I just wanted to talk about how eating this way has really made a change in my blood glucose levels over time- and about how the dietician's plan is not always right.    I know there are others reading this who either have type 2 diabetes or know someone who does, and maybe my experience will help them in some way.  

From my own experience, I can attest to the fact that lower carb dieting really works.  (Incidentally, I probably shouldn't really call it "low carb"- maybe "selective carbs" would be more accurate... because in honesty, carbs aren't the problem- it is the simple carbs and the excessive amount of carbs we ingest that cause problems.    We have to have carbs to exist, but we definitely don't need as many as is usually recommended -the food pyramid is a recipe for disaster for your health if you are a diabetic!). 

When I was pregnant with Ian, I went to a professional diabetes dietician, and on her diet plan, she never specified the difference between simple and complex carbohydrates sufficiently.  She did, however, tell me that I needed to have 6 meals a day- three being snacks and three being actual meals.  The meals, she told me, should consist of 45-60 carbs each, and the snacks should have 15-30 carbs each.   (Funny thing is, that was actually more carbohydrates than I was already eating at the time!)   So I could go to MacDonalds and get a Big Mac and a milkshake and that was supposed to be perfectly fine according to this plan.  I went by her advice for about a week and noticed my blood sugar levels weren't getting better- they were actually getting worse on her plan- much worse!   And if I didn't get control of my blood sugar levels, I was going to have to go on insulin.   I felt like I was being set up for failure, and I think I really was. 

I did as much research as possible at that time and after experimenting with many different things, I realized that if I ate fewer carbs, I had lower blood sugar levels.  Seems so simple and obvious, right?  (But not if you listen to the dietician, who claimed the carb filled foods, as long as eaten with proteins, should actually somehow lower my levels.)  

By God's grace, I found Karen Hurd's site which talked about eating legumes for your carb source, and I noticed that even though beans are high in carbohydrates, I actually did have lower glucose levels after eating them- much lower.  This is because they are complex carbohydrates, and are also full of fiber and protein.    The sugar levels don't spike up rapidly when you eat beans like it does when you eat an ice cream cone or a bowl of rice.  It goes up gradually and therefore doesn't overwork your system.

I decided that from then on, I would let my only source of carbs be vegetables and legumes, and that I would not eat potatoes, rice, corn, white or wheat flour, potato chips, pasta, or any of those other things that would quickly raise my blood sugar levels.   I had to be creative and come up with different recipes, but after doing this for only a week, I noticed a dramatic change in my sugar levels. They went from the 200's to the low 100's (sometimes below 100), and I was told by my doctor that I would not have to use insulin after all.    I would have DEFINITELY been put on insulin if I hadn't taken control of my diet in my own way.   (You can see the Karen Hurd diet at this link).

A side effect of changing my eating habits was that I ended up with much more energy.  If you have followed my blog for a while, you'll see that I painted large murals for the city while I was 8 and 9 months pregnant with Ian, and climbing that scaffolding is not an easy job for a pregnant woman- but I had so much energy and strength (I assume the diet really helped in that aspect) that it didn't really bother me and I felt more energized than ever.   After having Ian, I also noticed another side effect of this diet- my baby weight was completely gone within a week. I didn't have any baby belly like I had with the other kids, and I had gone almost down to my teenage weight.  This wasn't what I was aiming for with my diet, but it was a very welcomed result.   Directly after having Caleb (my 11 year old) in 2000, I had 50 pounds of excess fat to get rid of, and it took me nearly 2 years before I finally lost it all- At that time, I lived on a diet full of simple carbs, not even knowing at the time what a carb actually was.     With Bonnie and Noah (my 9 and 5 year old), I didn't gain as much as with Caleb, but I still had a big belly bulge that didn't go away.   I never realized before I had Ian that you could actually have a baby and not end up with a baby tummy!   It wasn't "baby belly", it was "carb belly", apparently!

Anyway, this time, when I received the diagnosis of gestational diabetes, I didn't even go to the dietician for advice, and just went back on the low carb diet again.  My blood sugar levels dropped again just like they did before.   I had a problem with the fasting levels being too high in the mornings, but after a few weeks of maintaining this diet, they are finally at an acceptable level.  This morning I tested and it was 108- much better than the 169's and 144's I kept waking up to for so long.    

My energy levels are higher again (but just to let you know, if you start this diet you might notice some extreme fatigue in the first few days), and I feel terrific!   Plus, I have found so many alternative recipes that are just so delicious, I don't think I will even need to go back to my old diet if I can just get used to eating this way all of the time.

Has anyone else had similar experiences with controlling their gestational or type 2 diabetes with their diet? 

By the way, here is a documentary that I would highly recommend; It's called, "Fat Head" with Tom Naughton. If you have Netflix, you can watch it online immediately.  It is a hilarious and informative video that was actually made in response to Morgan Spurlock's also comical but very misleading "Super Size Me", and explains a lot about how the high carb, low fat diet works in comparison to the low carb diet.   I really enjoyed this documentary and I hope you will too, if you decide to watch it.