Yes, you’re at risk for diabetes. You may have it already. You’re on a very low dose of prednisone, so it may or may not be contributing to the high blood sugars. High-dose prednisone, say 30-80 mg/day, often causes elevated blood sugars into the diabetic range. I see many folks who have high blood sugars while taking prednisone, with return to normal sugars when they’re able to stop the prednisone. I don’t label those people as diabetics, although some might use the term “iatrogenic diabetes.” Talk to your doctor about these issues soon.

What choice have I? The fact is that Gout, obesity and Diabetes are part of the same spectrum. They are so often married. To then revert to higher carbs only raises my blood sugar. To NOT eat low carb means I keep the weight on. I’m hoping that my outbreak is induction induced and even if I have to take Allopurinol thats’ OK. My mother does and my dead diabetic dad did too.

So I proceed down this path.My one moderator is to perhaps replace sme meats with dairy….

Nonetheless, I have had many more gout attacks this past year than previously these last 10 . What confused me is that I thought they were injuries resulting from my exercise activities. I have had high uric acid levels recorded since 1985 so the chickens come home to roost. So I’m a special case, I need to point out.

But since I am now on Allopurinol lets’ see what happens…

Currently reading: Goodreads | Why Some Like It Hot: Food, Genes, and Cultural Diversity by Gary Paul Nabhan which has an interesting chapter on the Cretan Diet. Esp re Olive Oli.

-Steve

I don’t take a vitamin supplement but I do take daily high dose fish oil mainly for pain relief from Fibromyalgia. After dealing with a weight loss plateau I now stay off all grains and find that I cannot tolerate dense carb vegetables nor legumes. I eat them and my blood sugar will at least rise 1-2 mmol.

The problem with low carb eating is the ready substitution of meat to make up for the caloric shortfall. I try to keep my meat consumption down in line with traditional Cretan cuisine and like them I eat a lot of olive oil. (The Cretan average consumption — under their Mediterranean diet — is 22 Kgm of olive oil per year per person). I love the stuff.

Induction caused an attack of gout and when I shifted my carb intake down further I got another dose of gout. So I’m a high Uric acid type with a family history of gout.

So be prepared. Diet changes are always a precursor for an optional gout attack.(if you are unlucky).

I tend towards firm stools now and may need to work up some means to increase my dietary ruffage as my daily salad intake isn’t enough. I see where Steve takes Metamurcil….

After lossing a kilogram a month ( 10 kgm over a year )I hit a plateau but am now losing weight after cutting back on what was a daily serve of high carb — bread or Basmati rice.

I don’t suffer from hunger pains; I love the culinary challenges and excitement of generating and discovering new meals under this regime. In that quest I am much taken with the foods of Sicily and Spain although I’m proficient across the menus of the Arab world.

Of late I’ve been eating olives almost daily and have upped my cheese intake and have always consumed Greek style yogurt. I cook with yogurt (eg: curries) and use it as a base for desserts (eg: berries and yogurt). I also use cream such as in au gratins; and en route have learnt to respect the humble pumpkin and cauliflower (which almost substitutes for rice). I’d like to eat sweet potatoes and legumes but they blow up my blood sugar readings and are maybe too carb dense for me. My snack foods are nuts — peanuts in their shell and almonds. I also like preserved meats…as a treat.

I drink two glasses of wine per day.

My blood workup is improving but it is too early to tell how much this diet is driving these results. I’m trying to deal with fluid retention issues but I doubt that this diet as yet has impacted on that issue for me.

My main goal — now that my blood sugars are stable — is to lose more weight and I expect i can at least lose another 5-6 kgm under this regime. I am physically active and exercise but this does not impact on my weight at all (as Gary Taubes points out in his books). It never has.

Am I suffering for my commitment? No bread, no potatoes, no sugar…? No I’m not. I love this food but am really challenged if I have to eat away from home.Even with family and friends it is so hard to explain what I’m not eating and why. So away from home my carb intake goes up.

I began this journey by dropping my carb intake from something over 200-300 grams of carbohydrate a day to something around 110-120 gms. I do better lower than this and would think I’m now eating maybe 50 grams or less on average per day. Once you exclude the high carb stuff thats’ easy to do.

Low carb eating has changed my life and Steve Parker’s dietary template has given me something to format my daily menus around as well as a series of clear perpectives to strive for.

I’ve eaten “Mediterranean’ for decades but always tending towards the high the carb scale — pasta, couscous, rice, bread etc — and followed a Glycemic Index dietary approach for years. But really that was insufficient to impact on my health and with ignorant doctors advising me I sailed through “Pre-Diabetes” to Diabetes II quicker than it is fair (esp with family history of Diabetes). If I had known then what I know now — going back a few years — my health would be much better.

The GI stuff trained me of course to respect the crab I put in my mouth but I think GI eating is a false god.

So listen up peoples: consider going down this route.

Good to hear from you. 100 grams of carb daily gives you a bit more flexibility compared to those eating 20 grams. I’m guessing you have more residual beta cell function (and insulin output) than some other folks with T2DM, or you improved your insulin resistance.

Great job taking control of your condition! Diabetes is one of those diseases in which you can’t just depend on your doctor to do it all.

Also, regarding comment “there’s ABSOLUTELY nothing in fruits that you can’t get from non-starchy vegetables…except fructose” – er, that’s a pretty bold claim, friend. I don’t think we know enough about phytonutrients to say that (what did we know about antioxidants a decade ago?) I should think the sorry science behind the saturated fat – heart disease linkage, etc, etc is reminder enough to avoid blanket proclamations that are actually beyond our current ken.