The high-carbohydrate advice has never made sense in the treatment of
ron raab, Insulin for Life Inc
1 October 2005
I am a Vice-President of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) www.idf.org
I have had Type 1 diabetes for the last 48 years since the age of 6.
I have adopted the low carbohydrate/low insulin regime as the basis for managing my diabetes. I am writing in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the IDF.
The high-carbohydrate advice for diabetes reminds me of the disastrous approach taken by many physicians up until the mid 1980's .... that it was appropriate to have high blood sugars because there was no evidence to the contrary. A much more sensible position was that trying to normalise blood sugars was inherently wise because that is how the normal body functions. The high-carbohydrate advice has never made sense in the treatment of diabetes, and a lot of people suffer unnecessarily as a result of this advice.
In summary, smaller amounts of carbohydrate require smaller amounts of insulin and this results in much more predictability and less variation in blood glucose levels, less serious hypos and better quality of life, amongst other benefits.
We have the tools to maintain near normal blood sugars all the time in diabetes, but most are not listening.
To convey the rationale in brief, I have a Power Point Presentation on the Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh site which many have found useful:
LOW CARBOHYDRATE, LOW INSULIN, MODERATE PROTEIN, HEALTHY FATS AS THE BASIS FOR BLOOD GLUCOSE NORMALIZATION IN DIABETES
The high-carbohydrate advice has never made sense in the treatment of
1 October 2005
I am a Vice-President of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) www.idf.org
I have had Type 1 diabetes for the last 48 years since the age of 6.
I have adopted the low carbohydrate/low insulin regime as the basis for managing my diabetes. I am writing in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the IDF.
The high-carbohydrate advice for diabetes reminds me of the disastrous approach taken by many physicians up until the mid 1980's .... that it was appropriate to have high blood sugars because there was no evidence to the contrary. A much more sensible position was that trying to normalise blood sugars was inherently wise because that is how the normal body functions. The high-carbohydrate advice has never made sense in the treatment of diabetes, and a lot of people suffer unnecessarily as a result of this advice.
In summary, smaller amounts of carbohydrate require smaller amounts of insulin and this results in much more predictability and less variation in blood glucose levels, less serious hypos and better quality of life, amongst other benefits.
We have the tools to maintain near normal blood sugars all the time in diabetes, but most are not listening.
To convey the rationale in brief, I have a Power Point Presentation on the Department of Epidemiology, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh site which many have found useful:
LOW CARBOHYDRATE, LOW INSULIN, MODERATE PROTEIN, HEALTHY FATS AS THE BASIS FOR BLOOD GLUCOSE NORMALIZATION IN DIABETES
http://www.pitt.edu/~super1/lecture/lec17721/index.htm
Sincerely
Ron Raab B.Ec.
Vice President, International Diabetes Federation http://www.idf.org
President, Insulin for Life Australia Inc http://www.insulinforlife.org
Competing interests
None declared