If you have experienced any or all of the following, please comment on whether you think these claims are true or not true?

Please only post based on personal experiences and avoid giving references or quoting studies, etc......

The point to this thread is to see how much variance we have in results with our experiences as we search for ways to control diabetes.....

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Claim # 1

We can increase insulin sensitivity, add healthy years to our lives, lower our insulin levels by:

eating a diet rich in vegetables

eating fish high in omega 3s

balancing that out with Vitamin E

eating monounsaturated fats like nuts and olive oil

getting the right amount and right kinds of protein

doing resistance training

Exercise is important because we increase blood flow in our body. Resistance training creates insulin sensitivity to that muscle.

As a general rule, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and brown rice are low on the glycemic index and help stabilize blood sugar. Cut out the white stuff - sugar, white flour, white potatoes and even white rice.

Claim #2

These are the right kind of proteins and we should eat from a variety of these sources:

Nuts, like Brazil nuts and Walnuts
Beans - (also a carb and an incomplete protein)
Grass-fed Beef (rich in Omega 3s too!)
Fish (rich in Omega 3s too!)
Chicken
Eggs - especially from Chickens fed a high Omega diet!
Yogurt & Kefir (adds calcium too!)
Milk and Cheese
Fermented soy products like Tempeh and Miso
Grains

Claim #3

When we take in an excess amount of protein, it will be converted to a carbohydrate and then stored as fat. Protein is not an efficient source of energy for our body. Energy should come from our stores of fat, not from the protein we eat.

How Much Protein Do We Actually Need? Only 15 - 20% of our daily calories should come from protein.

you third point is what i am confused about.
The Eades say that excess protein is excreted out of the body, that which is converted to glucose is made only enough for utilization in the body. Since body makes glucose as needed from protein. But i doubt it because if I eat too much protein , I feel sleepy. Thats my classic sign of insuline resistence.
If i feel sleepy i have consumed way too much of something.

Of course, No. 3 is true or there wouldn't be a protein bolus. Exercise increases insulin sensitivity. I don't agree that any kind of rice helps blood sugar control. Eating white rice is just like eating sugar for me. Eating fish and vegetables lowers my blood sugar (requires less insulin). I eat a diet higher in Omega 3s because that is how our paleo ancestors ate. Hunter/gatherers don't have diseases such as diabetes and their fats are higher in Omega 3s than people who eat a westernized diet high in grain-fed meat.

My understanding is you can convert about 50% of your dietary protein into glucose.

Protein is not an efficient source of energy for our body.
What's meant by efficient? If they mean your body has to work a bit to convert it to glucose (thermogenesis) then yeah, an IV of glucose syrup is your best bet.

I eat a lot less protein, especially from animal sources, then I used to eat. I've noticed that when my protein was about 25%, I could not lose weight and weight gain happened from time to time, even when my carbs were 60g or less per day.

Since I adjusted my proteins to about 15%, with about 50-60% from animal source and the rest from plant sources, I had a much easier time to lose weight and to maintain weight loss.

Also, when I adjusted my proteins to the lower levels, that is about the same time that I had much better BG readings.

Susan, about the white rice; claim number 1 says to cut it out, along with refined sugars, etc.... However, for me, a small amount of white rice doesn't trigger a spike in my BG readings, however, if I were to increase it to what most people would consider a normal serving of it, I also find it is about like eating pure sugar...

Nancy, I refrained from quoting my source for this information, thinking we could perhaps just talk about our personal experiences and see if it aligns up with what some experts claim, but I think you raised a good question about "what is the meaning of efficient", so I'll try to find out what was meant by that and post on it at a later time if I can find the answer to that.

Less animal fat/protein-hmm.
I haven't lost weight in a long time even though my calorie intake is small. Maybe I'll try that approach(if I can tolerate it).
I lost 45 pounds a few years ago doing Atkins,eating lots of meat/protein but that approach doesn't seem to work any more.
Even though my basic body profile looks okay(mainly because of my maniac exercise regimen),I would feel better about myself
if I lost 15 more pounds.
And so it goes...
Eddie

I wrote to the website to get a better understanding of what is meant by "proteins not being an efficient source of energy" and I'm waiting on their answer. Hopefully, they'll answer me..

I've been looking at diet differently lately. There are many people on these forums eating Atkins style who never become slim or even in the normal weight range. Either they are all lying or there is something about the way they are eating Atkins which doesn't work.

I decided to look at cultures who are naturally slim and free of lifestyle diseases. Not necessarily paleo and certainly not the way it is done here with high animal fat. I looked at the diets of contemporary foragers and they are high in vegetables and root vegetables, high in fiber (100 grams or more per day), lower in saturated fat (because game animals are naturally low in saturated fat), devoid of grains, high in Omega 3s from nuts, high in low-glycemic fruit (as wild fruit is not as sweet as our selectively-bred fruit). They also exercise a lot.

That is more what I'm aiming for in my diet.

My BG readings don't care how whole the grain is.

And to up from my hypos, pureed fruit is fab. How does that lie with with "low on the glycemic index"?

I know I've probably scared a few Atkins people by stating that my carbs are up to 40% of my diet, but most of my carbs are the high fiber stuff which mostly doesn't get digested.

Fruits should supposedly be avoided by diabetics, but since lowering my proteins and increasing my variety of fruits and vegetables to over 20 types of vegetables per day and 2 to 5 fruits per day, I can eat any of it without any problems.....

It depends on the fruit. Something like a strawberry is very low in both the glycemic index and glycemic load scales. I can eat lots of strawberries with little effect on my BGs. Something like a pineapple - well, I can't eat those.

The key to eating anything and having good control is to eat the higher GI food with some fat, protein and lots of fiber with it to create a low glycemic load in your stomach.

I suspect with fruit it depends on the fruit. If it has lots of fructose, that all gets processed in the liver and isn't going to raise BG, still you get enough fructose and you're going to accumulate a lot of visceral fat and all kinds of other issues. A little fruit, probably fine. I think people get too sucked into the GI index and don't realize that there are some things that have pretty numbers, but they do a number on the body. Like Agave syrup.

It does depend on the fruit, and I am experimenting with fat and fibre to lower the GI of the whole meal. I can pour cream on portion controlled rasberries, after a good dinner, and it is fine. I think some white wine knocked my post meal reading down the other day too. Does this count as low GI fruit?

Cajunboy invited comments about our experiences with the claims in his posts, and the comment about fruit there does not specify what fruit or format. I was just saying, in my experience the rise I can get from fruit puree is enough to fix a hypo. They are pear and apple purees...so now you can all scream YIKES at once. In puree form there is no fibre in the fruit either. I am still experimenting, but I am wondering if natural fructose hits me harder than sucrose does. So I was putting in my vote re the theory that fruit has a low GI, as claimed in the original post. Vote is