If you want to make yourself angry, or possibly nauseous, go to http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pu...ex.htm#starches. This is a site from the "educational" arm of the National Institutes of Health. There you can read this little gem, "Eat some starches at every meal. People might tell you not to eat starches, but that is not correct. Eating starches is healthy for everyone, including people with diabetes." They even have a little form with boxes, you copy these forms, and by filling in the boxes, you may find ways to increase your starch consumption, you know, meals you might have missed.Bah.

Gosh, it reads like it was written for a bunch of grade schoolers!

I especially like the part where you get to draw hands on the little clockfaces so you know when to eat your starches

From the site:

"What, when, and how much you eat all affect your blood glucose level.

You can keep your blood glucose at a healthy level if you
Eat about the same amount of food each day.
Eat at about the same times each day.
Take your medicines at the same times each day.
Exercise at the same times each day. "

This page is primarily for diabetics -- it can truly be a challenge to keep insulin/sugar in balance. Many diabetics do count carbs in a way similiar to what most of us do. And eating a bunch of starches by themselves is not good, hence the "have some with each meal". Balance is what the site seems to be promoting. Granted, to me, anything with that freakin' pyramid is suspect. Change comes slowly. Sigh.

Now...as for the grade schooler part. Have you ever seen a stroke patient or someone with diabetic retinopathy try to read tiny print?

badgoat

Hi badgoat,

it's not the size of the print that makes me chuckle, but the way they explain the disease management. I guess I would like to see a little better from the National Institutes of Health. It's almost so oversimplified that it can be misleading, and kind of patronizing, even though most (not all) of the principles are valid when applied correctly.

I'll admit it irritates me that my dad has bought into that "starches are good" bs that they advocate, he eats them, injects his insulin to make it all better, and thinks he's doing the right thing. He trusts the medical establishment (and publications like this) and isn't ready to embrace LC because they tell him it isn't a healthy diet! I don't push, I hope someday he'll see how much it's helping me, but realistically I expect that somewhen in the next several years I will lose him because of this crap.

I worked at a dialysis company that did a great thing for patient education: they issued their educational materials at a 12th grade and 6th grade reading level, in nice big print. The average Joe here in the US reads on a 6th grade level. That was scary to me. Might even be lower by now, given our lack of educational priorities (insert RANT). During my assessment, I would give the patients the materials that were appropriate (or at least more appropriate) for their reading/comprehension. And it wasn't a big deal about "which version" they got b/c the cover looked the same. It's so hard to individualize printed teaching material, but I was happy we at least had 2 versions.

I know what you mean about your dad. About 1/2 my dialysis patients are diabetic. Some do very well with controlling levels with just diet. Others....sigh....it's a lost cause.

Hopefully, as more studies come out, things will continue to change.

badgoat

Actually I should have posted this on the Dr Bernstein diabetes forum. My objection is not to the style, but to the "lying by omission" rottenness of the advice.What they are not saying here is that all that starch WILL raise bg levels, require lots of medication, and according to studies done by 'true believers" in the lowfat paradigm, lead to burnout of all beta cells and insulin dependence in about 10 years.So you're supposed, according to these experts to work in ever more starch, take more medicine, AND run higher average blood glucose levels than a non-diabetic person. The Diabetes Complications and Control Trial showed that there is a 35% decrease in complications (blindness, kidney failure, coronary) for each 1% you can take off your Ac1. If they had informed you of all these facts, you would not be so eager to adopt their approach to "managing" the disease. Compared to Mc D's not telling us that supersizing might make us put on weight, this chatty little page is truly criminal. Badgoat, I see your point, that if you eat this way of course you must spread the starches out over the day, but you are too kind to them. It is totally irresponsible to not even suggest that diabetics could benefit from choosing lower glycemic index foods. Bill

Badgoat, you are right about the reading level of the average American, it is truly a shame. I can't see many of these people picking up a book like Atkins, or god forbid Schwarzbein Principle that includes a detailed endocrinological discussion on just what those starches are doing to their bodies. I look forward to the day when NIH publishes a grade-school version of LC for these patients.

I'm responding to this article a little viscerally too. I think many patients, including highly educated and intelligent ones, trust and rely on sources like that for the best advice to manage their disease and save their lives. My dad happens to be one of the smart ones, but he's always approached diabetes with a sense of fatalism and acceptance. I can understand the reason for that if you are doing everything that you are told by the "experts" is right and the disease continues to progress anyways. But I do not think he comprehends my attitude that I CAN fight this destiny, it might even be painful at this point for him to see that it was possible after all.

Gosh, thinking of that, imagine how angry millions of diabetics would become if NIH and ADA started changing their tune after pounding this philosophy into their heads for years. Now that's a scary thought...

That is the most disgusting webpage i have seen on a diabetic help website, the emphasis on starches is just unbelievable.
I had to drop them a note, to ask them how many of there members have they been able to help, also to tell them that we had two members of the family, that were diabetics, also that there blood sugar was normal within weeks of elliminating grains, starches and processed foods, that was 18 months ago.
That the reason diabetics get kidney disease, is due to high sugar/insulin, not protein/fats, which is there normal excuse for not advising to eat protein.
I asked them how could they possibly sleep at night, as they must surely know the consequences of grains and starches and diabetes.
Fat lot of good it will do though, they want to keep expanding there empires.

Geez i get uptight with these D....Heads, and the damage they are doing to people, more so, the people just diagnosed with pre diabetes, that will go on and degenerate as a diabetic, when it is so easy to fix, considering the alternative.


17 million people have diabetes in the USA, surely, they must realise that there advice is even more than useless.

Yar

Yar, you are so right. Here is a SLIGHTLY less criminal recommendation, see http://www.diabetes.org/main/health...ticle031799.jsp. They have pretty much the same b.s, "The message today: eat more starches!" But, they have the decency, unlike the other site which has no shame at all, to include the following,"Yes, foods with carbohydrate, starches, vegetables, fruits, and dairy products--will raise your blood glucose more quickly than meats and fats, but they are the healthiest for you. Your doctor may need to adjust your medications when you eat more carbohydrates." they go on to slam lowcarb 'fad" diets, they are hard to stay on. The ADA is really out to lunch, they think you can't control glucose without endangering the heart, when in fact the two major studies show that controlling bg's DOES protect against coronary events, and yet the ADA is willing to settle for a much higher average bg because of its reliance on the increasingly discreditied diet-heart theory. (I realize now, again, I should have posted this on the diabetes threads.sorry, maybe the moderator will move me) Bill

We, all of us, are less than grain of sand in the millions of years of evolution, post anywhere alaskaman, let people know that there are ways of curing yourself, if you can only help one person in your lifetime, just do that and feel satisfied.
It is a wonderful feeling not to be reliant on the medical/pharmeceutical system.
Just in the past two weeks we did a liver flush, to alleviate a pain that has been on and off for 18 years, that the doctors haven't been able to diagnose, cost all of $5.00, 160 stones, problem fixed.
Let the revolution begin. [he he]

I shall be telling this with a smile,
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Apologies to Robert Frost [Poet]

Yar