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Type 1 Diet

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Type 1 Diet Empty Type 1 Diet

Post  beaniequeenie Mon Sep 08, 2008 4:21 pm

Hi all,

Just wondering what type of diet's the type-1's out there follow? I don't mean in terms of what you actually eat, more how you eat.

When I was diagnosed I was told to snack all day:

Breakfast - snack - lunch - snack - dinner - snack.

But I really didn't eat that much before I was diagnosed and it can be hard work to eat all day!
My dietician said I shouldn't HAVE to snack if I don't want to, so long as my sugar levels are fine. I can get from one meal to the next fine (will hypo if I eat too late though, but that's my own fault!)
But when I saw one of my diabetic nurses last week she completly blew-up at me for not snacking.

Now I must confess my HbA1C has gone up from 8.5 to 9 (but when I was diagnosed a year ago my HbA1c was 11!) The nurse said that I need more insulin at eat meal times then snack inbetween to stop a hypo. This doesn't make sense to me. I thought I was meant to take insulin for what I eat, not eat for how much insulin I take!? confused
surely if I take less insulin I won't be over eating, since I don't actually want to eat at the snack times, therefore wont put on weight and won't hypo.

Can anyone shed any light on this? I'm not sure who is right me or the nurse. Evil or Very Mad

Just wondering how other type-1's structre their eating plans, maybe I can find a better way of control.
beaniequeenie
beaniequeenie

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Type 1 Diet Empty Re: Type 1 Diet

Post  Imogen Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:28 pm

On another site, it seems that they are pushing the virtues of a low carb diet to diabetics. Have you heard of them?

My nurse said "three meals a day, regularly spaced is fine"...

Basically stuffing yourself with carbs six times a day can only do one thing - raise your sugar level. Therefore, try reducing your carbs slowly, give up the snacks if you want to and keep testing your levels until you find your levels are getting better or not!

The idea is to eat small amounts regularly to give you enough sugar but not too much.

At least, that is the way I see it.

Welcome to the forum, btw, I am glad you made it finally Very Happy
Imogen
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Post  beaniequeenie Tue Sep 09, 2008 11:54 am

Thank You. Yes I have finally made it! Very Happy

I do try and stick to a low(ish) carb diet. Not following any specific plan, but just watching what I eat really.

And although in the last post I thought I might have been doing everything wrong, I went back to the same nurse this morning with a food diary (a very honest one too!) and all my bg readings for the last week. And she said, she gives up.
She doesn't know what to do about my bg levels beacuse they change so much.

So maybe it isn't me after all! To be honest I didn't think it was. I am very careful about what I eat. That doesn't mean I always eat what I should, but I know what I'm eating and adjust my insulin around it.

So She thinks I might have brittle diabetes. Don't know much about that. Off to google it and find out more.
beaniequeenie
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Post  Imogen Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:01 pm

Hi
I have ordered and received today a copy of Dr Bernstein's book which says you CAN control your blood sugar. I had no idea about a lot of things I have read about how our bodies work (in regard to insulin control) and have only read a few pages. I would suggest you get hold of a copy if you haven't already read it.
It is possible, I believe, to control these things, but we need to learn ourselves and then try it out on our bodies.
Let me know about the brittle type - I have no idea either.
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Type 1 Diet Empty brittle diabetes

Post  beaniequeenie Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:44 pm

I do tend to manage things my way. I'm not worried about "playing" (for want of a better term) with insulin amounts and food patterns etc. But for the moment I've come to the end.

For a typical meal what happens is, when I eat (& take my insulin) my BG goes flying up to 18-21 (It has gone higher!) after two hours. Then after the third hour I'll be around 10ish and it will be at 5-8 when I'm ready for my next meal. (This is all without snacking btw). Now if I add even 2 units to that I will hypo after 2 hours. So I'm a bit in limbo at the moment. I can't have BG's of 18, but I can't keep having a hypo after I eat!
Oh the frustration.

I've looked up brittle diabetes, I'm not sure if I have that, it was just a suggestoin by my nurse, but she says a lot of wrong things, so...

Brittle diabetes is uncontrolled type 1 diabetes, but uncontrolled no matter what you try even with insulin adjustments, excerise etc.
People with brittle diabetes frequently experience large swings in bg levels, and these cannot always be explained.

Brittle diabetes is relatively rare. Less than 1 of people who have insulin-dependent diabetes patients experience brittle diabetes. However, those who do are often troubled by frequent medical problems and hospital admissions. Overall, three in 1,000 (0.3 of) people with type 1 diabetes will develop brittle diabetes.

Brittle diabetes can be caused by gastrointestinal absorption problems, including delayed stomach emptying (gastroperesis), drug interactions, problems with insulin absorption, or hormonal malfunction.

http://diabetes.about.com/od/preventingcomplications/a/brittle.htm (I got most of this from here)
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Type 1 Diet Empty Re: Type 1 Diet

Post  mikep1979 Sun Sep 13, 2009 9:35 am

hi all,

well i tend to stick to the if i want it i have it type of type 1's diet lol.

i dont exclude anything from my diet at all and i have a consistant a1c reading of 6% or bellow.

i found that when i was first diagnosed (over 9 years ago now) that they told you not to eat sugar or starch and to try and limit the ammount of carbs you ate. all well and good but i started to hypo all to often and i had a really rough time of it due to that so i started to eat "normally" again and ate what i wanted but monitored my sugars more closely. it work wonders and i spent many a happy day without hypos and with great numbers.

the term diet to me always makes me think of trying to lose weight which is something i wouldnt like to do as i am a very healthy weight for my height. i feel that as long as you have control over your numbers and you dont hypo often then stick to it. as they say if it aint broke then dont fix it!!!!

i love food and i do snack every day between meals, but i have always been a big eater (must be something to do with the exercise i do).

if you are having problems with your numbers due to carbs and dont want to start increasing your insulin to cover it then i would do one of two things. 1) start to do more exercise (yeah i know it is easier said than done, but trust me you will benefit from it) and 2) if that dont work then try to combine it with a lower carb approach as this has been shown to benefit type 1's and type 2's. but do remember if you do start to cut the carbs dont cut them out completely as your body needs them for fuel.

lol seems like i carried on a little there Smile

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