What they leave out of diabetic diets
Here's the details of a 1200 calorie diabetes diet that just looks to me like it has way too many carbs.
The 1200 calories is intended to weight loss, which is certainly going to be a good thing for most of us. But they're recommending 50% or more of that diet come from carbs? Huh? What is that all about.
They just gloss over it when they talk about the diet, but it's actually about two things not directly related to diet -- the form of your medical treatment, and the amount of regular exercise built into your lifestyle activities.
They assume you're taking insulin and that the amount of insulin is enough to process the recommended 10 or so carbohydrate servings per day. If you aren't taking insulin then you're depending on your medications to stimulate insulin production. They are right in their analysis of this diet when they say that you should spread out your carb intake over the entire course of a day to even out your need to process the sugars, but, I'm not so sure about the levels.
They do mention their assumptions about taking insulin, although they only do so in passing. What they don't mention at all is the need for exercise. And that's a very critical factor in how much sugar or carbs your body is going to be able to process.
Some of us don't get regular physical activity throughout the day. I'm a writer for a living, which means a good bit of my day is spend sedentary. I do work at home, and have a large yard, so I can take frequent breaks to go outside and do a little yardwork. But the weather doesn't always cooperate with that. And, one of the complications of my diabetes is high blood pressure and a corresponding lack of stamina. So I can only tolerate exercise for short bursts.
Ten servings of carbs per day? If you take insulin and get regular brisk exercise, that's probably a good idea as long as the servings are spread out. But, if you don't take insulin and aren't able to get regular brisk exercise then that's probably at least twice the level of carbs you need to be ingesting.
Diet needs to be part of your lifestyle planning. That doesn't just mean you have to adjust your lifestyle to your diet. Sometimes you have to adjust your diet to your lifestyle. And too much of the published recommendations for diabetic diets just simply ignore that.
The 1200 calories is intended to weight loss, which is certainly going to be a good thing for most of us. But they're recommending 50% or more of that diet come from carbs? Huh? What is that all about.
They just gloss over it when they talk about the diet, but it's actually about two things not directly related to diet -- the form of your medical treatment, and the amount of regular exercise built into your lifestyle activities.
They assume you're taking insulin and that the amount of insulin is enough to process the recommended 10 or so carbohydrate servings per day. If you aren't taking insulin then you're depending on your medications to stimulate insulin production. They are right in their analysis of this diet when they say that you should spread out your carb intake over the entire course of a day to even out your need to process the sugars, but, I'm not so sure about the levels.
They do mention their assumptions about taking insulin, although they only do so in passing. What they don't mention at all is the need for exercise. And that's a very critical factor in how much sugar or carbs your body is going to be able to process.
Some of us don't get regular physical activity throughout the day. I'm a writer for a living, which means a good bit of my day is spend sedentary. I do work at home, and have a large yard, so I can take frequent breaks to go outside and do a little yardwork. But the weather doesn't always cooperate with that. And, one of the complications of my diabetes is high blood pressure and a corresponding lack of stamina. So I can only tolerate exercise for short bursts.
Ten servings of carbs per day? If you take insulin and get regular brisk exercise, that's probably a good idea as long as the servings are spread out. But, if you don't take insulin and aren't able to get regular brisk exercise then that's probably at least twice the level of carbs you need to be ingesting.
Diet needs to be part of your lifestyle planning. That doesn't just mean you have to adjust your lifestyle to your diet. Sometimes you have to adjust your diet to your lifestyle. And too much of the published recommendations for diabetic diets just simply ignore that.
Labels: diet, high blood pressure
posted by Gary Carson at
6:18 PM
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