I’m now gargling a large glass of Splenda’d psyllium gruel daily, per instructions from diabetes advice. The thing is, all I can get from cursory reading is “it’s good for you,” as in, “pooping out stuff in general is good for you,” but that can’t be it. Is there something specifically about the handling of blood glucose?
I’m not getting enough vegetable, and eating tons of protein, so it helps on the pooping front, which in fact is what I thought is its main virtue.
Is it related to why the carbohydrate amount in food is lowered by the amount of fiber, in terms of “diet carb?” It seems so, and that’s a second thing I don’t get.
Soluble fiber, when taken alongside carbohydrates, will slow down the rate of digestion (I assume it’s because the fiber uses the same digestive pathways but is slower to digest but I don’t know) and so while you will digest the same amount of carbohydrates eventually, the height of the spike on the glycemic index (and how much insulin production spikes) is lowered.
This is one of the reasons why eating fruits and vegetables is strongly preferable to juicing them and consuming that way - the juicing process breaks down the natural fibrous walls of the produce which then leads to a much higher insulin spike.
As will many people with diabetes, eventually. I’ve got one poor fellow now with diabetes, kidney failure (dialysis stage), high cholesterol/lipids wonky and his doctor want him to lose weight. Yeah…fluid restricted, low protein, low carb, low fat, low cholesterol, low calorie. I’m not sure that’s even theoretically possible, much less practical. Even if I put him on a diet of nothing but salads with lemon juice and pepper…it’s too much fluid.
Stay healthy kids. Getting diet related illness is no fun.
My sugar, with Metformin, is back to normal (for the interested, not too long ago I posted from the ER “ketoacidosis, bitches!”). Plus I have high cholesterol and wonky lipids.
I’m lifting weights and doing cardio, and going very low carb. I’m getting a new endo, and might even break down and talk to a nutritionist. Calories from fat, bad for c. and wonky l. Calories from protein (gotta feed my new guns), bad for kidney. Oy.
Man I hate the gruel. I’m trying to think of it as sweet watery porridge, rather than sweet sawdust run-off, which is what it feels like. It does help a little.
What amount of protein are we talking about? My light research into the subject suggested that even very high protein intake (on the order of 150-200 grams per day) was well within a healthy kidney’s ability to handle, and that it would only cause a problem with pre-existing kidney problems. But I’m out of date - that was probably over 10 years ago.
Is there a medical consensus that high dietary protein is dangerous? At what level?
I use the original Konsyl unflavored. Mix it thick, kinda like thin applesauce. Shake the dickens out of it to remove the lumps. Drink a glass or so of plain water immediately afterwards to rinse the last 5% out of the glass & to wash it all down cleanly. IMO, it tastes & feels sorta like unfiltered wheat beer without the alcohol tang. Keep repeating that to yourself and after about a month it becomes true enough.
The various flavored & sweetened kinds are all disgusting IMO. They make a slightly-less-than-neutral flavor into something artificially but thoroughly nasty.
As is often the case, the case for dietary fiber (DF) and from where and what sort is more complicated than some make it out to be. The short version is that most would do better to get fiber by eating a diet high in fiber rich foods than by downing a daily glass of psyllium gruel.
The standard schtick for diabetes is all about soluble fiber. It makes sense. Soluble fiber becomes viscous; it gels. It delays gastric emptying and macronutrient absorption. Funny thing though -
So insoluble fiber consumption, i.e. cereal grains, surprisingly seem to be more protective. And it is not quite clear why.
Interestingly several studies that have looked at diabetics taking fiber supplements (including soluble fiber supplements, like guar gum and concentrated oat bran) have shown little impact on glycemic control. But increasing soluble fiber by increasing consumption of real foods that are high in soluble fiber “such as cantaloupe, grapefruit, orange, papaya, raisins, lima beans, okra, sweet potato, winter squash, zucchini, granola, oat bran, and oatmeal” does.
A variety of real foods high in fiber will contain both main groups in a variety of forms and a host of other good stuff besides. The best evidence of making a health difference is for real foods high in a variety of fiber more than for supplements. It tastes better than psyllium gruel too!
As far as dietary protein goes the consensus is that up 30ish % of daily caloric intake from protein is fine in absence of pre-existing kidney disease.
Is there any reason to look at protein consumption safety as a percentage of calories rather than raw amounts? It would seem to me that the raw amount of protein would determine the strain on kidneys rather than the proportion to total diet. Is someone who eats a lot of lean meats like chicken and gets protein up to 45% of their macronutrient balance somehow worse off than a person who eats the same amount of protein but only by eating more calories at 25% protein intake?
While absolute amount matters, the argument for thinking of it as a percent is that a certain amount of fat and/or carbohydrate calories are required to process the protein without build up of ammonia and excess amino acids hanging around and causing all sorts of havoc. The issue is not especially really kidneys; its the limited ability of the liver to upregulate the enzymes to take the nitrogen from the ammonia and make it into urea, which the kidneys can then get rid of. Even “protein spring modified fasts” (strictly monitored) don’t usually go too much over upper 30%s of calories from protein, and these are in people who have large fat stores on hand to mobilize.