We’ve just started a real life case study here where we are following Yvonne over 6-8 weeks to make diet and lifestyle changes and see how much we can lower her a1c so she doesn’t have to go on insulin. You can read about Yvonne’s case study here.
Today we are going to cover the diet for type 2 diabetes, a few myths and where to begin.
If you want to stay up to date on this diabetes diet and health series click here to subscribe for updates
When Yvonne and I first met it was in a diabetes Facebook group. Yvonne was sharing her stats for the day and asked “Can anyone give me feedback on my stats for today?”
Here is what she shared with us.
The Common Diabetes Diet Prescription
There were mixed opinions from others in the group about her daily stats, most people saying:
- That’s a lot of carbs
- Too many carbs
When it comes to carbs it can often be a difficult one to get your head around. One of the main reasons for that is the common diabetes diet prescripton tells people to eat more carbohydrates and less protein and fat. Have you ever been told that before?
It wouldn’t surprise me because I know plenty of people who have. I wrote about that over here, along with how the common dietary prescription is highly flawed. You might like to read that to see where I’m coming from here.
Clearly in the diabetes group, people know that reducing carbohydrates is a good thing. So why is it that most of the information you read about a diabetes diet says to eat 55-60% of your diet from carbs and reduce your protein and fats?
Good question. We’ll get to that in just a moment.
But How Do I Manage Cholesterol?
Yvonne was also confused about this saying: “Besides watching my carbs I have to watch my cholesterol, it’s off the charts. So how can I manage both? Since protein has cholesterol?”.
I answered saying: “I wouldn’t worry too much about cholesterol in protein, the cholesterol we eat does not contribute to blood cholesterol levels very much at all, this is a common myth. If anything you want to look at reducing sources of excess refined carbohydrates and fructose, as excess fructose converts straight to triglycerides and will raise cholesterol levels. Fructose is in sugar, honey, agave, molasses, fruit and fruit juices.”
This is something that many people do not realise, still believing that cholesterol we eat is an evil enemy. If you want to listen to a podcast I did about heart disease and cholesterol myths, click here.
Fat Is Not Your Enemy
I recently did a research paper on using a higher fat diet for type 2 diabetes using monounsaturated fats like extra virgin olive oil in the place of carbohydrates. The ratios were approximately 40-50% fat, 30%-40% carbs, 20-30% protein.
The results showed some really great benefits in helping to reduce and modify cholesterol levels in people with type 2 diabetes. There was decreased total cholesterol, trigycerides and LDL, and increased HDL. These are all really good outcomes as far as cholesterol goes.
There were also significant decreases in Hba1c, blood glucose and insulin in the high fat groups compared to the high carbohydrate groups.
So What About The Carbs?
Well I certainly wouldn’t recommend a high carbohydrate diet to someone with type 2 diabetes. But on the other hand low carb is not necessary for everyone. It is not uncommon to be able to manage your sugars at 100-130g of carbs a day.
As you can see in Yvonne’s chart above she had 124g carbohydrates (50%). 50% carbs is a bit high but it does depend on carbohydrate source, for example, does it come from good quality food sources like brown rice and vegetables, or is it from refined white flour, ies, fruit juices and sodas?
There are certainly questions that need to be asked about carbs but you don’t necessarily need to go low carb.
It all depends on how you define low carb as well.
For example, the atkins diet is very low carb at 20 net carbs a day, while the American Diabetes Association considers anything below 130g is low carb. So keeping your carb intake at 100-130g a day is considered low by mainstream circles but not so low by other low carb advocates.
Are You Still Confused?
Honestly I don’t blame you if you are, but I am working my way to helping you get clearer on all this type 2 diabetes diet stuff.
Let’s get back to Yvonne.
You will be able to see her whole story evolve, including her results as we will be sharing everything right here, so be sure to subscribe for updates here.
But here is the exact guidance I initially offered to Yvonne.
START HERE
While you get your blood sugar on track it is very important to clean things up as much as possible. What I mean by that is to focus on food quality and cut out ALL processed foods, that’s the most important and essential thing, especially in reducing a1c.
So when thinking about your food intake for the time being, think about keeping it super simple. This might sound boring but it is necessary to get good results.
Balanced Meals
Every meal should have a balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fats.
For Yvonne our initial aim is for a ratio of around 20-25% protein, 30-40% carb, 40-45% fat (from monounsaturated and omega 3 fats).
On a 1600 calorie intake that’s equal to:
- Protein 80-100g
- Carbs 110-150g – we will probably try to reduce this to 130g or below but you have to start somewhere
- Fat 62-70g
The whole point is that you will find a good balance that works well for you eventually.
I am personally working with Yvonne to help her do that and like I said we will be sharing all that stuff right here on the blog so I’m sure you will pick up lots of tips along the way.
If you have any questions yourself, be sure to leave them in the comments below 
This may still leave you a little confused but next I’ll be sharing some food lists and information on how you might start putting this all together, so stay tuned for those.
Jedha
Nutritionist & Health Coach
Leave a Reply