Lessons for People New to Type 2 Diabetes, Part 4

If you are new to diabetes, have you demolished the panic panel yet? Many people new to type 2 diabetes have panicked and delayed their acceptance for a longer period. In this blog, I will focus on food plans and try to suggest something that will help you in finding a food plan that will work for you.

An important lesson you need to learn is – just because another person with type 2 diabetes can do something and have good results – does not mean that it will work for you. This does not mean that you give up. This tells you that your diabetes is further or less advanced than it is for the other person and your body reacts differently than their body does. Do not forget this! There is not a one-size-fits-all solution for you! Yes, many doctors, dietitians, and even some nutritionists operate in this mode. This happens because they don't know how to properly assess patients and adapt something for them on an individual basis.

Something that was published recently on Health Central by Gretchen Becker might help in getting started. Her book is an excellent read and I refer to it more than I thought. Information - The First Year - Type 2 Diabetes, New York, Marlow & Company, 312 pages, by Gretchen Becker. I discovered this book within a month of diagnosis. It gave me information that I was not receiving from my doctor. Gretchen has type 2 diabetes and she gives the best definitions and reasons for controlling diabetes in non-technical language. Look for the Second Edition.

The other information that should be absorbed is on this site. Then down the page to the horizontal bar that has the following – Home, Diabetes Basics, Food, etc. in the bar. Select Food, explore, and read all you can as David writes a lot about diabetes. The only item that I have reservations about is the Glycemic Index. It was developed using healthy individuals and not people with diabetes. I use it as a guide and then let my meter tell me if a food item is one that I can eat, if I need to limit it, or eliminate it from my food plan. I encourage you to read as much of David Mendosa's website as you can.

I do encourage you to consider a food plan that is low carbohydrate, medium to high fat, and medium protein. All the experts are still pushing low carbohydrate, low fat, and more protein. Many are still concerned about saturated fat, but it can be consumed and the prior study by Ancel Keys has been shown to be false and more doctors are starting to see this.

Another problem for dietary advice is our own U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The congressional mandate that created the Dietary Guidelines Advisory has been over stepping the boundaries and created the climate of obesity and increase in other diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. The chart below displays this rather well.

 

The Healthy Nation Coalition has some great points on nutrition and is attempting to obtain information on whom and how policy decisions are made.

Please be careful of many food plans that government agencies and many registered dietitians promote. In general they will tell you that you need the carbohydrates and whole grains for your brain and that you will miss too many nutrients if you don't follow their advice. I have found that most of the nutrients are available in other foods without the added carbohydrates. Learn what works for you and not the mandates of others. If you can adapt their high carbohydrate meals to a level that your meter says fits you and your goals, then you have accomplished your needs and goals.

Lessons for People New to Type 2 Diabetes, Part 3

When friends say they will help pull information together for something, I did not realize how thorough they would be. I was intending to make this blog about food plans, but they changed my mind. They feel that testing should be first and before that, care of testing supplies and washing and care of hands prior to testing. On this, I will agree.

Hand care is often overlooked for people new to diabetes. Some of this is because many doctors will not tell newly diagnosed patients about testing and therefore say nothing about hand care. Why do doctors go this far to do harm to patients. It has been said and I have read some articles that the doctors honestly say they say nothing about testing because they are concerned about the patients being frightened by the results and that they will not understand what the readings mean. Some even say they don't have the programs to read the meters and just feel that there is no need. This sounds like they were educated by Dr. RobertRatner, chief scientific and medical officer for the ADA that says, “Many people with type 2 diabetes who are on medications don't need to do home glucose monitoring at all." This means that their patients are operating in the blind and have no means to manage their diabetes.

This is one reason that I encourage patients that tell me this to find a doctor that will see to it they have testing supplies and attempt to teach them a few reasons for testing. This brings up another topic that I admit should not happen, but I see this all too often. The patient says they are testing for the doctor at the doctor's request. When you ask if the doctor looks at their meter, pulls the readings from the meter, or reads the log they maintain, I get blank looks and maybe a question about firewood needs. Blood glucose logs, food logs, and health logs mean nothing to them.  Yes, I become very frustrated, but I try to educate them if they will listen, many won't.

I know the people in our community diabetes support groups read the instructions that come with their testing supplies and medications. This is a topic that a few of them are getting tired of hearing, but every time someone gets caught not paying attention, they hear about it from every member. Should we be this aggressive? We think so and are conscious of the money we may save our friend. When we see people testing in full sun and not protecting their test strips, we have to wonder if they really care about their health. For many of the common errors please read thisabout user errors in blood glucose testing.

Another blog that anyone interested in managing diabetes may find helpful is this on what ignorance does for you. And then this blog could give you some pointers to learn about obtaining testing supplies and what to expect when you are newly diagnosed. Always consider checking out the colored links is each of the blogs for more information that may lead to better understanding of why I and my support group friends feel these blogs are important.

I will attempt to provide links that will help and I do review to make sure they are applicable for newly diagnosed people with type 2 diabetes. To be honest, I knew I had written quite a few blogs, but did not realize that so many were applicable for the newly diagnosed. Since they are helping me, I send them a copy of the completed blog and they are reviewing them. They are suggesting more links, but finally admitted that too many are not productive.