The content of the HealingT1D website is for educational and information purposes only. It does not contain medical advice. The contents of this website are not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please always consult with your doctor, physician, or other qualified healthcare professional before making any adjustments to your routine or healthcare regime. HealingT1D and all associated with it will not be held liable for any risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information on this site.
A few months ago, one of my readers posted a comment, asking me what kind of diet I ate as part of my healing. At the time, I avoided answering the question because I felt it was a difficult topic to discuss. But I have now decided it’s time to come clean and get to grips with where I’m at on this part of my journey.
As you know from my blog posts on fish, dairy, water consumption and Whole30, I am particularly interested in the contribution that nutrition can make to healing T1D. As my healing has progressed, there have been several iterations of what I felt successful nutrition looked like for me at a given moment in time. So now I am taking this space to summarise where I have got to so far.
Relating To Food
I think, as an overweight woman and as a person currently experiencing Type 1 Diabetes, my relationship with food is complicated. It is the substance that saves me when I am hypoing, but it is also the thing that causes high blood sugars when I eat too much of it. It causes weight gain (although, technically, I could argue with myself that it is actually only excess food that does that!) that I know will result in a comment (or several!) at my next diabetic check-up. It feels somehow unsafe or unpredictable… I can eat the same food three times in a row and end up with completely different blood sugar outcomes. It is something I wished I never had to eat again but something that I love to taste and enjoy and savour. Yeah, like I said, it’s complicated!!
During all these food-relating moments, the one challenge I keep coming back to is the one that centres around my weight. How can I eat in a way that is good for every aspect of my health – my diabetes management, my mental health, my body’s own needs. Just yet, I haven’t got this right.
Carbohydrate-Counting
The first awareness I had of the nutritional value of food came when I was five years old. My parents, instructed by my consultant paediatrician at that time, were encouraged to start teaching me about the carbohydrate content of various food groups.
In those days, carbohydrate-counting was all the rage! My paediatrician prescribed a carbohydrate count of 30 grams per meal. I would sit at the dining table with my dad, once my plate of food had been served, reciting phrases like ‘two egg-sized potatoes are ten’ and ‘one cup of milk is ten’ until I had worked out the grams of carbohydrates on my plate. I am sure this has given me my strong propensity for maths today and also my desire to wolf down food as quickly as I can after it has been served!!
I did this until I was maybe 9 or 10, when it went out of fashion and was replaced by the medical mantra ‘eat what you like and inject accordingly for it’ (as a ten year old, I definitely preferred this option!!). Then, wen I hit twenty years old, carb-counting came back into fashion in diabetes management and I got to counting all over again!! However, through all these years, I could never get to my ideal weight. Enter keto…
Dr Richard Bernstein's 'Diabetes Solution'... A Ketogenic Diet
The first successful method I found for losing excess weight was through Dr Richard Bernstein’s recommendations. He is a Type 1 Diabetic who has conducted hundreds of experiments on himself to find out how to optimise his blood sugar control. He is now in his eighties and is in excellent health.
Dr Bernstein is now a trained physician who helps diabetics worldwide. He recommends a low-carbohydrate medium-fat diet for diabetes. I felt the best I ever felt when I followed Dr Bernstein’s recommendations. My blood sugars were flat lines all day long and my energy levels were amazing. I was waking up naturally and full of energy at 5.30am every morning. I was slim but, more importantly, I was healthy and happy.
So why am I not still eating this way? I followed this way of eating for 8 months without problems. But then Christmas arrived. As the Christmas period ensued, I felt so deprived by all the things I was missing out on. I didn’t feel I could truly take part in any of the celebrations. As I later learnt (see below!), I had gone into a deprivation mindset and my physiology drove me back to the carbohydrates.
I have tried multiple times since to go back onto a ketogenic diet but, each time, I have ‘fallen off the wagon’ (as my physiology had done exactly what it’s meant to and stopped the deprivation). I eventually realised that I would never be able to overcome my feelings of deprivation when eating this way so I stopped. I knew then that I had to find a new way of eating.
My subsequent dietary adventures will be the subject of my next blog posts.
Natalie is a blogger with Type 1 Diabetes. Natalie's special gifts are questioning the status quo and being a rebel. She is using these gifts to question medical 'knowledge' and find a true cure for Type 1 Diabetes.
