Does going low carb really help sugars a bit?
Hi! :)
I'm actually on one right now, and it has helped me so much. My body gets lows a little more often but then I just increase my carbs or decrease my long/short acting insulin. I'm hardly on any insulin, which is great! I've lowered my long-acting insulin too. The other day I was with some friends and I ate way more carbs then I've been eating and my blood sugar went so high (over 300). I realized at that moment that the low carb "diet" was really the best for me. If you need a little start, just cut back on breads. That will help so much. If you really need some bread, have it for breakfast. I've found that my blood sugar doesn't spike with bread in the morning (cereal sends it into the 200s a few hours later, maybe it's all the simple sugars??). Just start off small, don't decrease your carbs too much. If you start getting lows, eat a little more. Just stick with a few complex carbs (Like I said, I'll usually only have one or two pieces of bread a day) and stay away from too many simple sugars (even fruit I've found sometimes messes me up). I'm not a dietitian and I don't know too much about this low carb thing, all I know is that it's helped me so much. Good luck! :)
~Janie :)
It does help, just don't do what I did. A couple years ago I got so sick of taking shots that I went completely carb free except for breakefast when I needed to take a shot of my long acting insuling anyways. At first I thought it was working great because my blood sugars were doing fine and I wasn't having to take shots anymore. After a few weeks of eating like this, it started to affect my blood sugars by making them high all the time. I was so confused because it wasn't like I was eating carbs. When my next doctor's appointment came, he told me to stop going carbless because it was sending my body into starvation mode which was why my blood sugars were starting to be high non-stop.
You need to be careful with low carb diets. It's okay to limit your carbs so you're not getting more than you actually need in a day, but you need to make sure you're getting enough for your body to actually function. Carbs give you energy, so when you get less than you need, your body gets tired and like Jennabenna said, going carb-less will put your body into starvation mode which does the complete opposite of what you're looking to do.
I would contact your local D clinic to set-up an appointment with a dietitian. They can go over the amount of calories and carbs you need at your age each day and you can then discuss what type of things you can cut out while still being healthy (such as limiting junk food like chips).
I wouldn't jump into any kind of low carb, zero carb diet without first consulting a dietitian and maybe even your endo, since your insulin requirements will probably go down.
Caitlyn,
The best info I've seen in a long time about this is in the current issue of "Diabetes Forcast". The negative is that low carb is usually going to be higher in fats (both good and bad). And since heart disease is a complication the fatty diet can be an issue. The positive is that it can help reduce the bg spikes. But, the conclusion is that everyone is different and what works for you will work for you. Check out the article if you want a more indepth discussion of carbs. Good Luck.
Jason
[quote user="Jennabenna"]
It does help, just don't do what I did. A couple years ago I got so sick of taking shots that I went completely carb free except for breakefast when I needed to take a shot of my long acting insuling anyways. At first I thought it was working great because my blood sugars were doing fine and I wasn't having to take shots anymore. After a few weeks of eating like this, it started to affect my blood sugars by making them high all the time. I was so confused because it wasn't like I was eating carbs. When my next doctor's appointment came, he told me to stop going carbless because it was sending my body into starvation mode which was why my blood sugars were starting to be high non-stop.
[/quote]This makes me wonder...
Is this what happens to a type 1 diabetic when we go into "ketosis" on a super low-carb diet? Supposedly, it's suppopsed to be related to ketoacidosis, but "healthy." I'm not sure exactly what's different about it, other than the cause, because there are ketones in your urine when you're in ketosis (people on Atkin's even buy ketone strips and test to make sure they have ketones!). Perhaps someone with a normal metabolism can better handle the affects of ketosis, but people whose bodies don't produce insulin can't counter the possible bad effects naturally?
Ketosis is healthy - KetoACIDosis is not - when the sugar is piling up in the blood with the ketones and sugars are not being metabolized correctly the ph in your blood drops making it more acid and kicking off a bunch of very nasty chemical reactions that are fairly damaging and - everything kinda' - well - breaks... As for descriptions of ketosis- this was, I think well written: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/ketones-and-ketosis/metabolism-and-ketosis/
To the person who said you need to eat some minimum number of carbs - (sorry scanning right now )- this is not true. When you are eating a high protein low carb diet roughly 50% of your protein will convert to sugar on more or an as-needed basis. There are essential fats, essential proteins - there are no essential carbs. When you are eating low carb, you do need to make sure you are clearing at least your minimum protein requirements. Otherwise you will start to break down lean muscle tissue for energy and that is a bad thing. There are a few books that do a great job of explaining how this all fits together but the short answer here is I do think it makes sense to do some reading, learn about the types of changes you are considering making to your metabolism and then create a plan that is healthy. There are a number of healthy diet approaches, and I do believe that low carb can be one of them.
I have spoken to a few other T1's who are also doing the low carb thing - for the most part, the blood sugar curves seem to be gentler (less steep) and the calculations a bit easier (once you figure out that ½ your protein probably needs a bolus, lol) - it's still T1...
Good luck!
A-D