Diabetes

S

SweetStuff

Guest
My A1C is 5.7, was 5.9. Docs panicking.
Nothing in my family history about diabetes.
I eat way too many sweets.
Plan to cut it way back, exercise more. 5'10", 200lbs, 50-60yrs. Active.

Need to do more?
 
6 is kind of the threshold for someone. You're getting up there. You should lose the weight, etc...

The sign is that your sugars are out of control and the organ damage is cumulative. Time to get it fixed now.

I can tell you the bad side of my diabetic son's level of organ damage from being out of control for an extended time. He lost a lot of function (including his kidneys and a foot). The good news is he's home today from transplant surgery with a new kidney and pancreas.
 
flyingron said:
6 is kind of the threshold for someone. You're getting up there. You should lose the weight, etc...

The sign is that your sugars are out of control and the organ damage is cumulative. Time to get it fixed now.

I can tell you the bad side of my diabetic son's level of organ damage from being out of control for an extended time. He lost a lot of function (including his kidneys and a foot). The good news is he's home today from transplant surgery with a new kidney and pancreas.
Click to expand...

Best wishes to your son.

Rich
 
SweetStuff said:
My A1C is 5.7, was 5.9. Docs panicking.
Nothing in my family history about diabetes.
I eat way too many sweets.
Plan to cut it way back, exercise more. 5'10", 200lbs, 50-60yrs. Active.

Need to do more?
Click to expand...

Cut back your sweets to basically none. Substitute Stevia in coffee if you can't deal with it unsweetened.

Try to eliminate simple carbohydrates altogether. Some people will say you need "some" in your diet. Ignore them. Simple carbs are impossible to avoid completely in America, so you'll still get "some" in your diet no matter how hard you try not to. Whole-grain products are okay in moderation.

Read every label on everything you buy.

Avoid processed foods.

Avoid starchy vegetables. Leafy vegetables are fine.

Lose weight.

Exercise more (especially the large muscles).

Take a walk after eating. This is very, very helpful.

Consider Gymnema sylvestre.

Note: I am not a doctor. I am, however, a diabetic.

Rich
 
Last edited:
RJM62 said:
Cut back your sweets to basically none. Substitute Stevia in coffee if you can't deal with it unsweetened.

Try to eliminate simple carbohydrates altogether. Some people will say you need "some" in your diet. Ignore them. Simple carbs impossible to avoid completely in America, so you'll still get "some" in your diet no matter how hard you try not to. Whole-grain products are okay in moderation.

Read every label on everything you buy.

Avoid processed foods.

Avoid starchy vegetables. Leafy vegetables are fine.

Lose weight.

Exercise more (especially the large muscles).

Take a walk after eating. This is very, very helpful.

Consider Gymnema sylvestre.

Note: I am not a doctor. I am, however, a diabetic.

Rich
Click to expand...

Good advice if you're not diabetic. Great advice if you are.
 
Only thing I can add to Rich's info is to also avoid all sugary beverages, including soda pop, energy drinks, and the like.

I'm fairly certain that my addition to and over consumption of Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper is what did me in.
 
Start eating healthy... make it a lifestyle choice. The standard american diet SUCKS for being healthy.

Look at something "atkins like". You dont have to eliminate all carbs, but if you focus on carbs that have less starch, thats better. Look at labels. Read labels. Get cookbooks. AVOID PROCESSED FOODS. Cut way way back on bread, pasta, rice and potatoes. Look at fruits with fiber... Fresh fruits and vegetables. Lean cuts of meat (sirloin and filet more than ribeye)... use 93-95% lean ground beef rather than 70-80%..

Have a cheat day or cheat meal built into your diet schedule so you can have them if you want on occasion.. When you DO cheat.. whole grain bread, whole grain pasta, sweet potatoes rather than white, brown rice rather than white rice..

No sodas.. Not even diet (sugar free = chemical **** storm). Avoid low fat/nonfat foods... again.. chemical substitutes for fat are chemicals. And low fat/non fat is usually laden with sugar to make it palatable. Develop a taste for unsweet tea if you like tea.. If you must use sugar, put maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar per gallon. Places like McDonalds use 4 cups or so per gallon.

Carbs turn into sugar. Starchy carbs turn into a LOT of sugar. Sugar in excess of what you need is turned into fat, and also leads to the complications of prediabetes and diabetes.

Start walking. Get a fitbit. Get friends who walk. Walk 10,000 steps a day. Drink one ounce of water for every two pounds of body weight. Yes, you will pee a lot. You will also lose weight and actually not retain water weight as much.

All of this is predicated on being relatively healthy beforehand and not being in renal failure, congestive heart failure or not having any delicate medical conditions that require close supervision. If so, go see a doctor first.
 
Doggtyred said:
No sodas.. Not even diet (sugar free = chemical **** storm). Avoid low fat/nonfat foods... again.. chemical substitutes for fat are chemicals. And low fat/non fat is usually laden with sugar to make it palatable. Develop a taste for unsweet tea if you like tea.. If you must use sugar, put maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar per gallon. Places like McDonalds use 4 cups or so per gallon.
Click to expand...
Is there any hard science on this? The only thing I've heard is that regular diet soda drinkers tend to have higher blood sugar, but the study I saw did not control for sugar intake and left open the "sweet tooth" effect leading to greater sugar consumption as a possible explanation. AFAIK the idea that aspartame is a toxin capable of causing a host of nasty diseases has been thoroughly discredited.

Disclaimer: I drink lots of Diet Coke, but am not diabetic or borderline. YMMV as always...
 
azure said:
Is there any hard science on this? The only thing I've heard is that regular diet soda drinkers tend to have higher blood sugar, but the study I saw did not control for sugar intake and left open the "sweet tooth" effect leading to greater sugar consumption as a possible explanation. AFAIK the idea that aspartame is a toxin capable of causing a host of nasty diseases has been thoroughly discredited.

Disclaimer: I drink lots of Diet Coke, but am not diabetic or borderline. YMMV as always...
Click to expand...
The thing is that people react to various substances differently depending on their individual physiology. Some people are more sensitive to certain substances than others. I can pretty much eat anything, although I can't drink alcohol. I do drink diet drinks, not because I need to watch carbs or calories, but because I find regular soda too sticky sweet.

My mother was a dietician and she said that unless you has a certain sensitivity or reason to be on a special diet, anything in moderation was fine. She had a sweet tooth and ate dessert for every meal without becoming diabetic or close to it.
 
Everskyward said:
I do drink diet drinks
Click to expand...

Are you nuts?!

My girlfriend was watching some health documentary on Netflix and it was talking about how aspartame is bad for you. GF doesn't want me drinking it and I'm mostly off of soda anyway, so I didn't really mind much - until some lady came on and said something like "even pilots don't drink diet soda because of the aspartame content which destroys their eyesight and gives them seizures". :idea:

One of the "sources":
6 Reasons To Put That Diet Soda DOWN Right Now

  1. Aspartame. Aspartame causes frontal lobe inflammation/impairment. The frontal lobes are responsible for the “executive function” of the brain, such as the ability to choose between good and bad (like Diet Coke bad, put down the Diet Coke good), comparing and contrasting, planning, multi-tasking, attention and working memory. Aspartame also causes a slew of other problems such as symptoms that mimic multiple sclerosis, disturbances in vision (which is why pilots don’t drink it), headaches, migraines, neurological problems, cognitive (thinking) problems, seizures, and different types of cancers. Plus it is addictive. And it accumulates in the body because it is absorbed quickly and excreted slowly. Would you like to super-size that?
Click to expand...


http://www.leahkiefer.com/6-reasons-to-put-that-diet-soda-down-right-now/
 
Last edited:
Sugar is the real killer. Eliminate that to the best of your abilities.

If you're going to eat poorly, do it the right way and stay away from anything that's marked as diet, low fat, reduced fat, etc. Fat makes food taste good. When you eliminate fat, it tastes terrible. In order for people to eat it, they load it up with sugar.

Have you ever wondered why Sugar never has a percentage next to the recommended daily value?
 
cadbury_eggs.png


This comic did it for me. I can't do soda much anymore after visualizing cadbury eggs :(
 
We're not diabetic but if I drink soft drinks I'll carry an extra five pounds around no matter what I do. So cut out soft drinks altogether. I did.

Sometimes you just want something carbonated like after a heavy meal. There are alternatives that don't have near the sugar that soft drinks have and they don't have artificial sweets.

Someone pointed out to me once that a can of Coke you can look at it and imagine it's about 1/4 all sugar in the bottom then they pour the Coke on it. That's how much sugar they have. You're literally bathing your pancreas in sugar most of the time in America.
 
41hlL1t.jpg


After I went to Turkey for a mere two weeks, I couldn't even finish a meal at work from Sonic. It actually made me sick. Have to say that all of the fresh and non-processed food while I was overseas for even that short time changed my diet radically :eek:

I did eat a ton of food while there (business dinners I didn't pay for that were above average too) and lost weight. Drank orange juice on the layover in France and the sugar content and flavor was so different, it shocked me at first. Crazy once you get away from the usual.
 
txflyer said:
We're not diabetic but if I drink soft drinks I'll carry an extra five pounds around no matter what I do. So cut out soft drinks altogether. I did.
Click to expand...
I used to drink Country Time Lemonade like it was water. Not just straight CT, but with extra sugar on top of it. Before that it was Lipton Iced Tea, also heavily sugared. When I quit the stuff, within months I had lost 20 lbs, then 30, then another 5 lbs over the next couple of years. I do drink soft drinks, but always the diet variety (sweetened with aspartame or sucralose, I can't stand acesulfam-K or saccharin), and I avoid sugar in all its forms. Because I don't like the taste of most straight water and refuse to pay for bottled water, I use diet powdered drinks like Crystal Light and similar grocery store knockoffs now, instead of CT.

I've kept that weight off for 12 years and haven't seen any tendency to gain it back, though I did gain 2 lbs recently which I consider a wake up call that I do need to be careful with portions. As Mari said, everyone reacts differently and some people may tend to gain weight from consuming artificial sweeteners. For others, they live up to their billing with no negative side effects.
 
azure said:
I used to drink Country Time Lemonade like it was water. Not just straight CT, but with extra sugar on top of it. Before that it was Lipton Iced Tea, also heavily sugared. When I quit the stuff, within months I had lost 20 lbs, then 30, then another 5 lbs over the next couple of years. I do drink soft drinks, but always the diet variety (sweetened with aspartame or sucralose, I can't stand acesulfam-K or saccharin), and I avoid sugar in all its forms. Because I don't like the taste of most straight water and refuse to pay for bottled water, I use diet powdered drinks like Crystal Light and similar grocery store knockoffs now, instead of CT.

I've kept that weight off for 12 years and haven't seen any tendency to gain it back, though I did gain 2 lbs recently which I consider a wake up call that I do need to be careful with portions. As Mari said, everyone reacts differently and some people may tend to gain weight from consuming artificial sweeteners. For others, they live up to their billing with no negative side effects.
Click to expand...



Soft drinks not only put weight on you but they're like cocaine, you can't seem to drink enough of them when you're drinking them.

For a sweetener like for breakfast biscuits or strawberries if I'm dying for a sweet I use natural and raw locally grown honey that I buy from a grower about ten miles away.

Locally grown raw honey has some advantages to it that processed sugar's don't. If you read up on honey, it's truly an amazing food. Some say it relieves allergies, I tend to think so. And it keeps forever. Viable honey was found in kiosk's in Pharoah's tombs. It's antibiotic and antifungal among other things. You can use it as a topical wound dressing. The list goes on for pages .... I know, I sound like a honey commercial ... :lol:
 
overdrive148 said:
Are you nuts?!

My girlfriend was watching some health documentary on Netflix and it was talking about how aspartame is bad for you. GF doesn't want me drinking it and I'm mostly off of soda anyway, so I didn't really mind much - until some lady came on and said something like "even pilots don't drink diet soda because of the aspartame content which destroys their eyesight and gives them seizures". :idea:

One of the "sources":

http://www.leahkiefer.com/6-reasons-to-put-that-diet-soda-down-right-now/
Click to expand...

Aspartame gives me instant headaches, which I figure can't be a good thing.

As for Splenda, the chemical structure of sucralose, an organochlorine compound, is too similar to a whole bunch of other organochlorine compounds like chlordane, dieldrin, heptachlor, DDT, and other now-illegal insecticides for me to seriously consider taking it into my body. In fact, the compound was originally designed with the intention of using it as an insecticide until one of the researchers accidentally discovered that it tasted sweet.

I've had doctors and biologists literally screaming at the tops of their lungs that both of these sweeteners are safe, usually citing only the fact that they're FDA approved as evidence. But to someone like myself who has a bit less than zero faith in the FDA or any other government agency that makes decisions that affect and are affected by big money, FDA approval means pretty much nothing.

I avoid them both. When I simply must sweeten something, I use natural stevia.

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
Aspartame gives me instant headaches, which I figure can't be a good thing.

As for Splenda, the chemical structure of sucralose, an organochlorine compound, is too similar to a whole bunch of other organochlorine compounds like chlordane, dieldrin, heptachlor, DDT, and other now-illegal insecticides for me to seriously consider taking it into my body. In fact, the compound was originally designed with the intention of using it as an insecticide until one of the researchers accidentally discovered that it tasted sweet.

I've had doctors and biologists literally screaming at the tops of their lungs that both of these sweeteners are safe, usually citing only the fact that they're FDA approved as evidence. But to someone like myself who has a bit less than zero faith in the FDA or any other government agency that makes decisions that affect and are affected by big money, FDA approval means pretty much nothing.

I avoid them both. When I simply must sweeten something, I use natural stevia.

Rich
Click to expand...
Stevia tastes bitter to me. I once bought some and almost threw it out until I realized someone I know uses it. Gave it all to him. Another instance where your own physiology sometimes dictates your reaction to substances which may be different than someone else's reaction..
 
Everskyward said:
Stevia tastes bitter to me. I once bought some and almost threw it out until I realized someone I know uses it. Gave it all to him. Another instance where your own physiology sometimes dictates your reaction to substances which may be different than someone else's reaction..
Click to expand...

Yep. Different brands of stevia seem to have different flavors to some people. They all taste pretty much the same to me.

Stevia itself may also have some beneficial effects specifically with regard to DM2. Research is ongoing.

Rich
 
RJM62 said:
Yep. Different brands of stevia seem to have different flavors to some people. They all taste pretty much the same to me.

Stevia itself may also have some beneficial effects specifically with regard to DM2. Research is ongoing.

Rich
Click to expand...
If I was really trying to be healthy I would drink seltzer or mineral water since it's the carbonation that I enjoy. Soda is the only thing I eat or drink that has artificial sweetener. Otherwise I use sugar.
 
SweetStuff said:
My A1C is 5.7, was 5.9. Docs panicking.
Nothing in my family history about diabetes.
I eat way too many sweets.
Plan to cut it way back, exercise more. 5'10", 200lbs, 50-60yrs. Active.

Need to do more?
Click to expand...

Yes, you need to do more: Start testing your blood sugar in the morning and after meals at one and two hour intervals. Buy inexpensive test equipment at WalMart and keep a record of what you ate and what you did that resulted in the readings. I buy Sidekick, 50 test strips and a built-in throwaway meter for $20, that records the reading in memory. The American College of Endocrinology says this:
"Therefore, the consensus panel recommends a treatment-targeted 2-hour postprandial blood glucose level of <140 mg/dL."​
Good luck! :)

dtuuri
 
Hoping this drying-out phase will pass soon. Pretty tough.

The mind now seeks sugar in every item in the house. Those crackers taste slightly sweet if you leave them in your mouth a bit long. Milk...seems slightly sweet - I guess its the lactose. Jeez, I could bust open one of those jello pouches and be like a crack addict with white powder everywhere (and then someone would likely walk in!) Doesn't white wine have unfermented sugar, hmm.
Previously thought to be lower-quality sources for a sugar hit now seem very valuable, like granola bars! Dairy creamer powder.. I think that is sugar. If I do fall off the wagon with that, everyone will know, Powder Lips.
I Want My Coca-Cola!!!!
 
SweetStuff said:
Hoping this drying-out phase will pass soon. Pretty tough.

The mind now seeks sugar in every item in the house. Those crackers taste slightly sweet if you leave them in your mouth a bit long. Milk...seems slightly sweet - I guess its the lactose. Jeez, I could bust open one of those jello pouches and be like a crack addict with white powder everywhere (and then someone would likely walk in!) Doesn't white wine have unfermented sugar, hmm.
Previously thought to be lower-quality sources for a sugar hit now seem very valuable, like granola bars! Dairy creamer powder.. I think that is sugar. If I do fall off the wagon with that, everyone will know, Powder Lips.
I Want My Coca-Cola!!!!
Click to expand...

I think it's amylose in the crackers, and that it's broken down into sugar by salivary amylase.

I'm a rather peculiar diabetic in that I never cared much for sweets nor had to go through withdrawal, so I can't help you there. My weakness was bread. I love to bake and I love bread. But that wasn't an addiction kind of thing. I just wish I could eat more of it.

A friend of mine who's also a pilot and who also was recently diagnosed with DM2 finds that sunflower seeds help with his cravings.

Consider this: Judging by your numbers, you caught this early. If you make the lifestyle modifications, you have a good chance of completely avoiding all the damaging effects of DM2. That's a pretty good motivator.

Stick with it.

Rich
 
azure said:
Is there any hard science on this? The only thing I've heard is that regular diet soda drinkers tend to have higher blood sugar, but the study I saw did not control for sugar intake and left open the "sweet tooth" effect leading to greater sugar consumption as a possible explanation. AFAIK the idea that aspartame is a toxin capable of causing a host of nasty diseases has been thoroughly discredited.

Disclaimer: I drink lots of Diet Coke, but am not diabetic or borderline. YMMV as always...
Click to expand...

The posters whole post was full of drivel and old wive's tales.

There are several artificial sweeteners in use in soft drinks, and while they all have issues of one sort or another, "chemical **** storm" is a large misnomer. Although it might literally fit for some of the fat substitutes like olestra if you catch my drift.
 
No one should give diet advice without listing their body mass index.:lol:
 
flyingron said:
The posters whole post was full of drivel and old wive's tales.

There are several artificial sweeteners in use in soft drinks, and while they all have issues of one sort or another, "chemical **** storm" is a large misnomer. Although it might literally fit for some of the fat substitutes like olestra if you catch my drift.
Click to expand...
Uhh... yeah. But I usually try to avoid coming out with guns blazing. Besides, there is always new research coming out, thought I'd give the poster the chance to defend his driv^H^H^H^H opinions.
 
Would be interesting to do a BMI poll of forum members.
 
Since starting my low carb no sugar, eat only when you good sugar test is below 100, diet in January.

I've lost 7 pounds, 7 pounds I can't afford. (170#@ 6') but my A1C is 6.2 down from 6.8 in December last.

It doesn't happen over night, it requires 90 days to change the entire blood in your body. I'm 180 days out on this attempt to keep my medical. So Far it's working.

If you are going to eat carbs, eat them early in the day, (breakfast or lunch) then work or exercise in the after noon and do not eat again until you blood glucose drops below 100, even if it means no supper.

Metformin is a big help too.
 
ClimbnSink said:
No one should give diet advice without listing their body mass index.:lol:
Click to expand...

Fair enough, it's 18.8 according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Also according to the Clinic is the recent discovery that TMAO in the blood is ten times more predictive of a cardiac event than cholesterol levels. So, FWIW, those watching carbs and eating meat instead ought to consider getting tested: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/health/study-points-to-new-culprit-in-heart-disease.html?_r=1, since vegans don't have it.

This is pretty cutting-edge stuff, so insurance companies aren't yet paying for the tests, AFAIK.

dtuuri
 
Last edited:
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 365 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.
Back
Top