

It took this dumbed-down, single-rule system to keep me moving straight ahead month in, month out, until the benefits of eating low-carb, low calorie as Bernstein and others recommend were simply undeniable.

Once I got the mindset licked and started reading and carefully experimenting, it started getting easier to make conscious, informed choices in diet, meds, and exercise.

Fast forwarding several months, life got a LOT easier. Not necessarily more fun or filled with gooey pastries, but much easier.


A caveat: The results of your self-experiments won't always be perfect, good, encouraging or even acceptable in the short run. Welcome to the human race!

So try not to let yourself get hemorrhoids from little bumps in the road - it's the long-run that counts!

There is a tremendous amount of information available to read, and a lot of it is conflicting. Everyone's body is different, and you have to find out what works for you. As has been said, the best way to do that is test your blood frequently to see how different foods affect your blood sugar. For me, most grains and refined carbohydrates send my blood sugars soaring. I have to limit my carbs to no more than 30 per meal, and do better with less. Eating a fat and/or protein with carbs helps. I also need to exercise daily. It is a guess and check process and may take some time to figure out. Stick with and you will find what works best for.

Bernstein's introduction re his own journey is inspiring, He basically became his own health manager and tested his practice by testing repeatedly and evaluating the results, ie what worked for him and setting new goals. Official diabetic guidelines are very misleading and haven't caught up with current thinking and research I spent years being told to eat 50% carbs and six meals a day including snacks, a disaster! Every diabetic is different and one size doesn't fit all. Start your own trials and tests and find what your body responds to , there's so much confusing information out there, take it in step by step, record your leaning and set new goals, takes time patience and research. Go for it! Its your body and you are the only one who really cares about how to keep it in health! Weigh up even medical advice as lots isn't very helpful!