Comment by Lois on January 31, 2009 at 6:13pm

Lorena:

Have you written anything about it? Like ... Glycemic index/load For Dummies??????

I would be interested to find out what it's about because, no matter how much I do know about diabetes, I will never understand nutrition ... unless you beat it into my thick skull!

Lois La Rose
Milwaukee, WI

Comment by Judith on January 31, 2009 at 7:01pm

There are a couple discussions on this, Lorena. I have to run, but I'll try to add links tomorrow. It seems like a very individual thing having to do with individual cases and ways of thinking (as in ---if one is going to treat diabetes by the book, one needs to write a different book for every diabetic!). I find straightforward carb-counting much more useful and accurate in terms of predicting my #s. But you will find others here who value the glycemic index highly.

Comment by Lorena on February 1, 2009 at 4:24am

From a scientific view and that is taking into account multiple of studies with different individuals, the consensus is that using the glycemic load offers an advantage to carbohydrate counting alone. In my experience as an educator, I had one patient eat 30g of carbohydrate for breakfast - in one meal the patient had an English muffin and in another meal she had old fashioned oatmeal. Her blood glucose levels were consistently higher when she had the English muffin than when she ate the oatmeal. I am familiar with the literature but thought I would ask the "REAL" experts: people with diabetes. Thank you for your contributions.

Comment by Judith on February 1, 2009 at 9:07am

Well---I'm afraid I'd have horrible #s with either breakfast! I do about 6 carbs for breakfast. Bernstein works for me really well after much experimentation to adapt his recommendations to a female, middle-aged, hot flashy-body (a hot flash can send me from 82 to 118 and back down again as it ebbs). You'll find the mantra here tends to be TestTestTest! And you'll find useful discussions aout how hard that is for many of us who have to ration strips due to insurance idiocies. I'm very glad you are here and hope we can help!.....Be well

Comment by Lorena on February 2, 2009 at 5:55pm

Horrible numbers with either oatmeal or English muffins? Regardless of total carbohydrate eaten?

Comment by Judith on February 2, 2009 at 6:07pm

Yah sure yabetcha! Sorry, sometimes I can't resist channeling my Scandinavian ancestors. The only bread-like item I can eat is Wasa crackers. Fortunately, I like them a lot and am very proud of figuring out a turkey stuffing made with them that tastes great!.....We are all so different. Our systems so complex. The variables basically infinite. Trial and error and Test!Test!Test!......Be well....

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