[cityslicker86]

Originally Posted by GTO

- Zero or low carb food

- Almost daily exercise. Only day I don't is on break / rest days

I'm curious about the low-carb bit. What have you done about roti and rice? Have you stopped consuming them or replaced them with healthier alternatives such as millet etc.? Also, and specifically, what's the base in your keto pizza?

Further, what kind of exercise do you do?

Thanks!

[nibedk]

Originally Posted by sukhbirST

I am 57 and from my own experince feel that beakfast is must. Such long breaks are Ok when you are young but later as you approach 50 better to have breakfast but light lunch. I used to skip breakfast whilst in the Navy, as it used to be very oily/fried but changed after medical advise in 40s.

The term breakfast itself means breaking the fast. In an ideal world one needs to have the last meal before sunset and break the fast again post sunrise. Its better to align to circadian rhythm. We humans have evolved to focus and chase career, money and everything else but health. Very difficult to align to the 24 hour cycle that human bodies are meant to be aligned to in today's age. But yes one can be try to be as close to it.

As one ages with more experiecne, better time management we can learn to focus more on health without actually sacrificing on the rest.

[GTO]

Originally Posted by cityslicker86

I'm curious about the low-carb bit. What have you done about roti and rice? Have you stopped consuming them or replaced them with healthier alternatives such as millet etc.? Also, and specifically, what's the base in your keto pizza?

The Keto world (Keto snacks, meals & restaurants in India (including low-carb stuff)) is at your fingertips now . I get Keto pizza base from YoDeli. It's super yum! Never been a rice lover, but I do have Keto chapatis with lunch. The Keto atta we use is from https://lofoods.fit/ or Ketofy.

I know it works because my post-fasting sugar test was after 3 Keto chapatis = 86 (test results in my previous post) .

I alternate between keto chapatis & high protein khakra which we source locally.

Further, what kind of exercise do you do?

Alternate days between cardio (30 minutes cycle, 45 minutes treadmill) & weight training. Am thinking of moving from weight training to yoga or swimming because I've gotten bored of doing the same exercises, and have been suffering injuries here & there.

Originally Posted by HYDRAVI

I can try for 12 hours to start with. whether 16-17 hours like what GTO practicess who is the leader in cars now leader here also will be advisable in my case as I need coffee for my early morning walk.

You can have coffee as long as it's black! I have 3 cups during my intermittent fasting. Look up our weight loss thread (The Weight Loss Thread); you'll see many BHPians posting on how IF changed their life.

[RGK]

Originally Posted by GTO

I alternate between keto chapatis & high protein khakra which we source locally.

I believe that you follow the LCHF diet. No doubt this is one of the best method for preventing diabetes.

Many claim that intermittent fasting is hazardous, but my wife often observes a 16-hour fast the following day, especially after a cheat day (eg: a marriage reception) and her insulin level is under control.

For beginners, start by serving only vegetables, paneer for dinner instead of potatoes, sugar, all varieties of maida, wheat flour, milk, and other carbohydrates. Afterward, apply this to your other meals.

One of the best LCHF doctors in Chennai has successfully used Keto to treat diabetes and hypertension.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Arsenic

Prevention techniques for Type 2 Diabetes (Type 1 can't be prevented) include:

• Eat healthier food

My list of healthy food may not be 'healthy' for the next person. Different people understand 'healthy' differently. Are fruits & fruit juice healthy? Are cereals with high fiber content healthy? Both of these are unhealthy when it comes to diabetes.
Hence we need to define 'healthy food' in the current context. Diabetes is a disease where the body is unable to dispose of glucose in the blood. The primary source of glucose is carbohydrates.

The solution is, you have to eat carbs in the same or less quantity as your body can *process*. Note that typically, the capacity of the body to process glucose falls as you age. This varies from individual to individual. (there are exceptions like some unfit individuals, who possess the power to process any amount of glucose even in old age).

If it cannot be controlled with varying carb-diet, the alternate solution for excess glucose in the blood is to take medicine and ensure the excess glucose the body cannot process, is disposed of. How to know if my blood has excess glucose or not? Here are a couple of ways:
1) Use CGM, the popular one being https://www.freestyle.abbott/us-en/what-is-cgm.html
2) Blood Glucose test (common tests being FBS, PPBS, HbA1c)

Here is my recommendation. Get FBS & PPBS done if they are in the normal range, you can forget about diabetes and plan for another test after 6 months or a year (depending on your age).
If the FBS & PPBS are out of range or near out of range, opt for CGM, monitor your diet, and then adjust your food intake so that glucose is within the range most of the time.

Originally Posted by NPV

Get your diet under control and you can focus on exercise next.
...

While the advice related to carbs is relevant, other suggestions are generic, given as standard practice, and not specific to diabetes. For instance exercise. While exercise helps in overall body fitness, it helps diabetes in 2 ways:
* Spend energy and use up glucose in the blood.
* Hope to simulate body insulin production.
Both of these have a minuscule impact on diabetes.
Also alcohol. Some alcoholic drinks have high carbs content and those can be avoided by those looking to reduce carb content in their diet. There are many drinks that have low carb content. Those don't affect diabetes condition.

The guideline is both food & drinks are to be consumed in moderation, which means at the quantity level the body can process.

Another silent killer is 'stress', which most won't realize even when they are in. The body deteriorates when under stress and affects all aspects of both physical & mental health.

Note to people with diabetes: Good news is that there are plenty of food options that are tasty and won't spike glucose levels. The entire soup, salad, starters, and gravy section in the menu in general have low carbs.
Avoid/reduce/limit rice, wheat, ragi, maize-based dishes, entire bakery items - bread, cakes, puffs, and direct sugar items like ice cream, and sweets.

I mention these in the context of generally available food. There are customized foods where the cereals/sugar are replaced with low-carb options. Those benefit as well.

Originally Posted by autobahnjpr

Had I listened to the doctor and started medicine, I would have been on them for the whole life.

Doctors give medicine because the general population are unable to change their diet. Good that you were able to control with reducing carb-intake.

Originally Posted by autobahnjpr

One home remedy I have used and you may practice

Home remedies give mental peace. But they won't work in reducing blood glucose level.

Originally Posted by autobahnjpr

Also, I have seen a direct co-relation between sugar levels and levels of vitamin D3. If you have low D3 value, it is likely that you will have higher sugar levels. Just by working on D3 levels, you can regulate the sugar levels.

Like any mineral or vitamin, the D3 level must also be within the limit. There is no correlation between diabetes and any vitamin level.

[autobahnjpr]

My test results showed high blood sugar levels and high value of HbA1c few year back. The doctor who ordered the test, on seeing the result wrote a long list of medicines and big list of no-no foods. I was appalled as I had been an active sportsperson but over years got out of the habit of daily exercise.

I quit sugar immediately and changed my life style completely. I started daily running, gym, diet control and some home remedies too. Within 2 months, my results came back to normal levels. Had I listened to the doctor and started medicine, I would have been on them for the whole life.

One home remedy I have used and you may practice if you like - take about a kg of peeled raw bitter gourd (karela in Hindi) and put it in a pan or bucket. Then crush them with both your naked feed (like you crush grapes in wine making) such that you can feel the juice coming out of the bitter gourd through your feet skin. Keep doing it till they are completely crushed and out of juice or you feel the bitterness in the middle of your tongue. Do it once a month or so if you are having high sugar levels and want to control it. Initially, it took time for me to feel the bitterness but next time it was very quick indicating levels were back to normal (later confirmed by tests).

Also, you can take little cinnamon in the morning on empty stomach to regulate sugar levels.

Also, I have seen a direct co-relation between sugar levels and levels of vitamin D3. If you have low D3 value, it is likely that you will have higher sugar levels. Just by working on D3 levels, you can regulate the sugar levels.

It is not a disease but a warning by the body to bring order to your lifestyle.

[MadScientist468]

Thank you everyone for sharing their personal stories and also how they tried to beat it.

I’d recommend everyone to read a book called “The Diabetes Code” where Dr Jason Fung explains Diabetes in a very nontechnical language.

Also metformin just crams more glucose into body cells and tricks the routine tests that one’s blood sugar content is low. It also tries to cram glucose into cells that doesn’t need high glucose as in adult bones. That’s why joint pains start popping up.

Metformin also blocks Vit B12 absorption from gut and especially in vegetarians it causes separate headaches on its own. Also metformin is not regulated in India as seriously as in US or EU and may also contain cancer causing nitroso impurities. So try to get off metformin ASAP.

Best way to beat it is watching calorie intake, avoiding carbs, having healthy weight and intermittent fasting (full fasting on days when possible) thereby giving body enough time to burn excess glucose in the body.

[bbhartia]

I've been on the journey and gotten from a HBA1C of 9.1 to 6.5 which is heavily diabetic to being borderline

Some tips

1 morning walk
2 16 minute walk post lunch
3 30 minutes walk post dinner
4 start every meal with a salad
5 avoid everything that has sugar
6 control alcohol to once a week and choose salads to go along with it

Salad is defined as cucumber tomato radish carrots etc without dressing and salt

This change has gotten me from 1100 mg og diabetes medicine to 50 mg a day.

Hope this might help someone hence posting it

[NPV]

Originally Posted by RGK

One of the best LCHF doctors in Chennai has successfully used Keto to treat diabetes and hypertension.

I think you are referring to Dr Vijayraghavan in Chennai, he has had lot of success treating patients with diet programmes to reverse diabetes. Another doctor I have read about is Roshani Sanghani who is based out of Mumbai and her clinic also offers diet based diabetes reversal programmes.

Diet Doctor channel is a great resource on YouTube for anything related to Type 2 Diabetes and other related topics.
Also, Dr Benjamin Bikman, a Bio medical scientist has some excellent videos on YouTube where he talk in depth about Insulin Resistance and Low Carb diet.

Some good reads are:
Good Calories, Bad Calories - Gary Taubes
The Obesity Code - Dr Jason Fung
The Diabetes Code - Dr Jason Fung
Why we get sick - Dr Benjamin Bikman

[ashokabs]

Very informative indeed. I am glad to see that most replies are not trumpeting the facts that the pharmaceutical industry is usually pushing. Type 2 diabetes can be managed by medication. Type 1 diabetes has to be treated by using Insulin. There is no cure and only management is through proper use of Insulin. The body does not produce Insulin. As rightly pointed out each person is different and has to learn to measure blood glucose and then tailor the Insulin dose.

In the case of Type 2 diabetes it is a curable problem especially in the initial stages. Popular perception is that it is manageable with medication. That is what the pharma industry wants as it will then be able to profit from a continuous supply of medication. However, it is abundantly established that it is a lifestyle illness which can only be cured by making lifestyle changes. These have been amply listed by others so I am not repeating them. The two pillars of the cure are low carbohydrate consumption and exercise.

Very simply Type 2 diabetes is a problem of excess Insulin in the body. Carbohydrates cause a much larger demand for Insulin than fat and protein. Hence, reducing Carbs can gradually bring down the Insulin level to normal. It is being postulated that the liver is unable to reduce the insulin in the body and this results in Type 2 diabetes. Hence, to support this function of the liver we need to reduce the Insulin generation in the body by removing Carbs from the diet. In this way Type 2 diabetes can be 'controlled'.

I have had pre-diabetes for over 15 years. My father's family has a history of diabetes. My brother and sister have Type 2 diabetes. I had earlier controlled it by reducing sugar consumption and increasing exercise. Hence, my HbA1C never went above 5.6 or 5.7 for years. However, once I read about Carbs being the main culprit I gave up chapatis, rice and bread along with many other cereals that are high in Carbs. Over a period of 6 months I was able to bring my fasting blood glucose from about 115 to 120 to 95-100. It sure works and giving up these cereals was only a problem for 2 weeks or so. Now I don't miss them!

I walk many kms daily, play golf 3 times a week and do regular exercising. By the way I am now 77 years old. There is hope for everyone on Type 2 diabetes.

[Naetik30]

Hi All. I am always surprised with Team-BHP, you have something on your mind for a few days and boom an encyclopedia like-post appears.

So, in Feb 2022, my entire family had a viral fever. Not sure if it was covid, but we all were fine after 2-3 days.

In March 2022 I got myself some blood tests as everyone was talking about post covid diabetes. And I was surprised to find my Hba1c was at 6.2. My fasting and post parandial blood sugar was normal (in 80s range).

Thats when I started on intermittent fasting based on guidance again from team-bhp experts. Since March, we changed rice based foods to millet based. So basically, jowar, bajra and quinoa dosa for morning and night. With about 1 cup for white rice for lunch. I added some more fruits, but veggie intake was medium. Did nt fully stop on sugars and did have a lot of outside food and continued with bakery + fast food.

I repeated the tests in Dec 2022, my Hba1c was 6.2 and my fasting blood glucose was normal (84).

In December 2022, I was on a trip to Goa and binged on ice-creams and sweets. Came back and got my tests again in jan 2023 and my Hba1c had climbed to 6.3 and my fasting glucose was at 100. This was the first time, I had seen my fasting glucose hit 100. But my post parandial was 71. And that is when *it hit the fan.

Completely changed my diet and started eating more veggies. Met with a diabetician last week. He advised lifestyle changes (diet + exercise). Trying my best to stick to the changes now and I am a lot determined this time.
He also said that a person is considered a diabetic if 2 out of 3 in Fasting, post parandial, Hba1c are in diabetic range.

My questions -
1. Why was my fasting glucose at 100 and my post parandial (taken 1.5 hours post meal) at 71. I mean how was the fasting higher than post parandial?

2. Is fasting glucose and plasma glucose tests the same? Or are they different? Is one better measure than the other?

3. Will better diet control and exercise + reduced carbs help with reducing my Hba1c or is this a futile endeavor and I should get my mind ready to be a diabetic in the future.

Family history:
1. My maternal uncle was diagnosed with type2 diabetes 3 years back.
2. My mom has been diagnosed as diabetic and on medication since last month.

[RGK]

Originally Posted by NPV

I think you are referring to Dr Vijayraghavan in Chennai, he has had lot of success treating patients with diet programmes to reverse diabetes. Another doctor I have read about is Roshani Sanghani who is based out of Mumbai

You're exactly right. If a patient does not adhere to the LCHF, he declines to accept them. A few of my cousins who followed his eating plan began to recover from diabetes.

Shashikant, one of my acquaintances, is situated in Mumbai and has begun offering online counselling on this.

Will go through your videos.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Naetik30

My questions -
1. Why was my fasting glucose at 100 and my post parandial (taken 1.5 hours post meal) at 71. I mean how was the fasting higher than post parandial?

It depends on many factors - what you had for dinner, how long were you in fasting. There could be many reasons. I will offer one.
When you are fasting, if the body detects low glucose, it releases glucose into the bloodstream. That was around the time your sample was taken.
What happened can be found if you had CGM. But that's overkill. As per current standards, 100 FBS is normal.

PPBS of 71 is excellent. This means your metabolism (on what you ate 2 hours prior) & body's capacity to maintain blood glucose is very good.

3. Will better diet control and exercise + reduced carbs help with reducing my Hba1c or is this a futile endeavor and I should get my mind ready to be a diabetic in the future.

Reducing carbs will help. Note that HbA1c is an average of 3 months. You can follow your diet + fitness for 3 months and then test again.

Family history:

Family history matters if you follow your family's food & fitness lifestyle.

[Naetik30]

Originally Posted by msdivy

It depends on many factors - what you had for dinner, how long were you in fasting. There could be many reasons. I will offer one.
When you are fasting, if the body detects low glucose, it releases glucose into the bloodstream. That was around the time your sample was taken.
What happened can be found if you had CGM. But that's overkill. 100 is normal.

Reducing carbs will help. Note that HbA1c is an average of 3 months. You can follow your diet + fitness for 3 moths and then test again.

Family history matters if you follow your family's food & fitness lifestyle.

I was fasting for about 13hours at the time of sample collection. Will redo the tests after 3 months and check.

Some more additional queries on diet
Note: I am 86kg/5'9". My ideal weight is 75kg and targeting that in 2023.
-
1. I read somewhere that 25% of your daily calories should be carbs. But I a finding it difficult to reduce below 50%. Even on days I take mostly protein, carbs still take up about 50%. Is there any way around this? Even most vegetables and fruits end up having more carbs.

2. Is kelloggs muesli (no added sugar) 40g + half cup milk per day ok? This is the only milk I take.

3. Is curd good or bad for pre-diabetes? Can I take 1 or two cups of curd per day? I keep seeing conflicting answers to this. This is a good source of protein but not sure if I can have 2 cups per day.

4. My dietician asked me to skip green tea and have black tea instead. Any reason for this?

5. Can I have 2 fruits per day (150g pear + 150g of grapes, etc)? Or should it be only one fruit of 150 per day.

[the_skyliner]

Originally Posted by HYDRAVI

I was not careful in food intake in the first 18 years . Now I do excersie control on my food. But when I feel hungry I do not say no. I do not know whether intermittent fasting will help at this age. SOMEONE CAN ADVISE ON THIS. so that my medication can come down.

I can try for 12 hours to start with. whether 16-17 hours like what GTO practices who is the leader in cars now leader here also will be advisable in my case as I need coffee for my early morning walk. May be I can skip breakfast and can have brunch at 11am

I do feel hungry mostly in the morning and not so in the night. Insulin was tried once but it did not suit me and sugar levels went up.

MY MIL started IF 3 years ago after observing me doing it for a year. She decided to try it and started with 14h fast every day (skipping breakfast). Prior to starting IF, her BP used to be always out of control and also sugar levels used to be unpredictable though not beyond 160 (fasting).

IF brought her BP down to normal levels with minimum medication and her sugar level is now more stable at 130-140. She is now fully committed to IF and does it everyday 14-16h even on weekends. She says she can not imagine her life without IF now.

Doctors advised her to not do IF without giving any logical reasoning. But she is going ahead with it. She is 67y.

Hope this helps.