So it's been established that I have to get tighter control of my diabetes. The importance of what goes into my body has never been greater, but how am I going to get the best bang for my buck?
If I were to follow the advice of Diabetes UK, I should be following the FSA's eatwell plate, which suggests that my carbohydrate intake should be around 50-60% of total consumption. Protein intake is around 15% and fat is kept 'low'. The eatwell plate has been around for a while and is apparently the healthy 'balanced' diet we should all be following.
Here's the thing though - theres alot of research that is showing the eatwell plate to be quite outdated, and actually talks of it having a negative effect on health. I'll end this post with a link to a study:
Arefhosseini et al (2009) Effect of advice to increase carbohydrate and reduce fat intake on dietary profile and plasma lipid concentrations in healthy post-menopausal women
The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of advice to increase carbohydrate intake to 50% of energy intake as part of advice to follow current dietary guidelines.
Twelve healthy post-menopausal women with an average age of 56 years (+/- 6.5 years) were advised to increse their carbohydrate intake to comply with the recommendations. Subjects were told to follow this diet for 4 weeks in a free-living situation. Fasting blood samples were obtained at baseline and after 1 and 4 weeks.
The results showed:
- a significant decrease in body mass index after 4 weeks (good)
- there was a significant increase in blood triglyceride concentrations after 1 week (bad)
- high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentration was significantly decreased after 1 and 4 weeks (bad)
This all points to the conclusion that in post-menopausal women, following the UK dietary guidelines resulted in changes to their blood lipid profiles that favoured an increased risk of coronary heart disease!
Now I wouldn't consider myself a post-menopausal woman, but the implications of this study are very interesting. In the following posts over the coming weeks, as I explain my ways of keeping tight glucose controls, I will provide more research backing up my methods. Just consider these results though - especially if you are in the subject population...
Until the next update...Paul x
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