Second April 2016 Meeting

Several of us had been asking for a second meeting as we were feeling pressure from some of the newer members to stop promoting our way of eating. Tim had been hesitant to do this, but then he had some of the same pressure and sent out an email saying that we would have a second meeting to discuss our way of eating.

Everyone was present when the meeting started and Tim said that several of the members were not happy with our promotion of low carb high fat (LCHF) way of eating. He asked them to speak up about why they were against this. The first person that spoke up said he could not believe in high fat and had problems with eating fat. He said for years we have been told fat was a factor in heart disease and he still believed this. Tim asked him if it was just his objection or if he had actual problems in eating fat. He answered it just his objection.

Next Tim asked the second person, the answer was the same, and that she did not believe fat was good for us. Then Tim asked for a show of hand of those that agreed with this. Five more hands were raised. Tim then asked Allen what he would do. Allen said that if they felt that way, they should consider forming their own support group and leaving our group. Jason made a motion stating, “That those that opposed our way of eating should form their own support group and leave our group.”

Brenda seconded the motion and Tim asked for a show of hands. Except for the seven, it was unanimous in agreement. Tim asked them to leave our group and do what they wanted. Allen added whether they formed a support group was up to them, but they were not welcome in our group for the pressure they caused for promoting their cause. Brenda added that we have found what works for us and that high fat did work for us and studies have proven that fat was not the cause of heart disease. They were free to believe what they wanted, but we would not change our way of eating for a few members.

Tim added this is our desire and we are in agreement and would not change. With that, Tim asked them to leave. Slowly they left and one asked if they changed their mind could they ask to be reinstated. The answer was almost in unison – NO! Tim asked if there was anyone else that wanted to leave and two more left. Now we were back under 50 members and Barry asked if we should consider not adding any new members for a few months. Allen said he had one possible new member, and I said I have a possible new member later this year. I added that this has caused us some concern and that we did not like the pressure being applied to us by those that left and I don't think any of us wanted this to happen again. I continued that I agreed with stopping membership, but that we should think about this until the next meeting.

Jason added that generally we have all agreed on many things and don't get upset when someone disagrees with us, but this time the pressure they put on us to change our way of eating was not something we could agree to and we knew what worked for us.

Tim said he thought we were just complaining until they started to put pressure on him to have a meeting and demand that we change our way of eating. Tim then surprised us when he said Greg, the leader of the other group, said he would not put up with members of our group putting pressure on them to change their way of eating. Tim said they were told to leave their members alone and they did not want to follow their recommendations.

A.J said that they were obviously on a mission to promote their way of eating and were not afraid to talk to anyone. Then Tim said that even the group that Dr. Tom leads was approached and they were told to stay away from their members. Tim said he was asked to do something, as they would not be too happy if this continued. Tim said he would notify the other groups of our action and who the people were so that they would not be involved with them. Tim then thanked us for our vote and severing ourselves from them.

Tim then added that we have never needed to take action like this before and did not like being this way, but we did not need to obtain a reputation that was not liked by other groups. Tim received a short applause for this and he asked if there was anything else that needed to be discussed. Sue said we did something tonight that needed to be done and she did not feel we could have done anything differently.

Tim said he had nothing else and that the meeting was over. Several of the newer members were asking questions and were surprised that we had taken this action. Allen explained that we have found that low carb high fat worked for us and with the help of the two nutritionists were able to balance our vitamin and mineral needs and even with several of us unable to absorb some nutrients from our food for which they recommended supplements. One of them asked why they had problems with increasing their fat intake and Jason suggested that they increase their salt intake for a few days and see if this didn't help.

Another asked what they should do when they reached their ideal weight. A.J said that you will stop losing weight. Tim said that is what happened for him and Brenda said she had stopped just a couple of pounds under her ideal weight and that they should not be concerned about changing what they were eating as they approach ideal weight. This seemed to satisfy most of them and we left.

Are You Getting These Nutrients? - Part 1

Tim called me the other day and asked if I had read this by Laura Dolson. I said I had and was working on a blog about it. He asked me how far I had gotten in my writing. I said I had started and been sidetracked by statins and was still reading about statins. He asked if he could stop by and I invited him.

After he arrived, he asked me to open my file, as he wanted to cover some of the points. After I had it opened, he asked me to scroll down to see the foods under each nutrient. Then he asked me to scroll to the bottom and asked my why vitamin B12 received so little attention. I said this is because this is for healthy people and not for people with diabetes and other chronic diseases that require addition of other nutrients.

This caused him to stop and think for some time. He finally agreed and asked if I was concerned about this. I said very concerned and had planned to try covering this in my writing. I don't know if I can make the case strong enough, but I planned on trying. He asked if I could send him a copy before it was published. I said yes, if he would send me any information he located that he felt was important enough. He said he would and he asked how many blogs I would have on this topic. I said that it looked like seven or more at present and if he found a lot more, then it could be even more.

We talked some more and he asked if I would accept information from others. I said I always have and if it was important enough, I would blog about it separately or combine it with other material I had on the topic. He asked if he could see some of the other topics I was considering writing about and had on my list. When I showed him, he was surprised and said he agreed, as there had been many topics of interest recently. I agreed and said it would be easier if my cataracts were not getting worse. This surprised him and he asked when this might happen. I said as soon as the eye surgeon felt comfortable that my eyelid was healed and would not cause possible infection that could compromise the surgery.

Then I had the thought of pulling some information from this source and this source plus some from here. Tim said he would pull together some of the material he was looking for and would email me copies. I told him not to make everything important and I would need some limits. He assured me that he would prioritize what he sent me on each nutrient.

Back to the topic as this is important for those of us eating low carb high fat. When we change our way of eating, we should be concerned about the nutrients we might be missing. Our support group is fortunate that we have two nutritionists that work with the way of eating we like. They check our foods and are looking for shortages that we may have. Other people need to either know nutrition or learn on their own.

As Tim said, vitamin B12 is often not given the attention it deserves and this is especially important for people with diabetes (PWD) on metformin and among the elderly. The elderly and PWD are especially vulnerable because as they age, many lose the ability to convert vitamin B12 from animal foods. Vitamin B12 is only found in liver, sardines, salmon, kidney, eggs, beef, and pork. There are no vegetable sources.

In the next blogs, I will cover Thiamin (vitamin B1), Folate (vitamin B9), Vitamin C, Magnesium, Iron, Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Calcium, Choline, Niacin, Vitamin A, and Zinc.

The first five nutrients above are nutrients to watch when you reduce carbohydrates, and the next three are ones that many people are often short of in what they eat. The last four are nutrients that people with chronic diseases are often short or deficient in their bodies, and vitamin B12 needs special consideration.

It is worth noting for vegetarians and vegan low-carbers, they are limiting their diets more and must be very conscious of the nutrients that may be omitting. This is especially true for vitamin B12, choline, niacin, vitamin A, and zinc.

An Insulin Pump Cannot Help a Bad Diet

I have had many arguments with people with type 1 diabetes with insulin pumps when they say they could eat what they wanted and bolus insulin accordingly. Does this work? I don't believe so. It doesn’t work with injections and I don't believe it works with pumps either. Matching insulin to carbs is nowhere near an exact science. This is true whether taking injections or pumping. There is huge margin for error. The error can come from inaccurate food labeling. It can come from “estimating” our carb intake. It can come from how our body is absorbing the insulin itself (what degree of resistance we have).

Not to mention that a carb is not a carb. Pumps take into consideration carb quantity, not carb quality. For instance, 30 grams of carbs from broccoli will act completely differently in the body than 30 grams of carbs from cake. However, in your pump, these will both receive the same insulin coverage.

Next, eating whatever we want and taking insulin to cover it will cause weight gain and increased insulin resistance, whether we are on injections or a pump. Also, most insulin users are unaware that a portion of the protein we eat turns into glucose as well, particularly if you are an adult and sedentary and are eating more protein than you need.

Therefore, a low carb high fat approach is really necessary to avoid complications with pump use. Eating less carbs, thereby using less insulin, will reduce the margin for errors. See Dr. Bernstein’s law of small numbers here. Choosing better quality carbohydrates like non-starchy vegetables and eliminating processed and refined carbs like sugar and all grains as well as even “real food” that is high glycemic, like starches and most fruit, will stabilize blood glucose levels.

Just remember, an insulin pump is a delivery device. While pumps are wonderfully convenient and can even decrease insulin usage, as well as reduce the number of needle sticks, they can’t work miracles. They can only do their best with what you give them to work with. Eating a healthy, whole food, low carb high fat way of eating with frequent blood glucose monitoring and adjusting as needed will help you get the most from your insulin pump.

Some blood glucose fluctuations are not caused by factors that can be prevented, like elevations during “growth spurts” in children, hormonal changes or other physiologic processes that cannot necessarily be prevented. Add to these stress, lack of sleep, infections, and other causes.

Yet with all this, most of the type 1 people I have met recently are convinced they can eat what they want and cover with insulin. They have refused to consider any other way even though several are gaining weight and a couple are way overweight.

Our honorary type 1 member knows how important this is and has been forced to keep quiet because other type 1's don't believe her and even ridicule her for the way she eats. When she was in high school and active in sports, she did eat more, but still tried to eat low carb high fat with extra protein. Now that she is in college and not active in sports, she has been more careful in her way of eating.

Our February '16 Meeting

Tim talked to me several times and I said he had the right to use whatever he needed from my blogs. When the meeting started on February 20, Tim took time to thank Sue, Brenda, and me for the discussion we had about a few of Sue and Bob's friends that were promoting gluten-free foods. He asked for a show of hands of people that did not know what gluten was. Seven hands were raised and Tim said not to be afraid to admit this, as most people may not know about gluten.

This caused three more people to raise their hands. Tim said that most of the longer term members knew about gluten and those that had been in the group from the start definitely knew about gluten, as this had been a topic of discussion many times. Gluten is the tough, viscid, nitrogenous substance remaining when the flour of wheat or other grains is washed to remove the starch. Tim said the wheat and other grains are the important words and they contain the gluten.

Since celiac disease is an autoimmune disease, it is generally the people with type 1 diabetes that develop celiac disease. There are a few other people that can develop celiac disease, but this would be a very small number and even smaller number that have type 2 diabetes, but it is possible.

Tim said some people with type 2 diabetes do develop an intolerance for gluten, and when this happens, not eating wheat or grain products can really help. As he was talking, Tim was rotating some slides and pausing when people were asking questions. Among the newer members, there were quite a few questions and Tim was taking time to answer every one. When he put the slide up with these statements, (Celiac disease is one of the most commonly misdiagnosed diseases by doctors. A doctor should monitor the diet in order to prevent complications. The diet will also help people with non-celiac gluten sensitivity.), this raised several questions.

Tim explained that many doctors don't think about autoimmune diseases and don't see celiac disease that often and many doctors never see a person with celiac disease.

Tim then started on gluten-free foods and that several people are presently promoting gluten-free as a weight loss diet. Yes, they're heavily promoting gluten-free and hoping to make a sale of their products. Tim called on Sue to explain what she had seen in products.

Sue said they had several cereals, pasta, and other products that were labeled gluten-free. Most of the other products could be found much cheaper in the grocery stores and wouldn't have the sugar added that their products included. All products were over-priced and had more sugar or fructose than comparable products. And they say this is a weight loss diet – right.

Tim stated this is what they are promoting and even some of the foods in the grocery store that claim to be gluten-free also have added sugar and high fructose corn syrup and this is why we don't recommend these products for people that have diabetes.

Then Tim showed his last slide, which said “LCHF.” He turned to me and asked what this meant. I said that it meant we did not eat high carb foods that included any grains and other foods heavy in starch. By doing this most of us would never have any problems with gluten and even is we were gluten sensitive, we did not need to worry, as we would be eating foods that did not contain any gluten. I finished by saying that the low carb, high fat way of eating was better than eating gluten-free foods.

Tim said this is correct and concludes my presentation. We will take time to answer more questions, but the meeting is over. Questions consumed the next thirty minutes and the members started leaving. When we finished cleaning, Tim stated that he could not believe people would try to promote gluten-free foods to people with type 2 diabetes. Sue said this is what her husband said and that is why they told them about LCHF way of eating which costs less and results in easier weight loss.

Have Registered Dietitians Lost Their Usefulness?

The registered dietitians in the United States are certainly following the rest of the world. In Australia and South Africa, dietitians have restrictions on what they may teach and it is not low-carb/high-fat. Many areas of the world have it worse than we do because we have free speech. Many countries do not have this guaranteed and people who oppose what the Dietetic Associations are promoting are being punished for their opposition.

We all remember what happened to the registered dietitian in Australia – she was terminated from her position and stripped of her title.

Dietitians globally have long sought to appropriate to themselves a monopoly on diet and nutrition advice. It’s as if they’ve always believed their degrees confer a divine right to tell others what to eat and drink and an omniscience by osmosis on optimum nutrition. Doctors have colluded by deferring to dietitians, and referring patients to them for weight loss, diabetes and other serious illness.

Government regulatory bodies globally, such as the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA), have effectively sanctioned dietitians’ stranglehold on dietary dogma and input into official dietary guidelines. These guidelines are still in place in SA, and have been shown to be without any scientific foundation whatsoever when they were unleashed on an unsuspecting public globally 40 years ago.

The dietary guidelines finally published by the USDA show that science takes a back seat to political policy. Read this by Adel Hite. It is a shame that science is ignored and that the same garbage is promoted as healthy, when we know that obesity is continuing to get worse because of these guidelines.

Then there’s the global phenomenon of ‘cozy relationships’ many dietitians and their associations have with the food and pharmaceutical industries, especially sugar, soft drink and cereal companies. Yes, the dietitians are proud of their conflicts of interest and promote what they are requested to promote.

The global dietitian mantra hasn’t helped its own cause with dogged adherence to the now thoroughly discredited diet-heart hypothesis, including the demonization of saturated fat and the belief that low-carb, high-fat (LCHF, aka Banting) diets are a danger to the public, especially children, and that sugar and soft drinks can be part of healthy, ‘balanced’ diets, despite growing and compelling scientific evidence to the contrary.

For those of us with diabetes, we need to bypass the dietitians and use our blood glucose meters to discover what works for us and what the dietitians cannot teach us.

Finally, I urge you to read the following reference.