PreDiabetes recommended Daily Sugar and Carbohydrates intake

@contentandwell I currently eat about 130 grams of carbs per day, about double the amount I was eating a few months ago. It's not having an impact. The path I'm heading down is making sure those carbs have lots of fiber (50 grams) and no added sugar. Dark chocolate can be a great source of fiber. A while ago, I was eating Keto Bark just to increase calories. The good thing about Keto Bark is that there is no added sugar, and almost all of the carbs are fiber. The bad thing about is that it's expensive.

Lovely prednisone did the exact same thing to me. It's what sent me down this learning path. There was no way I was going to finger poke/inject insulin for the rest of my life if I could do something to change that. My diet and exercise did exactly that.

In no way would I suggest that diet and exercise can cure all Type 2 diabetes. I believe it can reverse many who have pre-diabetes. But there are lots of other factors that also come into play. Suffice it to say that a good diet and exercise won't make the problem worse and can only make things better.

@contentandwell Is a person a drunk if they have a glass of wine at dinner? If they have 6 glasses, you bet, they're a drunk. But if they only have 1 glass, does that mean they are a drunk but just controlling their intake?

Sorry, probably not the best example, but I think the point you are making is that if you were once a diabetic, then you will always have a higher risk of being a diabetic. I think that's probably true, as chronic damage may have been done to your pancreas.

In the perfect world, we'd all have a glucose monitor attached to us measuring blood glucose every hour of so. Then we'd know exactly which foods are the problem. We wouldn't need to do it long-term. Maybe a month or so would be plenty of time. I have not done this yet, but intend to in the not-too-distant future.

@contentandwell, You would need to ask my doctor. I simply repeated what she told me. She checks my A1c once a year at my annual physical.

@mickj when I was first diagnosed with diabetes, long before I was diagnosed with cirrhosis (they go hand in hand) the dietician told me I could have 45 gm of carbs per meal, and 2 snacks of 15 gm each. You were really keeeping it very low. Was that the recommended amount? I also exercise about six days a week, sometimes seven, so that helps of course.

Since I did lose a lot weight prior to my transplant I wonder if really am diabetic still. I don’t think I would consider the diabetes reversed though unless I did not watch carbs and my bg was still good, just as any non-diabetic person can.
JK

@mickj Instead of drunk, lets use the term alcoholic. If a person is a reformed alcoholic, they are still an alcoholic. Very few can stop at one drink, it’s a part of them. This is an interesting discussion. One of the articles said that the pancreas and liver, after strict dieting, can resume making insulin. If that happens and your body can then handle carbs, then you definitely have conquered diabetes.
JK

@mickj are you still on a high of prednisone? When my dosage was decreased the high bg numbers immediately stopped.
I too hated the finger poking. I was doing it four times a day, and it hurt!
JK

So you're gonna swap out "drunk" with "alcoholic" are ya. Fair point, and I knew you were going to go there. 😉 Hypertension is a better analogy. By the way, I'm one of those former drunks/alcoholics. I haven't had a drop in about 2 years. Don't miss is at all. So am I still an alcoholic? AA would say I am. I don't see it that way, as I don't have any symptoms that would suggest it. Regardless, what got me worked up is when I heard that a doctor told a patient, "Once a diabetic, always a diabetic." This was then shared with a person who was just diagnosed with pre-diabetes. It implies there's nothing you can do to potentially reverse it. Not the case at all.

My rudimentary understanding of diabetes is that, initially, it's not a matter of the pancreas making insulin. It's likely pumping out what it should, but our body becomes insulin resistant. Insulin's ability to do its job of storing excess glucose is diminished, resulting higher blood glucose. To improve insulin sensitivity, diet, exercise and sleep appear to be the Rx.

With regard to diet, one thing I've learned is the different way that our body metabolizes fructose vs. glucose. In general, gram for gram, fructose is 7 times harder on our body (liver) than glucose. Fructose is an undisputed devil. And where does it come from? Certainly fruit and, to a lesser extent, veggies, but it's mitigated for the most part by the fiber in those food. The primary evil is sugar and all of its derivatives. And we can't forget about fruit juice, where we get blasted with all of the fructose and none of the fiber. You probably already know all this stuff, as you've been on this path longer than me. Sorry to be so long-winded.

I do eat a fair bit of carb (132 today). But included in that is a bunch of fiber (48 grams), and no added sugar. The only sugar I eat is a little fruit, some veggies and a gram or 2 inherent in whole oats and nuts. And, no, it was not apple pie/cinnamon strudel oatmeal or chocolate covered nuts. Today, my body tolerates the carbs just fine. Probably won't be that way forever. When the time comes that my body is struggling, my diet will change.

I was on a pretty good dose of prednisone, and it completely whacked out my blood sugar. It lasted less than a month. And I thought the finger pokes sucked as well. But I was knee deep in pre-diabetes before my transplant as well as after coming off prednisone. So the potential for diabetes was real unless I changed my lifestyle.

@mickj perhaps what have here is more or less a matter of semantics.
JK

I was very surprised to hear that I was prediabetic when the doctor called me to let me know that I should start a different diet. I was never overweight and at 5'5" my weight is 137 pounds. I decided to elimate all carbs ie. bread, pasta, cookies, cake, rice, potatoes and all processed foods which all contain sugar. On my next check up my sugar level was .normal. Anytime, I want to indulge, I think about the consequences of such move. I am 72 years old and I intend to stay active as long as I can and free of diseases. I eat very simply I never eliminated fruit from my diet because the sugar in the fruit is processed very quickly by the body and I eat fruit two times a day. My sugar level has been fine since 2013. There are so many delicious meals you can have without carbs that really I don't feel deprived. The best way to avoid the bad carbs is not to keep them in the house. No temptation. Once in a while, I will have a piece of pizza or if I go out to dinner with friends for a burger, I will have a few french fries. Overall, I think that a little exercise starting slow and then adding a good diet can take care. It don't know if I have been lucky and If my carb free diet will work for everybody but it does not cost anything to try. .