Useful, trustworthy online resources for adjusting to (pre)diabetes?
June 19, 2017 11:16 PM Subscribe
I've made some progress, major diet changes, but I still have many questions. I'm sure most have been answered, but I have not had the best luck finding those answers. My searches seem polluted with chaff and many sites I have found are either not terribly useful rehashes of the obvious or they just reek of quackery. Forums, food databases, recipes, all would be welcome. Just hoping you can act as peer reviewers here and recommend the best evidence based resources you've found. Thanks much.
Not everyone responds the same way to different type 2 diabetes management tactics, which I think is some of the reason for repeat info and woo. Blood glucose testing, especially over time, is a fairly definitive way to determine results. While you can buy testing kit materials on your own, prescriptions/insurance might help cut down the expense.
I realize this doesn't exactly describe your situation, but The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes provides a good foundation. It includes info for online resources.
posted by gnomeloaf at 5:22 AM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
I realize this doesn't exactly describe your situation, but The First Year: Type 2 Diabetes provides a good foundation. It includes info for online resources.
posted by gnomeloaf at 5:22 AM on June 20, 2017 [1 favorite]
Jenny Ruhl's site, Blood Sugar 101, was enormously helpful to Mr. DrGail in managing his DMII. She stays on top of the medical literature, frequently debunking how the popular press summarizes new research.
posted by DrGail at 5:59 AM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by DrGail at 5:59 AM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
When my SO got diagnosed with pre-diabetes, in addition to the American Diabetes Association website, he was also referred to a regular Diabetes Nutrition Class that was sponsored by his local healthcare provider. He found the information there was very common sense and mostly about making better choices, not getting into a serious hardcore regimen and he's found it incredibly useful.
posted by jessamyn at 6:42 AM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by jessamyn at 6:42 AM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]
MedlinePlus has a whole page of trustworthy resources on prediabetes: https://medlineplus.gov/prediabetes.html
posted by galvanized unicorn at 6:54 AM on June 20, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by galvanized unicorn at 6:54 AM on June 20, 2017 [3 favorites]
I would bet that a lot of the confusing and perhaps adversarial information you're finding is due to the rising controversy about the role of carbohydrates in standard western diets, the relationship to insulin resistance, and the resurgence of super low carb diets (Atkins style, or "keto" diets.)
I am a PhD biochemist, and have also been a fat lady throughout adulthood despite following traditionally recommended nutrition and exercise guidelines. I began hearing about ultra low carb diets several years ago, am convinced by much of the evidence in support of them, and have lost a huge amount of weight with remarkable ease since changing my diet. I am not now, nor have I ever been, diabetic, but much of the diet advice regarding keto diets has strong relation to diabetic and prediabetic conditions as a result of the key role of insulin.
This by TED talk by Sarah Hallberg, a physician who treats diabetic patients, is a good place to start. Note that she emphasizes that there is no such thing as a nutritionally essential carbohydrate. Gary Taubes and Robert Lustig are other reputable authors on this subject.
Finally, my strong suspicion is that science is on the cusp of understanding the breadth of variation in individual responses to food and metabolic conditions. The standard nutritional advice, and the advice for winding back diabetes, is not going to be "one size fits all" much longer. In 2015 there was a landmark study out of the Weitzmann Insitute in Israel that continuously tracked the blood sugar levels of 800 people for a week and saw staggering differences in responses to the same foods. This TED Talk Is by one of the authors of that study. Until the day comes that you can conclusively determine which foods send your blood sugar levels spiking (and elicit a troublingly intense insulin response), one workable option is to simply not eat carbohydrates at all.
posted by Sublimity at 3:55 PM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
I am a PhD biochemist, and have also been a fat lady throughout adulthood despite following traditionally recommended nutrition and exercise guidelines. I began hearing about ultra low carb diets several years ago, am convinced by much of the evidence in support of them, and have lost a huge amount of weight with remarkable ease since changing my diet. I am not now, nor have I ever been, diabetic, but much of the diet advice regarding keto diets has strong relation to diabetic and prediabetic conditions as a result of the key role of insulin.
This by TED talk by Sarah Hallberg, a physician who treats diabetic patients, is a good place to start. Note that she emphasizes that there is no such thing as a nutritionally essential carbohydrate. Gary Taubes and Robert Lustig are other reputable authors on this subject.
Finally, my strong suspicion is that science is on the cusp of understanding the breadth of variation in individual responses to food and metabolic conditions. The standard nutritional advice, and the advice for winding back diabetes, is not going to be "one size fits all" much longer. In 2015 there was a landmark study out of the Weitzmann Insitute in Israel that continuously tracked the blood sugar levels of 800 people for a week and saw staggering differences in responses to the same foods. This TED Talk Is by one of the authors of that study. Until the day comes that you can conclusively determine which foods send your blood sugar levels spiking (and elicit a troublingly intense insulin response), one workable option is to simply not eat carbohydrates at all.
posted by Sublimity at 3:55 PM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]
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Stay away from other websites.
posted by prk60091 at 4:24 AM on June 20, 2017 [2 favorites]