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If you are prediabetic, I would recommend Neal Barnard's book on reversing diabetes. It should cover any concerns you might have on switching to a "high carb" diet:
https://www.amazon.com/Neal-Barnards-Program-Reversing-Diabetes/dp/1635651271/
Other great books are Dr. McDougall's The Starch Solution, Dr. Greger's How Not to Die and Rip Esselstyn's Seven Day Rescue.
The biggest change will probably that you no longer focus on macros, but instead concentrate on eating whole plant foods as much as possible. You macros will typically come out as 70 percent carbs, 10-15 precent and 10 to 15 percent protein, if you follow the recommendations in the books above.
All of the books I mentioned contain recipes, tips and so on.
Oh please, check yourself into somewhere until you get a handle on this. If you feel this out of control, you really need professional help.
If you refuse, then please look into Dr Bernstein’s book. He’s lived with Type 1 for a long time and is now in his 80’s. His expertise has helped millions. Here’s a link: Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316182699/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_mZUaDb8ZJ850G
It's a hard battle but you can try by saying you care and hence you gave this book to them Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes: The Scientifically Proven System for Reversing Diabetes without Drugs
As a type 1, you need to adjust your insulin basal/bolus ratios when you try keto. Your body is going through lots of changes, after all! There is also a glucose sparing effect that can happen that makes it so you have to count more for carbs/protein than you would have before.
I had the opposite happen when I first started. For the first couple weeks I had some major lows! But I was careful and kept glucose tabs on hand at all times. It's a tough start for us type 1's because we have to experiment and manually figure out our insulin needs, but it's 100% possible and 200% worth it.
Best thing you can do is get the book Diabetes Solution by Dr. Bernstein. He's a type 1 doc who has been doing low-carb for decades, and this book lays out the very specific process he uses to keep his a1c at 5 and sugar levels near-flat. It's revolutionary. There's also a facebook group I recommend you joining. And I've been doing it for awhile myself, so feel free to message me. :)
Neuropathy really sucks. You're in a really rough place because getting really good control over her disease is really something she has to want to do for herself (kind of like quitting smoking, or heroin, or drinking, or deciding to get in really good shape...) It's not something that someone can do for someone else no matter how hard they try.
I'm a big fan of Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution (a book, and the guy has a bunch of free youtube videos). He's a 86 year old doctor who has had T1D since he was a kid. Often times neuropathy is reversible if you get really good control over your blood sugar. (Or if your girlfriend gets really good control over her blood sugar.) If you think she's up for doing a low-carb diet and reading a book, I suppose you could get her the book. But from how you describe it she's not really in the mood for it.
I'm pretty confident that if she focused on keeping her blood sugar under really perfect control, with intensive insulin therapy, and a really restrictive diet, she would probably feel a whole lot better by the end of the year. But again, she'd have to decide that she wants to do that. Nobody can really guarantee that it would work for her, but certainly if her diabetes is at all out-of-control (and it sounds like it might be) getting it under really good control is going to be a whole lot better for her.
There's not a whole lot you can do in your situation.
Edit: Link -- The book's less than $20, it's a good read.
https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Bernsteins-Diabetes-Solution-Achieving/dp/0316182699
Same, my hair even grew back. I feel so much better, has really been life changing to not be hungry, tired, obsessed with food.
Highly recommend this, doc has a lot of experience with LC and with PCOS, simple, straightforward and he even covers what to do when you get to goal or metabolic healing to be sure to keep the benefits.
Congrats on the great start!
Research has shown a low fat plant based diet can really help and even reverse type 2 diabetes. Maybe try reading this book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Neal-Barnards-Program-Reversing-Diabetes/dp/1594868107
I am reading End Your Carb Confusion: A Simple Guide to Customize Your Carb Intake for Optimal Health: Westman, Dr. Eric, Berger MS CNS, Amy: 9781628604290: Amazon.com: Books Dr, Westman has worked with women with PCOS for decades in his clinic at Duke as well as helping thousands of people reverse diabetes and obesity. He lays out 3 plans - 20 carbs, which is where he recommends people with PCOS start, along with reactive hypos which I used to get, a 50 carb approach and a 150 carb approach. He recommends the 20 for metabolic healing and for weight loss. Later, depending on your particular body and how it responds, a higher LC limit, esp re: whole food carbs might be ok. The book is so helpul and simple, wish it had been out years ago. So, your experience tracks exactly with his professional opinion. And he would have predicted the weight and PCOS improvements too. :) Pain free is amazing, I lost chronic tendoitis that made me limp, now I go hiking in the mountains, how crazy is that? I even had things like GERD and chronic sinus infections and migraines go away, cutting sugar and starch cuts down on inflammation super powerfully. Best to all on your health journey!
Thiis book covers that issue exactly and Dr. Westman has decades of clinical experience helping women with PCOS in his clinic at Duke. He even published a study on PCOS way back in 2005. HIGHLY recommend this book. Covers how to lose weight and regain metabolic health and then the key - what to do after to keep the gains.
IF can also be a powerful too.
You have got this! Are you familiar with Dr. Westman? His teaching vid re: keto is so simple and straightforward and helpful. The "page 4" he refers to can be found on Pinterest or in his new book with Amy Berger. The great thing about the book is that it adresses how to eat to KEEP the health gains after reversing symptoms or losing weight or whatever you goal was.
If you have specific questions, check out r/ketomentors.
Best to you, please come back with updates.
This is the page 4 he references.
53c5384c628198b0bca20a91d0dab24a--banting-dieet-healthy-eating.jpg (236×419) (pinimg.com)
And, he has a new book out this week. :)
End Your Carb Confusion: A Simple Guide to Customize Your Carb Intake for Optimal Health
by Dr. Eric Westman and Amy Berger MS CNS | Dec 15, 2020
This book helped me a lot, there are PCOS success stories in it too.
End Your Carb Confusion: A Simple Guide to Customize Your Carb Intake for Optimal Health Paperback – December 15, 2020
by Dr. Eric Westman (Author), Amy Berger MS CNS (Author)
Focus your meals on protein and high fiber veg. Our bodies are designed to run on glucose or stored energy like a battery, 2 modes, like a Prius. When we eat sugar and starch, insulin goes up and we cannot access fat stores and feel like we need to eat constantly. If you change the food, the cravings go away. Protein and fiber will make you feel full so you can cut snacks and eating after dinner and you will be starting IF without even meaning to do so. If you try to do IF with a very high carb diet and IR it will feel harder.
For me, focusing on better health and wanting PCOS and other health symptoms to improve, not just weight, helped. Weight is a symptom of metabolic syndrome, as metabolic health improves, it adjusts. You need to find a why that is more important than eating carbs, they have addictive effects for many of us, for me, I used them as a crutch to reward, rev up, sedate if I felt anxious. I needed to find other ways to deal with feelings that did not center on food. It gets easier and easier over time. Dr. Rob Cywes vids on carb addiction and vulnerability to addictive behaviors really helped me view things differently.
This helped too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d7KkyXnyB4
r/intermittentfasting has a lot of support and people changing their health
Good luck!
Cutting sugar and starches and taking inositol helped me. Also some IF to regain insulin sensitivity. I used to get reactive hypos all the time, you want to prevent the initial spike that causes the drop. If you feel low, try a spoon of unsweetened peanut butter or almond butter rather than something sugary. I used to feel like I was having panic attacks, I do NOT miss those days. Good luck!
This book helped me too, reactive hypos are a category touched on
This book goes to this issue exactly, highly recommend. End Your Carb Confusion: A Simple Guide to Customize Your Carb Intake for Optimal Health: Westman, Dr. Eric, Berger MS CNS, Amy: 9781628604290: Amazon.com: Books
Highly recommend this book which focuses on this very topic. Hint, iit s individual to your body.
This book is focused on metabolic healing, reversing PCOS, diabetes, etc. and THEN what to do to keep the health and weight loss gains. Dr. Westman has been helping women with PCOS for decades, he published a study on PCOS way back in 2005, it is on Pubmed. There are a variety of LC plans and guidance on which is right for you at whcih point in your healing journey. His appoach is simple, you only track carbs, no apps or spreadsheets necesssary, it is very straightforword. And after better health and weigh loss is where gains often slip away, this approach gets your health problems reversed and keeps them gone. https://www.amazon.com/End-Your-Carb-Confusion-Customize/dp/1628604298
His co-author is Amy Berger who wrote this good article on PCOS. There are several case studies of women with PCOS as well as other metabolic disorders in the book, the healing and health they gain is very inspiring.
Tuit Nutrition: The PCOS Post: Hormonal Havoc From Hyperinsulinenia http://www.tuitnutrition.com/2019/06/pcos.html
Not only does metabolic healing reverse PCOS symptoms (and diabetes, NAFLD, mood disorders, etc) but doing so lessens our higher risk for other expressions of metabolic syndrome. Weight loss may achieve that but it is not certain. Healing metabolic health and lowering insulin means PCOS reversing and a lower risk of diabetes, NAFLD, heart disease, etc, and the symptom of poor metabolic health, excess weight, will also adjust. Metabolic syndrome is a dietary disease and changing the food is powerful. IF and weight training/resistance work are also very effective re: metabolic syndrome. IF works with any eating plan, there are lots of inspiring posts over at r/intermittentfasting, and many reversing their PCOS.
Best to all on your health journey!
Overweight and obesity linked to diverticulitis - Clinical Advisor
The doctor who wrote this book runs the Obesity Med Clinic at Duke. He has decades of experience helping women with PCOS. He has a very simple approach with a high success rate.
Hope you are feeling better soon! If met is never a good fit, berberine and inositol can have similar benefits with less gi impact. Good luck!
You might want to check this out, it is a no track approach. An image of the page he references can be found on Pinterest. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNZsfluh0Uo
Dr. Westman and Amy Berger have this new book out too, addresses how to lose weight and heal metabolic issues as well as, what comes after that?
https://www.amazon.com/End-Your-Carb-Confusion-Customize/dp/1628604298
That idea is powerful but his mantra of learning to love yourself as a flawed human and how to develop emotion IQ skills to manage feelings, cool out, destress, etc. changed my life and all my relationships. Learn from relapsing, he talks about that in the vid @ his own weight loss journey and use that knowledge to keep yourself healthy.
Love yourself as an ordinary flawed human, all of those deserve to be healthy.
It sucks to deal with that stuff but the payoff is transformative. Positive self talk, jouranling, therapy can all be helpful tools.
I am reading
It really goes into what comes after 20 g of carbs and he does TOTAL not net, and it is based on a host of factors from physical health to trigger foods for you. Spoiler: eating how you did when you got fat and or sick is not in any of his phased plans.
Food is so powerful and has documented effects on our brains. Check out the work of Dr. Georgia Ede, a psychiatrist at Harvard, for info on how she is using keto and carnivore to treat anxiety, depression, bipolar and schizophrenia. The high insulin levels and inflammation caused by carbage foods is not good for our brain. That is the carb monster talking, send him packing for your own peace. :)
Once you have the insights that alone changes your insights. A friend who went to a rebhab with trauma and addiction infomed education built in, said getting high was never really fun again. Keep making choices to take care of your health and it will get easier and easier over time. Belated birthday wishes!
I've read that the urine ketone test strips are not a good measure.
I've recently been reading Keto Clarity which has a lot of good information on how to measure.
But they basically say the most accurate way to measure ketones is a blood ketone meter or ketone breath analyzer. Ketones in the urine are inaccurate and could disappear after being keto-adapted for a while.
I bought the Precision Xtra Blood Glucose & Ketone Monitoring System and Ketonix to try it out for myself, so I could figure out my personal threshold. Haven't received them yet, so I can't tell you my results.
I really recommend that book though, it's a really good read so far. They went on to publish Keto Cookbook which I actually picked up first at Costco, and after reading that I picked up Keto Clarity on amazon.
First off, no need to stress yourself out about the complications. They aren't things which kick in immediately but rather come from years of being out of control. So, relax a bit and give yourself time to learn how to manage things. This is definitely one of those "it's a marathon and not a sprint" situations.
I'd suggest you take a look Dr. Bernstein's book: https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Bernsteins-Diabetes-Solution-Achieving/dp/0316182699
It was basically the original "self-help" book for diabetics. Not without controversy, though, as much of the diabetic establishment used to be against it. Things have definitely changed!
"Sugar surfing" at https://www.sugarsurfing.com/ is a more modern take. Amazon has the Kindle version for $7 or so. Also a good read.
Both these books are written by authors who actually have type 1 and live with it as we do. So they know.
As for your own situation, I presume you are keeping a log of blood sugar tests. If not, that is the first step. It is also helpful for you to record what you ate when and what insulin you've taken. Charting it out will.definitely be a great aid for you to self-diagnose the issue.
I suspect you may be having a dawn phenomenon issue. Do some reading up and investigation on that as a place to start.
I am a huge fan of Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, it's less than $20 on amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Bernsteins-Diabetes-Solution-Achieving/dp/0316182699
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He has a whole bunch of free educational youtube videos on his channel too.
Just found his book on Amazon and downloading now.
Just in case anyone sees this article in the future, here is the link:
Agree, I do LCHF/Bernstein/keto diet, HbA1c dropped from about 8 to 5.8. try it.
https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Bernsteins-Diabetes-Solution-Achieving/dp/0316182699
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The best thing your mom can do is self educate - learn as much about the current information as she can. Knowing how diet can help control T2D is such valuable information.
Here is a really good book, written by a medical doctor who is now in his 80's and has been a diabetic since his teens. https://www.amazon.ca/Dr-Bernsteins-Diabetes-Solution-Achieving/dp/0316182699 I think this is a good place to start. He also has a web site with lots of video lectures on various topics for both T1 & 2D . Also, I have found trying to find ready-made Low Carb/Keto/Diabetic premade food was hard to find and VERY expensive. It is not that hard to make great food at home that is based on whole food and is high in nutritional value. Now that she is a T2D she must change her lifestyle and relationship with food to live a healthy and complications free life. I have now been on a full keto diet for 4 years and my T2D is totally under control - with NO MEDS. I was taking 3 kinds of meds before changing my diet. Here is my playlist of Keto foods that have keept my BS in the very healthy normal range. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWxb2cfHHa24T7pXv6ssnDw/playlists
If you want to help your mom, the best thing is to learn with her about T2D and how a very low carb diet can make a huge difference. Supporting her journey will encourage her and the support is so appreciated (I love that my family are 100% helping keep to my keto lifestyle- they see how much it helped me)> Let me just complement you – you are amazing for wanting to do this for your mom. Best of luck to her and may she get her T2d UNDER CONTROLE!
Hope this helps. CHeers
Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution. My library carries it, so you could check there, but it's a great reference. Worth having, IMO.
Keto will drop your blood sugar, but if you drop your insulin to match, it'll work perfectly. Ideally, you can get your doc to work with you on this.
Get a copy of Dr. Bernstein's book. He's a T1 who went back to school as an adult to get his MD specifically to help him treat his own disease. His practice is, I believe, entirely related to glucose control.
There's also a great post from Peter Attia here, and again he's an MD, and researching this stuff is his area of expertise.
There are a number of T1 diabetics on this site who'll answer you, I'm sure, and who are finding real success using keto to help keep their bg under control.
Well if you’d like to live, you will explore eating a new way.
How did the approach recommended by Dr Barnard sound to you?
His book is $8 on Kindle thru Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Neal-Barnards-Program-Reversing-Diabetes/dp/1594868107
I read some comments about Dr Bernstein’s book Diabetes Solution. I listened to the audiobook and it greatly helped my understanding.
It covers among a raft of things, diabetes and gastroparesis. There’s a whole chapter on gastroparesis. He also does a monthly AMA. Could be worth checking out.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Dr-Bernsteins-Diabetes-Solution-Achieving/dp/0316182699
I'd dispute that the results in this scenario between type 1 and type 2 would be much different. In both cases blood sugar is only raised by your body converting food to sugar, the only difference is the type of deficiency that keeps your body from converting that sugar into energy. So if you're not eating things that your body can turn into sugar, it isn't going to raise your blood sugar. If you'd like to look into it more, read Dr. Bernstein's book on the subject.