Nina wrote:
> My husband is a diabetic, too... and has about double the weight to
> lose that I do, which is pretty considerable. He lost a fair amount
> of weight in the first year we were married... both of us eating low
> fat and high carb, pretty much right along the lines of the infamous
> food pyramid.
He probably doesn't need to eat like that; diabetics need to limit carb
to some degree to control bg.
Bernstein says 30g carb/day. I tested and found no difference between
30g and 50g myself (these are "net" grams of carb), but got worse
control when I went up. Some folks eat a lot more carb than me though,
we all vary. You might want to give him a copy of this:
http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/NewlyDiagnosed.htm
For him, it's not a matter of weight loss, but of avoiding blindness,
impotence, heart attack, kidney disease, amputation and premature death.
Just call me the newsgroup party-pooper.
> For me, the result of this has been no weight loss at
> all, and although he initially lost considerable weight, he hasn't
> really been able to lose anything consistent since then... and with
> *any* deviation in diet he'll bloat and gain a bunch of quick
> weight... up down up down. And his blood sugar spins all over the
> place.
Yeah, that is very bad for him.
> Which is all pretty frustrating since we have been eating a very high
> quality diet... all whole grains and foods, mostly, little processed
> stuff of any kind, and proportions pretty much by the book. But we
> have been hungry all the time, and so on.
Throw the book out.
I find myself wishing again that I had finished my diet page so I could
refer you to it.
My pyramid has nonstarchy vegetables at the bottom. You will never eat
them as a majority of calories, but they can certainly be the majority
of food. I had a half pound of okra fried in butter with lunch today;
that's a typical "serving" of vegetables for me. I use butter, olive
oil, avocados, avocado oil, ranch salad dressing, oil & vinegar type
dressings, raw cheese - whatever amount of fat I need to make the
veggies attractive. A wide variety and lots of deeply colored items is key.
For a meal, to a big pile of veggies, I add some protein. For me, a
serving is 4 oz fish, meat or poultry or a cup of cottage cheese,
ricotta or Greek yogurt. I don't do low-fat or skim stuff. I buy
products from pasture-raised animals so I know it's *good* fats and then
don't worry about it. For me, this is the *minimum* amount of protein I
need.
I'm not in induction, so one or two meals a day have low-sugar fruit
also; usually berries, melon, a kiwi or half a pomegranate.
If and when you add grains, buckwheat and barley are the best. They
have gobs of phytochemicals shown to be good for both diabetes and heart
disease. If you're gonna eat this stuff, might as well be *good* stuff
rather than potatoes or wheat, which is almost entirely just starch.
Kasha makes a decent replacement for rice and barley works well in soups
and stews.
You *need* protein and fat, there's essential amino acids and essential
fatty acids. You don't need carbs, but vegetables, fruits and some of
the grains have the micronutrients you need.
You flatout *can't* eat too many non-starchy veggies and that should be
the source of most of your carb at the beginning. As you add, don't add
****, but fruit and a bit of the good grains.
This is not Atkins; this is me. You can do Atkins, or any diet, poorly
or well. Just as there's folks who do low-fat by eating Snackwells,
there's people who do low-carb by mostly eating junk.
> It's quite obvious to me that it's just NOT working, and that's my
> primary motivation to give low carb a real shot... he's less enthused,
> but as long as he's not hungry, he's pretty much willing to eat what I
> put in front of him... so, well, as I said earlier, I'm trying to
> sneak him into this, which is easier than one might think. I'm
> hoping that the results will speak for themselves and that he'll get a
> bit more convinced about this.
I do a *lot* of that sort of thing myself. Me doing the shopping and
cooking equals my husband eating more good food. I don't argue with him
at all, I just make it easier for him to eat stuff he should instead of
**** and let his innate laziness take over.
--
http://www.ornery-geeks.org/consulting/
