Type 1 Diabetes. My Nutrition from My Experience.

Thanks for joining me on today’s topic of Nutrition. My nutrition. What I’ve tried, experienced, learned from and have found to be the best way for ME. Like most people I’ve tried pretty much all the methods of dieting/eating that are around. My motivation most recently has fluctuated between dieting for fat loss and eating in a way that best helps to stabilise my BG (blood glucose). For me, both outcomes can best be achieved from a very low carb or ketogenic diet. Less carbs means I need to inject less insulin. To help you understand the role of insulin from a diabetic standpoint, insulin acts as a bridge to shuttle glucose (carbs) from my blood into my muscle and fat cells then locks them shut. The less carbohydrates I eat the less insulin I need. The less insulin I use the more stable and manageable my BG is. The more stable my BG the better I feel. More energy, less fatigue, less mood swings, less risk of hypos or hyper instances, less needles, improved long term health and wellbeing. I could go into this in so much more detail but the basics will do for now. And just to clarify, this is all from my personal experience. Rant alert!!! It really bugs me when people in the health/fitness/diet industry slag off low carb diets and mock people for following them. We’re all different and we all respond to differently to nutritional approaches. If you want to eat high carbs then bash on! I bloody love all carbs! They’re tasty, convenient, readily available and a great source of fuel. However they make me feel shit and make my daily life really bloody complicated!! And I know other diabetics and non diabetics experience the same. Just because someone tolerates them really well doesn’t mean they should be arrogant and naive enough to make carbs the king of the food industry and demean anyone who finds other approaches more beneficial. I hear people say all the time that you won’t burn more fat on a very low carb/ketogenic diet compared to equivalent calories on a higher carb diet. Now although this is strictly true there’s other factors to consider. When you almost eliminate this food group you most definitely reduce the temptation to over eat. Carbs are very easy to over eat. Personally I’ve never felt the urge to over consume fats and proteins. I’ve never binged on cheese, cream or avocado!😂 Cookies and cakes however.......🙈 Fats and proteins are also very satiating so reduce hunger and cravings. This for me makes it very easy to stick to a low calorie diet when required. Combine this with stable BG and it’s all win win for me on the very low carb front. Unfortunately this has been a constant battle for me over the years as our NHS likes to promote a higher carb, moderate protein and low fat approach. According to them I need carbs (absolute nonsense) so I should just take the insulin required to shuttle the carbs into my muscle and fat cells. We’re a little bit behind the times though compared to Canada, America, Australia etc who promote very low carb diets and even ketogenic diets to diabetic patients. Call me suspicious but if more diabetics in the UK followed this approach the pharmaceutical companies would make a considerably less amount of money! The NHS would have a lot less patients suffering from the complications of diabetes so less work for those at the top. Basically there would be a lot less money to be made from us!!!🤔🤔 Why would you eat more of the food that makes your body require more medication, when you could reduce the need for medication by employing nutritional strategies instead? I’ve NEVER managed to have good BG control when I eat any more than a small amount of carbs. I have however managed to maintain excellent BG control when I’ve follow a ketogenic approach to my diet. It’s a no brainier for me. I’m not saying it’s easy as I do love carbs. They’re social situation friendly. They taste good. But they make me unwell. They make fat loss almost impossible for me. They are the devil.👿 🙈 I do dance with the devil more than I feel I should but it always ends in disaster. I’m human.🤷🏼‍♀️ As I write this I’m in the process of going back to following a ketogenic approach. My motivation is health and happiness and generally feeling good on a daily basis. There’s nothing worse than checking your BG and getting crap results. Especially when you know how to improve the situation. There’s nothing worse than feeling like your body is running a marathon every day just to cope with something you’re putting into it and know you shouldn’t. It won’t be easy but my husband wants me to be around long enough to help him spend his pension, so I’ll give it my best shot!🤣🤣 If you’re in the same position as me I’d love to hear from you. Or if you know someone who is please pass this on. Diabetes is crap but nobody should struggle alone!!💉💙❤️