Any dieticians out there?
I’m asking this for my Dad. He has diabetes, has had a very small stroke and also has some bone thing. Anyway, his specialist has changed his insulin and said that his diet needs to change too - it needs to be kept at a steady rate, not an up and down rate. The dietician went over what to eat to accomplish this, but now Mum has questions she didn’t think about at the time. The main one is what is the optimal amount of carbohydrate? The dietician said he should be eating 60grms per day, however, Mum reckons they often don’t eat this amount. So should they be aiming to increase their carbs to this amount, or is it okay or better to have less than this?
No one here can answer this. Your father needs to consult his doctor.
Not all carbs are created equal. There’s something called the Glycemic Index. It measures how fast a food’s glucose enters the blood stream. Your father needs to avoid foods with a high glycemic number, such as sugars and starches; and he needs to eat more foods with a low number, that produce glucose that enters the blood stream gradually, thus avoiding a spike in his blood sugar.
All of this, of course, with his doctor’s guidance.
Yes, absolutely talk to the dietitian.
However, just to give you some basic information:
The American Heart Institute and the National Institutes of Health both recommend a balanced diet that includes 250 grams to 300 grams of carbohydrates a day. Eating a mere 60 grams of carbohydrate is what is recommended on some low-carbohydrate diets. 60 grams is about two ounces. If you think this number is high, then almost certainly you don’t understand the components of a normal diet, or the amount of carbohydrates that are in everyday foods.
After you get confirmation from the professionals, you should look toward buying a guide to food values.
There are carbohydrate gram counters, like Dr. Atkins’ New Carbohydrate Gram Counter and there are also more general guides like The Ultimate Calorie, Carb, & Fat Gram Counter, by Lea Ann Holzmeister or The Complete Book of Food Counts - 6th Edition,. by Corinne T. Netzer. (These are just examples: I’m not specifically recommending them.)
Your father will probably need to understand about all foods, not just carbohydrates. That’s what the dietitian is for. Go back and get all the information you can.
Your father should have at least 2 or 3 servings of non-starchy vegetables per day, primarily for the fiber. (Starchy vegetables are potatoes, corn, peas, etc.) Other than that, there is no compelling need for your father to consume carbohydrates in a quantity as high as 60 grams per day.
If you’re not the man’s doctor, you have no business posting things like this.
Mel,
There is no one magic diet for all diabetics. Every person is a special case. I wish we could help you here.
I can only strongly urge you to convince your Mum and Dad to consult the doctor so they can possibly set up an appointment with a dietician. They, then, can custom design a suitable diet for your Dad.
Yes, but not for someone who’s diabetic. Individual differences aside, I have a hard time accepting the idea that any diabetic should be eating 250-300 grams a day. And even for a non-diabetic, it depends which foods are supplying those grams.
If MelCthefirst didn’t want an answer, he wouldn’t have posted.
Good grief. That’s the recommendation for a normal diet, not a diabetic diet. The real problem is that the OP and his family don’t understand either what is normal or what a special diet should look like. They have to have that understanding first so they can move from the OP’s father’s regular diet to the new diet he will have to go on.
We should not prescribe anything for anybody, but offering basic information on nutrition is within our function.
With over 12000 post you should know that there are Doctors, dieticians and other diabetics on this board. You seem to infer that 60g is a lot of carbs when in fact it’s not, most non-diabetic people would find it quite hard to limit themselves to 60g for the rest of thier lives. You are on the other hand, fairly correct about the non-strachy vegatables, should include white rice in thier as well as an item to limit (but not prohibit).
Si Amigo, I am intimately familiar with diabetes.
Thanks for your responses. Just to clarify - a. I’m a girl and b. my Dad has had diabetes for a long time, understands what makes his blood sugars go up and down and what a good diet should consist of and has a pretty very good diet. Also, my parents just got back from the specialist who has changed his insulin, thus the confusion. I guess maybe I need to rephrase the question: Is it essential for diabetics to have a certain amount of carbs everyday, as there are times when my parents don’t have many at all. They do not eat too many on other days either.
And to reassure those worry worts on here: information from this message board is just one source of information and yes ofcourse they will eventually consult their specialist, but it does take some time to get appointments.