Carbohydrates Personalized – Type 1 Diabetes
- There are many things to consider when making health choices and medical treatment choices for any specific individual.
- There is no one right way to approach finding the best balance of blood sugar control, avoidance of glucose highs and lows, medication and intervention side-effects, complications from diabetes, and the costs and burdens of health-targeted choices and activities.
- There is a growing appreciation that avoiding episodes of LOW blood sugars are of even more importance than previously thought.
(1) People’s Experiences:
Many people have related their stories of their experiences using a low carb eating pattern as part of their management of their type 1 diabetes.
Please see the page Diabetes and Low Carb – People’s Experiences
(2) Practical Resources and Connect With Others:
A great first stop is Type One Grit in it’s various social media forms:
TypeOneGrit
** new on Twitter: @TypeOneGrit
TypeOneGrit is most active on facebook LINK
This is the link to their Pinterest page. Besides info, there are lots of recipes. LINK
Optimizing Nutrition – blog and Facebook page
The work of Marty Kendall, whose wife is managing type 1 diabetes with a low-carb (better described as low-insulin-demand) diet. There is a great deal of useful info, plus reading some posts will give you an idea of the extensive amount of learning and careful attention to detail needed to get the best results.
A good post to start with is “INSULIN DOSING OPTIONS FOR TYPE 1 DIABETES” LINK
(3) The Scientific Case Laid Out
“Dietary carbohydrate restriction as the first approach in diabetes management: Critical review and evidence base” full text article HERE
This review article was published in the journal Nutrition, in the January 2015 issue. It contains a detailed review of research on the topic. If you want to move away from myth, bias and hearsay, this is the fundamental resource.
(4) A web site focusing on movement and exercise for those with diabetes of any type:
Team Blood Glucose maintains an active web site and Twitter feed.
People with diabetes can often find that their activity choices and their activity level is limited by the challenges of maintaining healthy blood glucose levels during and after exercise. It is particularly important to avoid episodes of low blood sugar.
TeamBloodGlucose.com and on Twitter @TheTeamBG
(5) Fascinating list of comments regarding using a low carb approach for diabetes:
comments on JDRF Australia Facebook page: Here
When the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund of Australia asked on their Facebook page for any comments from people regarding using low carb nutrition approach for diabetes, they got a flood of responses.
(6) YouTube
My channel on YouTube has a playlist of videos related to diabetes:
- Please keep in mind that pretty much every one of the videos will contain at least one or two statement or concepts (if not more) that I do not agree with.
- LINK to my YouTube channel
Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes University – a channel on YouTube LINK
(7) Books:
Some books on blood glucose control for people with diabetes include:
The books and other resources from Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, diabetologist: –LINK plus see above re: his Diabetes University series on YouTube
“Think Like a Pancreas” by Gary Scheiner
“Blood Sugar 101” by Jenny Ruhl (not specifically targeted re: type 1 diabetes, but very useful)
(8) Apps:
There are far too many apps targeted towards the management of diabetes for me to be able to check out them all.
Meal Memory is a simple and very useful app. The key difficulty with blood glucose management is that the blood glucose response to meals is highly variable, and so it is not possible to know exactly how much insulin to use in relation to any one meal or any day’s meals. With Meal Memory, when you sit down to a meal, you test your blood glucose level and take a photo of the meal (entering any comments that you want). The app then reminds you to test your blood glucose again 2 hours later. It displays each meal photo, with the before and after blood glucose readings (and related comments).
KetoDiet is one of the many apps designed to support low carb living. It has a good carb counter for those using low carb nutrition.
Diabetes in Control web site (see below) has an extensive list of apps. Also, the weekly newsletter often features a review of an app or other tool/resource. On the web site, there are two lists of apps – one list for apps for patients and one list for apps for clinicians. The list of apps for patients is HERE.
(9) Web Sites:
Diabetes in Control is a terrific site. I have been a devoted fan of their regular weekly newsletter for many years – I would guess about 12-14 years or so. The quality of the writing in their articles has slipped some in the past few years – they seem more hastily put together. Still, the newsletter is an invaluable resource for high-lighting the stream of new research findings and useful resources regarding living with diabetes.
Canadian Diabetes Association has extensive resources on their site which will give you a good review of their approach and recommendations. I really hate and am disgusted by their promotion of their food industry sponsors and their integration of logos and images that are specific to, or refer (subtly or overtly) to, specific food industry brands and companies.
Core Health MD 