The Common Nutrition Advices Given To The Diabetics Might Dangerous

According to the Diabetes Food and Nutrition Bible, published by the American Diabetes Association. "Grains, beans, and starchy vegetables form the foundation of the Diabetes Food Pyramid. The message is to eat more of these foods than of any of the other food groups such as fried foods and high fat diets as you know and diet is a crucial part of treatment in case of diabetics. As is known that diet rich with high-carbohydrates is not healthy for people with diabetes but causes more harm to them instead.

For people with diabetes, the battle is about more than their waistlines and complications from Type I and Type II diabetes, which are caused by high blood-sugar levels, include amputation, heart disease, blindness, and kidney failure. The illness is not necessarily a disaster, because people with diabetes who maintain close to normal blood sugar can effectively avoid these problems by regular monitoring. It is believed by the doctors that, the high-carbohydrate diet is a recipe for trouble. "There are a number of myths surrounding diet and diabetes, and much of what is still considered sensible nutritional advice for diabetics can over the long run be fatal. I know, because it almost killed me," writes physician Richard Bernstein in his book Diabetes Solution. Bernstein, a Type I, or insulin-dependent, diabetic for the past 57 years, has been at war with the medical establishment since the 1970s. At that time, his failing health caused him to wonder why someone whose body couldn't process carbohydrates, which are chains of sugar molecules he was repeatedly being told to eat a lot of them. As the cholesterol-fat-heart-disease are the major links doctors take care to recommend a low-fat diet, the amount of carbohydrates recommended for diabetics gradually increased to fill the emptiness, according to Bernstein he says an extremely low carbohydrate diet of approximately 30 grams of carbohydrates over three meals for diabetics to achieve normal blood-glucose readings round-the-clock. "In my experience," he says, "the ADA diet does not work for anyone." ' Thus, meal plans should minimize carbohydrates because people with diabetes do not tolerate carbohydrates. Some patients are discovering low-carbohydrates benefits for themselves. Nancy Humeniuk, a 70-year-old retiree and Type II diabetic from Monterey, Tenn., was put on the ADA diet under the direction of a diabetes educator. "While I was following the diet, my blood-glucose levels were completely out of control," Humeniuk says. "They told me I was being noncompliant--but I was following the diet exactly. I was scared." After three months, Humeniuk switched to low carbohydrate. "Within three days of going low carbohydrate, my blood sugars were normal. And they have been for the past six years." Her cholesterol profile is also very good. "My doctor told me that whatever I was doing, I should keep it up," she says.

The ADA, however, stands firm in its stance that "A diet that is very low in carbohydrates is significantly higher in protein and in fat, and there are specific risks to people with diabetes from high-protein diets in regard to kidney disease and from high-fat diets in regard to cardiovascular disease". But some recent studies have refuted the idea that an Atkins-like diet increases cholesterol, or lipid, problems. "Researchers data would suggest that you don't get a negative lipid pattern with the Atkins diet," says James Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, where a recent study compared the Atkins diet with a standard low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. Cholesterol levels in the Atkins dieters were actually better after a year. Frank Hu, associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, also believes that lower-carbohydrate diets are beneficial to some people with diabetes. It should be carefully noted that the, that carbohydrates should be replaced with "healthy fats," such as the mono- and polyunsaturated fats found in olive oil, nuts, and avocados.

Some people hope that the new data will have an impact. "The ADA is responsive to new scientific data and is likely to incorporate this information into new dietary guidelines with a lower proportion of carbohydrates," says ADA board member Barbara Kahn, a physician and diabetes expert at Harvard Medical School. Kahn has seen how difficult it is for people with diabetes to gain control while following current recommendations, so she is pushing for changes. Still, the ADA continues to tell the people suffering with diabetes and the thousands of medical professionals who treat them to make starches "the centerpiece of the meal."