Type 1 PWD (person with diabetes) AllisonN wrote about her one-month paleo diet trial at DiabetesMine. The paleo diet version she followed was the Whole30 program, with which I’m not terribly familiar. Some quotes:
3. I have the best control in recent memory, but it’s not perfect. Like anything that involves tweaking and adjustments, the Paleo diet is hardly a cure. Now that I’m taking less insulin, there are fewer chances for me to go low, and more chances for me to go high. You can never expect anything — not a diet, not a medication, not an insulin pump — to run the show for you.
4. If you eat low-carb, you have to bolus for protein. This was the biggest shock for me. After querying my friends, I discovered that bolusing for approximately half the protein is what I need to do to prevent a post-meal spike. Gary Scheiner, author and CDE at Integrated Diabetes Services, explained, “Since your Central Nervous System needs glucose to function, if your diet is lacking in carbs, the liver will convert some dietary protein into glucose. So it is usually necessary to bolus for some of your protein whenever you have a meal that is very low in carbs.” For me, a low-carb meal is anything under 30 grams of carbs.
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One thing that I kept thinking about during my month-long Paleo experiment was how much of diabetes really is an experiment anyway. Think about how often we have to try out different things to see what works: Changing up bolus ratios and basal rates. Fiddling with different temp basals or snack choices before working out. Alternating what we eat for breakfast. While the Paleo diet may not be for everyone, I wholeheartedly believe that if what you’re doing currently isn’t giving you the results you want, maybe you should consider starting another experiment!
AllisonN wrote that the paleo diet hasn’t been studied scientifically in people. That’s not accurate. A handful of studies have been done, even involving people with diabetes. Search this site and you’ll find them. In addition, Lynda Frassetto’s study at University of California-San Francisco should be published later this year.
Read AllisonN’s post.
Paleo Diabetic 