Our October Group Meeting

We normally have our meeting on Saturday, but because many would be attending a funeral for a non-diabetic friend, we held the meeting Friday evening. Because of this, we were without a program, as Beverly was to speak to us. We were just happy to have the extra time to answer questions from our members.

Jennifer started the questions by asking why so many of us used a low carb/high fat meal plan. Allen answered that by saying this helped us keep our blood glucose levels at levels we were happy with and for those of us on insulin, it meant that the lower levels of insulin were needed with less chance of hypoglycemia.

Barry added that while this was good, eating whatever we wanted and covering it with insulin, generally meant weight gain and no chance of reducing the gain. Sue said this why she had suggested asking the members as she knew they could explain it in ways she had not thought about and even tried since she was not on any medications.

Sue continued that those on oral medications could also benefit because it would mean that the level of medication could be held to lower levels and not needing to add other medications as the CDE had told them to do. At this, her brother Ben said that dietitians would give the same advice of eating more carbohydrates and then talking to the doctor about adding medications if the blood glucose levels became elevated.

Jennifer said she had tried low carb/high fat for a couple of weeks and was always hungry. Barry said that some people could try a low carb/high fat meal plan for a month before the carving for food subsided.  He asked Jennifer how many carbs she was eating per day. Jennifer said about 100 grams per day with most carbs eaten at the evening meal. Barry said that might be part of the problem. He said that either eating the same number at each meal or doing like Doctor Bernstein suggests using a ratio of 6-12-12 is more conducive to reducing hunger.

This brought more questions and some of the new members asking questions of why most of us consumed less than 80 grams of carbs. When they discovered that most of us were at 50 grams or less, many were surprised and wondered what we did when our weight reached our goal and we were still eating so few carbs. Allen said that normally when we reach our ideal weight, up to a pound or two under, we normally stop losing weight and maintain the ideal weight. He said that is what happened to him and he asked Barry and Ben and they confirmed this. Even Sue said that she and her husband had no more weight loss.

Tim said that even he had no additional weight loss after reaching his ideal weight. Now more were asking questions and saying that the dietitians they had seen were promoting a minimum of 45 grams of carbohydrates per meal up to 70 grams per meal. Tim quietly stated that is one reason we will have Suzanne in to talk to you for our next meeting as this is what we have discovered does not work for us and caused our A1c to rise. Jerry said he could confirm this and briefly told them why he is now divorced from his former wife, a dietitian.

Jerry said that Suzanne is a nutritionist and would work with the level of carbohydrates they wanted and would try to balance the meal plan for the day. Tim explained that both Beverly and Suzanne were relatives of mine and were well received by the group. Rose and Brenda confirmed this and Brenda said one of her daughters was also a nutritionist, but did not have her doctorate as my relative had. Brenda also stated that many of the dietitians do not even have a masters degree.

At the end of an hour, Tim said the meeting was over, but everyone wanted to talk longer and about an hour later cleanup was done and everyone left.