ok, as I posted to onederland, I know there isn't good consensus on diet for diabetics in terms of calories, ratios of fat/carbs/proteins etc. But surely there must be some understanding that the closer to normal our blood sugars are, the better.
My administrator's husband, let's call him BOB, is diabetic, on insulin. He has had a foot ulcer not healing up for over 2 years. He has had 2 small amputations. He was on atkins for a while, and had good control of his sugars, and was healing some. He got very sick with an infection, cause unknown, (sugars went way out of control) and got into a new study. They took him off atkins, and had him in a "balanced" diet with over 250 g of carbs.
He is going to a foot clinic and his foot is healing, but his sugars have been totally out of control, despite following his diet and programmed insulin to a T. He has of course, gained back about 25 pounds to boot.
SO two weeks ago, he went back to Atkins. Ever since, his blood sugars are in much better control. No more spikes, his fasting today was 11, it hasn't been that low since going off Atkins!. (I know, thats still pretty high, but he is ecstatic.) He is planning now to go off induction and go to OWL, (so he will be getting more carbs again) but he keeps getting told how bad Atkins is for him!
IF (and its a big IF) atkin's could be a problems for him and cause kidney problems as his diabetic educator says, what about the problems (including kidney problems) that come with ridiculously high sugars and out of control sugars? The response to those problems was simply more and more insulin, to which he is getting more and more resistant!
ARGGGGhhhh, sometimes it seems common sense is gone. Why is there such resistance to at least lowering carbs? (I mean even to 200 g/day, or 1/3 of calories from carbs) but NOOOO. No matter how you play it, they do know that carbs are what raise the blood sugars right?
I truly believe this poor guy will finally get well this way. He felt well enough the other day to apply for (and get) a part time job, after being unable to work for 2 years. Yes, a week back on the diet and his depression lifted enough to apply for a job.
Ok, so maybe low carb is not be perfect diet for all diabetics, but when it works well, I don't see why they are discouraging this instead of celebrating his better glucose control.
ok, rant done.