Tag Archives: Richard Bernstein

Should “Low-Carb” Be the Default Diet for Diabetes?

Posted on August 1, 2014 | Comments Off on Should “Low-Carb” Be the Default Diet for Diabetes?

Yes….according to a manifesto to be published soon in Nutrition. The abstract:

The inability of current recommendations to control the epidemic of diabetes, the specific failure of the prevailing low-fat diets to improve obesity, cardiovascular risk or general health and the persistent reports of some serious side effects of commonly prescribed diabetic medications, in combination with the continued success of low-carbohydrate diets in the treatment of diabetes and metabolic syndrome without significant side effects, point to the need for a reappraisal of dietary guidelines.

The benefits of carbohydrate restriction in diabetes are immediate and well-documented. Concerns about the efficacy and safety are long-term and conjectural rather than data-driven. Dietary carbohydrate restriction reliably reduces high blood glucose, does not require weight loss (although is still best for weight loss) and leads to the reduction or elimination of medication and has never shown side effects comparable to those seen in many drugs.

diabetic diet, low-carb diet, paleobetic diet

Low-Carb Brian burger and bacon Brussels sprouts (in the Paleobetic Diet)

The lead author is Richard Feinman. Others include Lynda Frassetto, Eric Westman, Jeff Volek, Richard Bernstein, Annika Dahlqvist, Ann Childers, and Jay Wortman, to name a few. Some of them disclose that they have accepted money from the Veronica and Robert C. Atkins Foundation. That doesn’t bother me.

I’m familiar with most of the supporting literature they cite, having read it over the last decade.

Read the whole enchilada.

Steve Parker, M.D.

PS: The linked article is preliminary and may undergo minor revision over the coming months.

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Artificial Sweeteners and the Paleoista

Posted on November 3, 2012 | 9 comments

Did you know babies under one year of age shouldn’t be given honey?  I saw that warning on a honey container recently and didn’t know why.  Honey may contain bacterial spores that cause botulism in the wee ones.

A pinch of salt helps reduce bitterness in coffee

Paleo diet aficionados can satisfy a sweet tooth with honey or fruit.  Unfortunately for people with diabetes, those items can spike blood sugars too high.  Honey, for instance, has 17 grams of carbohydrate in one tablespoon (15 ml), which is more carb than in a tablespoon of white granulated table sugar.

Most diabetics eating paleo-style will need some limit on consumption of honey and fruit.  Or they could take more diabetes drugs to control blood glucose elevations.  Again, unfortunately, we don’t know the long-term health effects of most of our diabetes drugs.

How about getting a sweet fix with artificial sweeteners?  Paleo purists would say “fuggedaboudit.”  In theory, that’s fine.  But many paleo followers with diabetes won’t forget about it.  They’ll use artificial sweeteners, aka sugar substitutes.

If you’re gonna use ’em, think about stevia.  It’s derived from a natural source, the leaves of a plant in South America.  Admittedly, our forebears in eastern Africa wouldn’t have had access to it 50,000 years ago.  After the plant has been processed, it’s certainly a highly refined product going against the grain of the paleo movement.  Furthermore, one of the stevia market leaders in U.S. (Truvia) is mixed with erythritol.  To help you feel better about the erythritol (a sugar alcohol), note that it is found naturally in some fruits.  Another stevia commercial product in the U.S. is Pure Via.

Dietitian Brenna at her Eating Simple blog reviewed sugar impostors in January, 2012.  She favored stevia over the others, at least for non-diabetics who were tempted.  Brenna also linked to a Mayo Clinic review of artificial sweeteners.

Note that sugar alcohols like erythritol have the potential to raise blood sugar levels.  They shouldn’t raise it as much as table sugar, however.  With regard to sugar alcohols, Dr. Richard K. Bernstein urges caution, if not total avoidance.  Use your meter to see how they effect you.

If you’re in the habit of using one or two teaspoons of honey to sweeten tea or coffee, you’re blood sugar levels should be more stable and manageable if you use stevia instead.  Dr. Bernstein gives the green light to stevia powder or liquid, along with saccharin tablets or liquid, aspartame tablets, and sucralose tablets, acesulfame-K, and neotame tablets.  Stevia is the only one close to “natural.”

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Posted in Supplements, Uncategorized

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Dr. Bernstein: Effect of Dietary Protein on Blood Sugar

Posted on September 5, 2012 | 5 comments

The protein in this can raise your blood sugar

I’m considering whether I should advise my patients with diabetes to pay careful attention to the protein content of their diet.  It’s an important issue to Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, who definitely says it has to be taken into account.

Here are some of Dr. Bernstein’s ideas pulled from the current edition of Diabetes Solution:

  • The liver (and the kidneys and intestines to a lesser extent) can convert protein to glucose, although it’s a slow and inefficient process.
  • Since the conversion process—called gluconeogenesis—is slow and inefficient, diabetics don’t see the high blood sugar spikes they would see from many ingested carbohydrates.
  • For example, 3 ounces (85 g) of hamburger patty could be converted to 6.5 g of glucose under the right circumstances.
  • Protein foods from animals (e.g., meat, fish, chicken, eggs) are about 20% protein by weight.
  • Dr. B recommends keeping protein portions in a particular meal consistent day-to-day (for example 6 ounces with each lunch).
  • He recommends at least 1–1.2 g of protein per kilogram of ideal body weight for non-athletic adults.
  • The minimum protein he recommends for a 155-lb non-athletic adult is 11.7–14 ounces daily.
  • Growing children and athletes need more protein.
  • Each uncooked ounce of the foods on his “protein foods” list (page 181) provides about 6 g of protein.
  • On his eating plan, you choose the amount of protein in a meal that would satisfy you, which might be 3 ounces or 6–9 ounces.
  • If you have gastroparesis, however, you should limit your evening meal protein to 2 ounces of eggs, cheese, fish, or ground meat, while eating more protein at the two earlier meals in the day.

Dr. Bernstein wrote:

In many respects—and going against the grain of a number of the medical establishment’s accepted notions about diabetics and protein—protein will become the most important part of our diet if you are going to control blood sugars just as it was for our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

Conclusions

I haven’t changed my thinking on this issue yet, but will let you know if and when I do.  I don’t talk much about protein in Conquer Diabetes and Prediabetes in part because I wanted to keep the program simpler than Dr. Bernstein’s.

As with most aspects of diabetes, your mileage may vary.  The effect of dietary protein on blood sugars will depend on type 1 versus type 2 diabetes, and will vary from one person to another.  So it may be impossible to set rigid guidelines.

If interested, you can determine how much protein is in various foods at NutritionData.

Steve Parker, M.D.

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Posted in Diabetes Complications, Diabetic Diet, Dietary Protein

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