My doctor fired me, saying that although my results were good, the method was wrong and she wouldn't be responsible for my health. She blacklisted me in the pool of doctors in my "group".
And why? Because my A1c was 5.2 (better than healthy)and my FBG was steady at 90 (normal). It's now been 18 years and I still have those "normal to healthy" numbers. In fact, until I got my records transferred over, my current doctor refused to believe I was diabetic. I had no secondary symptoms except neuropathy in my feet and a tendency to gain weight quickly and lose it slowly. I was not on any medication, did not have any amputation, was otherwise robust and active, with healthy blood pressure and only moderately high cholesterol (but with high good, and low bad, lipoproteins).
That first doctor sent me to "education seminars" with a trio of Certified Diabetes Educators (CDE) who wanted me to eat 120 grams of carbs a day, and take insulin shots to "cover the carbs". But by then I already knew that a meal of 40 or more grams of carbohydrates would make me woozy and cause me to crash later, spurring a complete binge on granola with dried fruit (my drug of choice).
So what did I do instead? Don't tell my current doctor, because I don't want her to refuse to treat me (I've learned to just agree with her, even though she completely doesn't get it).
Credit: Gary Taubes-Good Calories/Bad Calories
Here's what happened. I was a 30 year ovo-lacto-vegetarian. Not a vegan, I don't even think that was a thing back then. I would eat eggs and dairy products because I knew that I needed the extra protein. But mostly I ate vegetables, about 90% local organic or my own homegrown veggies, raw or lightly steamed, with lots of rice and homemade granola. Looking back it was about 600 grams of carbs a day. I started eating that way in 1970 when I was living in an Ashram in Florida. Except for maybe once a month having meals with family or friends, that's what I did. I was more of a dietary vegetarian than an ethical vegetarian. I don't think it's morally wrong to eat meat, I just was convinced that it was bad for you. I was tall and skinny, a bicycle racer, I taught Yoga and Tai Chi, I thought I would live forever.
But I noticed that I absolutely had to eat every four hours. By the time I was 30, I started gaining a belly and doubled my exercise. I built muscle but kept the belly. When I was 35 I was what you might call burly, 6'2, 250 lbs, and muscular. Still good looking enough to attract my ex wife and the mother of my son. But I had to take naps after meals, I was often irritable and confused between meals. Eventually I was so groggy that I actually fell down the stairs at work and seriously injured my spine, totally disabling myself. Within a year, I gained 100 lbs because I could no longer exercise 4 hours a day.
This was me at age 40ish. 430lbs and desperately sad.
I got on the internet and someone told me that they would fall asleep after meals until they switched to the Atkins diet. I had heard about it for years but completely dismissed it because I thought it was all bacon and butter.
But I was desperate so I tried it, bought the book (the original, not the spinoffs) at a used book store and followed it religiously.
Within two weeks I had lost all the drowsiness after meals, the "hangry" times before meals, and lost a lot of joint pain I had been suffering in silence about. I also lost 15 lbs. That was important, but not nearly as important as clearing the mental fog I had been living in. After a month, I actually felt like getting out of my wheelchair, even though I was still seriously injured. Someone on the Atkins website suggested that I get tested for T2 Diabetes, so I did. Turns out that was my problem all along, I was probably diabetic for 20 years and didn't know it (Thanks, Doctors). I had already lost most of the sensation in my feet and some in my fingers, that will probably never come back. Knowing I was diabetic changed everything for me.
This was when I was sent to the CDE. By then I had learned a lot about the nature of diabetes that, honestly, doctors are just now starting to accept. The American Diabetes Association still recommends a diet so high in carbs that my blood glucose numbers would be off the chart. They kind of allow a lower carb diet now, but not lower enough to really do what I have done.
I don't eat carbs.
Well, I do, but only the absolute minimum, like the one gram of carbs in an egg, or the small amount in my locally sourced grass fed beef liver, a few in my salads. I've gone through so many doctors who said I can't possibly do that, but I do. Yes, sometimes I fall off the diet, sometimes I cheat, and sometimes, with family or friends I will simply "go along to get along". That's not the point - I estimate that if you averaged together all my carbs in the last 18 years it would be about 10 grams a day.
That's what keeps my diabetes at bay. That's why I have no secondary symptoms (no new ones). That's why I have outlived the projected span of "non-compliant" T2 diabetes patients. No amputations, no insulin injections, no loss of vision, no edema. If you don't eat carbs, they can't spike your blood sugar (don't worry, your body makes all the carbs you need - when you need them)
A typical day for me is
- bacon and eggs for breakfast
- large ribeye steak and a salad for dinner
That's it. I mean, there's some variation, like the other night I had steamed brussels sprouts instead of salad. This is just a typical distribution of meat and vegetables.
The best part about a very low carb diet (high fat, medium protein) is you don't need to eat every 4-6 hours. Until that goes away, you can't imagine what a slavery it is to have to stop what you are doing and spend 30-45 minutes feeding yourself. I have breakfast about 2:pm and I never feel hungry during the day. Even when I worked I could do this. Dinner is about 7pm and my salad is large, dense, multicolored, and covered with my homemade full fat dressing. Only rarely do I have a midnight snack, usually ham and cheese with hot sauce.
I lost most of my weight, but that's a side effect for me. All of my numbers are great, especially when you compare them to my previous numbers, I mean my total cholesterol on a vegetarian diet was 375. Now it's right around 200. Worse, it was the"bad" cholesterol that was high, nearly double the recommended level.
A lot of things I didn't personally relate directly to my diet also cleared up, I haven't had a migraine since, I lost my asthma, tinnitus, psoriasis, and depression. All gone.
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This is 15 years later. Honestly, I have gained some weight since this was taken, but it's generally representative
I will write later how my diet and thinking about diet has verged more toward "Paleo" rather than Atkins (it's a small change, really) but I have to give credit to Atkins, he was right all along. If I had listened to him when I was 20 years old, I could have spared myself a lot of misery.