carbs? whats the big deal...

[willie4004]

For the last 16 months I have had Type 1, am 32 years old, I drank ALOT and smoked ALOT until i got diabetes and have not had a drink in 6 months or a cigarette for over 5 months. I go to the gym at least 4 times a week. All in all I do pretty well with control, at least for the last 2 months. I hear all the time about watching how many carbs I should eat. Its either "Watch out, dont eat too many carbs" or "Should you be eating that?" or "Lets look at a low-carb meal". I got one question that has me feeling guilty. If I take care of myself and know my insulin ratios, whats the big deal if I wanna have a big fat brownie sundae aftre dinner? Of course i would be splitting it but still. I know i should not go to burger and fries diet, thats unhealthy for non diabetics as well. Seriously, though, I LOVE choc chip cookies and I cant imagine life without them. I guess what Im saying is, to me, I can eat whatever i want and know I can be in target after 2 hours. By whatever i want I mean mostly healthy but sometimes falling off the carb wagon Is there anything wrong with that???

[matingara]

i think an answer to your question is explained brilliantly by Dr. Bernstein in his article on the "Law of Small Numbers".

[BlueSky]

... I can eat whatever i want and know I can be in target after 2 hours. .... Is there anything wrong with that???
Control is very individualistic, and no, there is nothing wrong with eating what you like as long as it doesn't make life difficult for you. Having said that, be aware that things don't stay the same for long. As your honeymoon wears off and other elements of your counter regulatory system deteriorate, you may find that high-carb foods have a more disruptive effect on your control. In the long-term, getting used to a lower carb way of eating is likely to serve you best.

[Gary_W]

Hi Bob,

High carb, high GI foods will tend to spike your blood glucose. If you spike really high, it can make it harder to come down from than if you have a rather more gentle spike (which, like it or not, we will all get from eating any carbs at all).

This is where experimentation comes in. Go with the food concerned and bolus for it. Test lots and be honest about how you feel. If you feel OK (or even if you don't feel completely A1 but figure it was worth it) then go with it. If it really makes you feel bad, you have your unfortunate answer. Experiment with injecting early. Another thing I've done with a really high carb item is to over-inject for it (inject for, say, 20g carbs more than I'm about to eat) and then eat 20g worth of something else an hour later. The extra insulin 'up front' helps to minimise the spike. You need to be careful with this one, as if you get it wrong you can go hypo and you MUST make sure you have that other 20g so this method is not for everyone by any means.

I'm fortunate that I don't have an overly sweet tooth; most of my 220-250g of carbs per day comes from the savoury stuff. My only regular 'sweet' indulgence is fruit. I'm having basal and ratio issues at the moment (nothing to do with my diet AFAIK) but when my control is settled, carbs are less of a problem to me than the high fat / high protein mixed with a few carbs type meals. These are the ones that give me most problems..

Gary

[Stuboy]

yeh i eat what i want... i do count the carbs but only so i know how much insulin to have... i had over 150 carbs for lunch once... i was fine...

as long as you can control it, it's all good!

[shabbie]

on a personal note my experience has been that control is far easier when i limit my carb intake ~ i'm not talkng zero carb here, just reduced carb intake.

lately (for some reason) i cannot stick to a low carb diet, i eat pretty much what i fancy (insert brownies here) and as a consequence my Bg's are far less stable. this will surely have a knock on effect on my next A1c!

if it works for you to eat a 'normal' diet then if it aint broke dont fix it.

it does pay to listen to the experienced people on these forums, but ultimately its always your disease, to control how you feel fit.

[Emm]

Nothing wrong with that at all willie!

Sounds like you have your head screwed on. Only YOU know how to treat YOUR diabetes - others can only speculate. And the food police ("Should you be eating that?") should be shot :P

I'm all for low carbing - for me it absolutely positively works, and makes life SO much easier. But I'm also all for having a cake / chocolate or whatever when I feel like it. Life is about balance isn't it :)

I can make it work, if I take my insulin as early as possible (yeh so sponteneity is out of it! But that's ok with me) and test a little more often. I wont bother with munchies if I'm in for a night out or anything though, coz I know it could go wrong and I get paranoid about going low / high when I'm driving or socialising!

If you're happy and healthy, you have nothing to worry about. Go for it :)

[HelenM]

I am a bit ambivalent on this one. Firstly who is actually telling you to eat low carb? Very low carb diets may work for some but they are controversial. There are very few mainstream doctors that would recommend them on a long term basis.
If you exercise you may need to eat more carbs than people who are less active. My doctors are well aware that I exercise and more than once have told me to eat more .( current average 170 a day, 5ft 3in ;62kg). You are younger than me and male so you probably need more.

What they aren't happy about is carbs in the form of cookies etc. I like cookies and sometimes use them for mild hypos (I know its not advised) I can't do it too often. They're not just carbs, they haven't much value nutritionally ( 1 cookie 80 calories half of which are from fat).They add unnecessary calories undoing much of the hard work at the gym.:(
Ultimately if I ate too many of the 'wrong' things (and I'm sure a lot of it is down to individual metabolism), I could keep my BS in check (because I use enough insulin to cover the carbs) but I would gain weight and quite quickly. If I carried on this could lead to insulin resistance. My diabetes would then be far more difficult to control.

Funnily, I've had the same idea that one day I'd like to eat a choc fudge brownie sundae. I've gone to a restaurant more than once thinking that this time I'll order it. When its come to the end of the meal each time I've decided not to.
In the end, as you yourself said, people with diabetes should be eating a diet thats healthy for everyone. That doesn't really include cookies or choc brownie sundaes but we're all human.

[Glucoweb]

I do not think there is anything wrong with splurging every now and then. The thing to be weary of is how often we do it. As someone posted earlier, as the honeymoon period wears off, it may be more difficult to maintain such good control on your current regimen (amount of meds, excercise, diet, lifestyle, etc...). I say as long as you can control it, treat yourself every once and a while.

[kgm0612]

I basically follow a low carb diet, but I do splurge when the urge hits me. Lately I've been on a Ginger Snap Cookie kick, eating two about an hour before bed.

Karen

[xMenace]

Keep in mind that the structure of sugar is very similar to glass. You don't want glass flowing through your veins slicing up your body.

The impacts of these many decisions will not be seen for decades, but they do exist. Fun they are not.

[Penny]

Many years ago, when I first went to "Diabetic Training", no one said anything about low carb. I was given some kind of "exchange" diet thing to work with. On and off over the years I stuck to it, then I got tired of dealing with it and would just ignore any kind of diet for awhile. I never really had control of my Diabetes. To tell the truth, I did not get serious about it until I had a heart attack. Now that I am serious about it, the only thing that works is counting carbs and sometimes even that doesn't work. I take alot of insulin and count carbs and still have high numbers sometimes. I might splurge and have a couple of cookies or 1/2 cup of icecream, once in a while...but I know I will pay for it with high numbers. When you are young, you think nothing can really hurt you, I remember thinking that. I often wonder if I had started limiting carbs and contoling my numbers, years ago, if my health would be much better today. I do remember being young though and understand what you are feeling right now. I just think you should think about what you are doing now and how it will effect your body in a few years. Also, it seems like young people have more medical help than they did when I was younger, so maybe it makes a difference. If I had insulin when I was 25 or 30, maybe I would not have so much Diabetic damage to my body now. :confused:

[Alice]

I don't judge anything (or anyone) by the amount of carbs they eat. The important factor is how you are covering those carbs with insulin. The amount doesn't matter...it's more important to take the correct amount. I don't buy the "more insulin is bad" theory. I do buy the theory that not enough insulin is very detrimental.

I think the "low carb" choice is simply that...a choice by some people. I think it's more of a dietary choice than a medical choice unless you are Type 2 and not taking insulin carb-to-insulin ratio.

More important to me is what those calories are doing...so that pretty much keeps me on track. While I'm not a "Super Size Me" carb eater piling gravy on my food...I'm don't see a huge benefit in going to a minimum. I try to eat a pretty normal amount of food, whatever the type.

But no, I don't feel guilty about carbs. It's the new version of feeling guilty about sugar...they are the same.

[shiftzor]

Healthy diet in my book has always been a little bit of everything. Really I just wanted to say that you should watch what the carbs do to your body, i.e. test bg: pre-splurge, mid-splurge, after (2 hours) splurge and 4 hours after splurge. Maybe that will help you make up your mind; every spike will affect your A1c and remember your body will not always respond like it does now.

I replaced simple carbs with complex carbs in my diet (ie brown pastor/bread/rice instead of white), I still binge like most people once in a while but I would rather not have spikes on a day to day basis. Live fast, die young or make your own way. ;)

[dar917]

yeh i eat what i want... i do count the carbs but only so i know how much insulin to have... i had over 150 carbs for lunch once... i was fine...

as long as you can control it, it's all good!

Me too. I was basically told I should have 3-5 carb choices per meal and I try not to go over that. I try to eat more fruits and vegetables. I don't drink soda if I can help it. I'll still have a cookie or something for dessert but I'll eat a small piece of chocolate instead of a whole candy bar, for example. It keeps me happy. ^_^