Diabetes specialist say 45-60 carbs per meal

[tenaj1]

I am currently not taking meds. I decided to do it with diet and some exercise. This morning I had 2 eggs, bacon and a light multi-grain thomas's English muffin with 8 grams of fiber. The muffin was 26 carbs. My 2hr bg was 153. If I would have added 19-34 more carbs to my meal it would have been much higher. Is it the ADA that allows that many carbs? I don't know the exact amt of carbs I eat a day but I now it is a lot lower than what is recommended. My bg has been pretty good as long as I keep the carbs low. It doesn't make sense why the ADA says the higher carbs is the recommended amt for diabetics.


Diabetes specialist also said snack should be 15 carbs or lower and I should not go lower than 100 carbs a day.

[Seagal]

You may have answered your own question. If you had added more carbs per the ADA recommendations, your #'s would have been higher.

As you read the posts on the forum you will become acquainted with what might work for you.

Personally, I don't eat anything white (except cauliflower and miracle noodles) (rice, potatoes, bread, pasta).

Lower carbs, lower numbers.

Welcome to the forum

[Granny Shanny]

Yep, you got it figured out, Jan . . . this is what happens with many of us, and it's hard to understand why the "experts" insist that we must eat more carbs. We just say "eat to your meter". Lower carbs, lower numbers. Yep, yep, yep!

[Reba55]

Hi Jan and welcome to DF!
When I was first diagnosed, three years ago, a diabetic nurse specialist told me to eat 1-3 servings of carbs per meal. Each serving was 15 carbs. So seeing that I was allowed 45 carbs per meal, not to mention 1 serving per snack, I was consuming way too many carbs. I didn't find out until I started coming to the forum that carbs are what made my BG skyrocket! I have not cut out carbs completely, but I don't eat near what I used to and my numbers are showing it! I am going to the doctor next month and am anxious to see what my new A1C is.

I don't know why the ADA promotes so many carbs, it's really crazy. I have learned more from this forum than I ever learned from my doctor and/or diabetic trained nurse.

[sumi]

Janet,
Most people here have been told the same thing. A lucky few have doctors who are on board with lowering carbs. One problem is that those in the medical profession could be in trouble if they gave non-standard advice and you had problems. Giving you the wrong advice is fine as long as it is the norm. Personally, I would feel a lot more comfortable if a doctor 'telling' me everything I should do. But its not going to happen anytime soon. Remember it is your eyesight, your limbs, your life. I feel that we are lucky to live at a time when we can self moniter, and therefore surely should have some input into making our numbers better.

[matingara]

if someone ate 500 grams of carbs in a meal then lowering it to 100 grams would be greatly to their benefit - most likely.

the ADA treats the stock-standard human as a lowest common denominator.

one could survive on 0 carbs per day. they are not actually required. they just taste nice.

i seem to be somewhere between 50 - 100 grams of carbs per day these days. that is MORE than plenty for me.



-- Joel.

[tenaj1]

Thank you!!
What did people do before the internet? I have read so much info on DF and other info on the internet. We have so much information at our finger tips we are fortuante.
I have never been one to listen to what a Dr says if I don't agree with them. I go by how I feel and how my body reacts. I know my body better than they do and that goes for the food I am eating. Low carbs controls my diabetes without meds. If it works for so many D why wouldn't the ADA change it. It makes no sense.

[imac]

Doctors do not know everything, when I question my doctor about things like this his reply was You have diabetes but I have not.

[Josselyn]

I am currently not taking meds. I decided to do it with diet and some exercise. This morning I had 2 eggs, bacon and a light multi-grain thomas's English muffin with 8 grams of fiber. The muffin was 26 carbs. My 2hr bg was 153. If I would have added 19-34 more carbs to my meal it would have been much higher. Is it the ADA that allows that many carbs? I don't know the exact amt of carbs I eat a day but I now it is a lot lower than what is recommended. My bg has been pretty good as long as I keep the carbs low. It doesn't make sense why the ADA says the higher carbs is the recommended amt for diabetics.


Diabetes specialist also said snack should be 15 carbs or lower and I should not go lower than 100 carbs a day.

The ADA's dietary guidelines were created at a time when lower fat/higher carb was considered an optimum diet for good health. Their guidelines were/are used to supposedly protect us, the diabetic folks, from heart attack and stroke. The diet was never meant to regulate blood sugars in any meaningful way...that's what the meds are intended for. They don't seem to get that we are not lemmings. Some of us are proactive about our health, and many do not want unnecessary medication. We do not think an A1c of 7.0 (ADA) and under is good enough.

I was told 45-60 carbs per meal by the diabetes dietician ...and she wasn't including the non-starchy vegetables in that figure!
I'd be on serious medication with a diet like that...unless I took up running or something.

Hey, I'd love to eat 45-60 carbs per meal, but I'd also like to keep my eyesight and feet as I age. We can't all handle that number...most of us can't...at least not without intervention of some kind.
I'd rather control my diet and keep BG numbers that approach normal. The ADA lost credibility with me when they recommended eating oatmeal for breakfast.
I was over 200 with that one...

You have, indeed, answered your own question...as many of us have. Many people here eat far less than 100 carb grams per day, maintain good BG control, stay healthy, and aim for A1c numbers well under 7.0.

You're learning what works for you. Keep up the good work, and keep on educating yourself. You are the first line of defense on your medical team.

BTW, if you had eliminated that whole grain english muffin at breakfast and had an extra egg or couple more slices of bacon instead, I'll bet your 2hr pp would have been closer to 115 or less. Test it, but most of us are VERY sensitive to grainy carbs in the morning.

Good luck, Janet.

[raffi]

You think that was bad, I was told to have 75g of carbs per meal and two 15g snacks. Fortunately, I figured out that that was a bad idea before going on with it for too long.

For me, the sad part is that WAS a DRASTIC reduction of my carbs. Eek. I'm currently eating around 120g a day.

[MrsMia]

I don't know if this is totally correct or not but this is another take on the ADA's recommending higher carbs:

Two ADAs: Same Awful Advice | Free The Animal

When I was in the hospital at diagnosis, they gave me a "diabetic" menu to choose my meals from and told me I should have 60 grams of carbs per day. There was all kind of things such as mashed potatoes, pasta, grilled cheese, breads, muffins, etc. on that menu. And my bg's always measured in the high 200's. Later on the endo told me if I wanted to lose weight then drop my carbs down to 45 per meal and 15 per snack. I did that and lost some but I came to the conclusion that I needed to drop down way more than that and I cut out all flour and grains and starchy vegggies. When I did that the weight dropped like a stone. And my bg's have been good since then too. Not perfect all the time but pretty good.

[fgummett]

Here is a related thread: Are diabetics suffering for no reason?

[skinny 'betic]

one could survive on 0 carbs per day. they are not actually required

"Our bodies need carbohydrates more than any other substance. Our muscle cells and brains are designed to run on carbohydrates. Carbohydrate-rich foods, when consumed in their natural state, are low in calories and high in fiber compared with fatty foods, processed foods, or animal products." Dr. Fuhrman

[fgummett]

Is dietary carbohydrate essential for human nutrition?

Dr Eric C Westman MD, MHS. Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center.

Letter to the Editor [of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition]
...
The currently established human essential nutrients are water, energy, amino acids (histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine), essential fatty acids (linoleic and {alpha}-linolenic acids), vitamins (ascorbic acid, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin B-6, pantothenic acid, folic acid, biotin, and vitamin B-12), minerals (calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron), trace minerals (zinc, copper, manganese, iodine, selenium, molybdenum, and chromium), electrolytes (sodium, potassium, and chloride), and ultratrace minerals. (Note the absence of specific carbohydrates from this list.)

The body can provide all the Glucose (carbohydrate) needed for our Brain, CNS and muscles through Gluconeogenesis acting on spare Amino Acids (Protein) for myself I am not advocating that we eat no Carbohydrates but rather focus on "real whole foods" instead of refined/concentrated carbohydrates. The carbs in real whole foods come wrapped in micro-nutrients that are very likely beneficial for us to eat.

[bunbury]

"Our bodies need carbohydrates more than any other substance. Our muscle cells and brains are designed to run on carbohydrates. Carbohydrate-rich foods, when consumed in their natural state, are low in calories and high in fiber compared with fatty foods, processed foods, or animal products." Dr. Fuhrman

Here's another quote from his web site: "Thousands of Dr. Fuhrman’s patients have made recoveries from diseases such as: diabetes, high blood pressure, angina, high cholesterol, headaches, obesity, asthma, allergies and fibromyalgia."

Buy the books and DVDs to find out how to recover from diabetes ....

Whatever else he might be saying, he's wrong about Carbohydrates. It wouldn't be any fun living without them and there'd be some challenges in balancing, for example, vitamin intake without green veg. But carbs are not a prerequisite for 'our muscle cells and brains'.