To my shock, a year ago I was called by the surgery telling me that I had just become pre-diabetic. They had not notified me that during the last 5 years my b.s.l. had been slowly increasing. I dieted carefully and lost several kg, putting me in a perfect BMI range. Despite this, my latest measure still showed me as borderline pre-diabetic yet I do not need to lose weight. Exercise levels are fine so I am perplexed about my next attempt! Advice welcomed.

Hi astro, are you following the BSD and what attempts have you made to lower your bsl. People who are slim can still sufferer from what is known as TOFI – thin outside, fat inside. This is due to the visceral fat that surrounds your organs, particularly the liver and pancreas. Are you eating low carb and not just ‘diet’ style foods. Need more information before we can give any specific advice.

What exactly are you eating would be a good place to start – say a days menu. Are you logging and calculating carbs. Do you know what foods you should be avoiding. etc etc. Looking forward to hearing from you.

Hello
A year back I was told I was borderline pre-diabetic – in the middle of a birthday meal! Back at home I looked at the records and found a definite trend over 5 years which the surgery had not advised me about! We modified my diet significantly, even though it was already pretty good! During the next 3+ months I easily lost weight by simple occasional fasting, until I reached a BMI spot-on perfect. I expected that the next Hba1c measure would be perfect, but it was up 0.1 – a nasty shock considering our efforts.

The book was recommended by the surgery’s dietician nurse, but when I got it and read it, it was mostly designed for people needing to lose weight – which I do not need to do – as confirmed by the nurse because my BMI is perfect.

In addition, the book contradicts advice given to me by a cardiologist who has inserted 3 stents due to cholesterol deposits. So I am completely unable to proceed without medical advice because following the book goes against advice from the cardiologist.

That’s where I am now. We have modified my ‘diet’ to more closely match recommendations, but it is incompatible with medical advice …..
Lawrence

I can’t give you medical advice but, unless you know differently, cutting sugar, in the form carbohydrates, from your diet can’t do anybody any harm.

Carbs, bread, potatoes, pasta, rice cause the biggest blood sugar hikes. And your dietician.

I agree with all the above – and my diet is modified accordingly. The surgery is going to re-measure me in 3 months.
Lawrence

Hi Lawrence, knowing more about you and your medical problems is really helpful. For the problems you are experiencing there is no way I would advise you to go on this diet.

There are a couple of BUT’s, firstly the nurse in your medical practice recommended this diet. Secondly, as Verano says, all the diet asks to reduce your blood sugar levels is to cut back or cut out carbohydrates. I don’t know any doctor that will say you must eat potatoes or rice or pasta – they will make you ill.

I think what you are confused with is the low calorie HIGH FAT mantra for this diet. However, we don’t eat loads of fat or fatty foods, this is not Atkins Keto. When we say high fat we mean do not buy fake foods that claim to be low in fat or low in sugar because they are high in chemicals or other things that are not good for you. As an example low fat yoghurts need something to give it texture so they pad it out with rice flour – just another name for a carbohydrate. Low fat yoghurts contain as much sugar as half a can of coke i,e, 19g of sugar in yoghurt and 35g in a can of coke (17g in half a can). Next subject is butter. For years I swore by margerine but always had high cholesterol, when I went on this diet I switched to butter and my cholesterol dropped. Think about when you would use butter. On bread – we don’t eat bread, in mashed potatoes – we don’t eat potatoes. So we have already cut out where and when we will be using butter. In fact the only time I use butter is in cooking, like scrambled eggs or to finish off the basting of a nice lean steak. Margarine is full of chemicals like emuslifyers (otherwise known as glue) and trans-fats and higher in saturated fats than butter. Substitute with olive oil for cooking, that is very good for lowering cholesterol and heart health. Eggs, these have been proven NOT to increase cholesterol so are a good thing to include in your diet.

I hope that has shed some light on how we eat. However, if you have any doubts at all go back to your cardiologist but do explain the diet properly. It is more like a Mediterranean diet than a keto high fat diet.

This discussion has been very useful. 🙂 I am going to contact my cardiologist to discuss corrections to my diet in view of recommendations by the nurse that are seemingly partially contradictory. Either way – many thanks to all that have commented. I will report back when I have got a credible reply from the cardiologist. FWIW he really did know his stuff – but some of it might be out of date …..
Thanks
Lawrence

Lawrence what Sunshine-girl has said is just spot on. There are so many hidden sugars in ‘low fat’ yogurts etc. They have to add something to replace the fat to make food palatable!

It’s really important to look at the list of ingredients in foods and I’m sure, if you do, you will be shocked. An example that stunned me very recently was ‘ice cream’. I’d never really thought about it or looked at the ingredients, just assumed, very dangerous, that ice cream was made, more or less, with milk…. no! I used to buy a well known brand and the most ‘natural’ number 1 ingredient was ‘reconstituted skimmed milk’!

Just as a throw away but I have a friend who is a cardiologist who swore by the Atkins diet when it was first introduced! No idea what he thinks now.

Good luck with your quest to reduce your blood sugars.

Hi Astro-LH,
I’m sure somewhere in one of the books or websites there is an info sheet about the work of Professor Roy Taylor on reducing/reversing T2 diabetes. It’s designed specifically to show to healthcare professionals who maybe aren’t as up to date with the current research. Maybe that will help with persuading your dietician/GP
Well done on your progress – keep going.
SSB

Hi Astro-LH,
I agree that there is nothing about the diet that would be contrary to a heart-healthy way of eating. Lots of great suggestions here already. A few examples of meals I have had recently that are heart-healthy are: 1) egg and shredded cabbage fried in a bit of olive oil seasoned with a bit of salt and pepper, but I have also previously seasoned with a bit of ground ginger and soy sauce to give it an asian flair, 2) broccoli and chickpeas (garbanzos) with a bit of parmesan cheese melted on top 3) Greek giant beans in tomato sauce with plenty of basil and oregano 4) salmon patties (made from tinned salmon) with salad mix. I can’t see a cardiologist objecting to any of these meals.
Keep in mind as well, that although the cholesterol is a problem when it sticks to your artery walls and builds up to form a blockage, the reason that it starts to do that in the first place is because of damage to the artery walls from glycation which results from too much sugar.
Itermittent fasting can be helpful for losing visceral fat and promoting muscle building, and will also help to lower blood glucose over time.
Just some ideas that you might wish to discuss with your medical team.

Lawrence, most doctors are still out of date in their thinking. We cannot blame them for refusing to admit they have been wrong for so many years and to lose credence to the things they were taught. We can only hope that a new generation will be given access to the teachings of not only Michael Mosley, but also Prof Roy Taylor (I think you mentioned him in another post and he was Michaels inspiration for setting up his diets), also people like Ben Bikman, Jason Fung, Dr Unwin (of Newcastle) and so many others.