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This and That and Talk - My Transplant

Transplants | Last Active: Jun 7 8:31am | Replies (1672)

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@mickj

@contentandwell I don't think my issue is age related. In my pre-transplant life, I was never much of an eater, but I was way overweight (290 lbs). It was never an issue with how much I ate. It was always about what I ate, essentially the antithesis of nutrition. This is just one of many regrets from my life prior to becoming sick.

I think part of my problem relates to being diabetic right after transplant. I knew the meds were not giving me much of a chance (hi prednisone), and tapering off those meds was an uncertainty. And as you know, we have no control over our meds, but we do control what we eat. And I was determined (and still am) to not be diabetic regardless of the medication. So I decided to learn about food and change what I put in my mouth to give myself a chance. The big discovery for me was just how evil sugar is, particularly sucrose and high fructose corn syrup, and to a lesser extent fructose. Trying eat enough without adding bad carbs is quite the challenge. Today, I eat 30 grams of sugar/day, and about 90% of that is from fruit, vegetables and nuts. My latest A1c was 4.6, so it's working for me ... almost too good. I've stayed away from starches, but that's likely to change. I'll get it figured out shortly.

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Replies to "@contentandwell I don't think my issue is age related. In my pre-transplant life, I was never..."

@mickj I don’t think it’s age related for you either. I presume when you said that you only eat 30 grams of sugar a day you actually mean of carbs. That’s incredible, i can’t imagine keeping it that low. When I was diagnosed I went to a nutritionist and was told up to 30 grams per meal, and two snacks of 15 grams. Of course that was the max recommended but only 30 per day to me sounds as if it might be too few. I know you do need carbs, but it sounds as you are doing very well and if your doctor is good with your diet it must be OK.
Have you spoken to a doctor or nutritionist about what would be the best things to eat to increase your weight without increasing your A1c? I’d be curious to hear what they recommend, even though increasing my weight is unfortunately not a problem I have.
JK