What foods do I avoid, in order of their Glycemic Index?

• Sugar in any form (high fructose corn syrup, sorbitol-sweetened "diabetic" foods, sodas &c.)
• Refined flour in bread, pancakes, cookies, breakfast cereals, pasta, spaghetti, corn chips &c.
• Beer and white wine (although I'd drink a Miller Lite at 5 carbo calories)
• Fruit juice
• Potatoes (including sweet potatoes)
• Rice (white, wild and brown)
• Milk and yoghurt (I eat cheese)
• Cooked root vegetables (such as carrots and beets)
• Sweet vegetables like peas**
• Beans**
• Fruit**
• Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated (trans) oils in margarine and processed foods

**I'd eat these foods if I had a functioning pancreas.

Too much glucose from relatively high-glycemic-index or glucose-rich foods enters the bloodstream too fast to allow blood sugar control with injected insulin. Further, these foods requires so much insulin that ketosis is inhibited, forcing the body to lay down excess calories as fat – and 80% of diabetics are fat at diagnosis.

The key point here is that avoiding these foods means a low, consistent insulin dose. So simple, so obvious, so effective that I wish I'd come up with this idea. Fortunately, Dr Richard Bernstein did and he writes about it Dr Bernstein's Diabetes Solution, which is probably the single most valuable book on diabetes management ever written, period.

What could I substitute for the missing foods?

• Bread: Wasa Fiber Rye Crispbread at 2 calories of carbohydrate per slice.
• Bread, Pancakes: made with Atkins soy flour, these have 5 carbo calories.
• Dessert: sugar-free Jello pudding with fresh cream - no carbo calories.
• Snacks: walnuts, roasted almonds, a little bitter chocolate, maybe an Atkins low-carbohydrate bars.

Actually, I don’t eat much of this stuff because it’s either refined, contains noxious sweeteners, or is made from soy. I believe these things to be harmful – look at poor Dr Atkins who made a career of marketing such “substitute” foods, and was in poor health for his last years. I learned the hard way that cravings for sweet foods disappear after a week or so of low-carb food. My experience has been that eating the look-alikes awaken the monster, I start cheating a little and pretty soon I’m out of control. Then it’s as hard as quitting smoking, and I never want to go back there!

What happens if I go the other way and adopt the low-fat diet?

My blood sugar fluctuates wildly and trends higher, I have hypoglycemic episodes, and my HbA1c goes up a couple of percentage points. These changes are not healthful, being in the direction of diabetic complications, and I believe they’re the reason the average diabetic loses twelve years of life. Dean Esmay’s low-fat diet experiences parallel mine and I believe they are typical: I’ve actually never met a diabetic for whom the low-fat diet worked, nor have I ever met a diabetes educator who said anything but “You’re not doing it rigorously enough!” There’s no logic here, it’s a closed-minded system which rejects any evidence against it, and it kills people.

Back to Home, or on to the Supplements which I hope protect me against complications, heart disease and pollution ...