Steve Parker, M.D.
I have been practicing Internal Medicine since 1981, when I graduated from medical school at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Internal Medicine involves the diagnosis and non-surgical treatment of adults.
Since 2003, I have been a member of the clinical faculty at Midwestern University, Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine. For the first 17 years of my career, I was an office-based primary care physician. I continue to practice medicine full-time, for the last eight years as a hospitalist in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area. Hospitalists diagnose and treat patients in the hospital setting only.
In a typical day, I might see heart attacks, strokes, out-of-control diabetes (both types 1 and 2), pneumonia, skin infections, broken hips, chest or abdominal pain, severe high blood pressure, kidney failure, and urinary tract infections.
In 2008, my first book, The Advanced Mediterranean Diet: Lose Weight, Feel Better, Live Longer, was published by Vanguard Press. The book has a chapter on adaptation of the AdvancedMediterranean Diet for people with type 2 diabetes, but it is not a comprehensive approach to nutritional issues affecting people with diabetes.
I am absolutely convinced that better diet and lifestyle choices can help individuals live longer, healthier lives.
Steve Parker, M.D. April 24, 2009
Diabetic Mediterranean Diet 
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I was wondering if you would ever consider making a diet plan that would assist people with celiac disease but combine the mediterranean diet somehow?
Hi, Nicole.
That’s not on my radar screen yet. It could certainly be done, at least at first blush.
-Steve
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Steve, any chance you could publish a meal plan
Hi, Besa.
I’ll publish meal plans here on Jan. 5, Jan. 12, and Jan. 19, 2013. Thanks for reading.
-Steve
Hi Steve
Love the KMD book from smash. Tried vegan for 3 years weight up down and still with insulin resistance which I thought would help. 3 weeks on the KID and lost 1.5 kid. I took 2.5 weeks to see any sign of ketone in urine. Glad you included metric in your book.
Barry from Australia
Great to hear from you, Barry.
-Steve
Hi Steve, My husband has diabetes and high potassium level 5.3 making it difficult to know what to eat.
Is the Advanced Med. diet one he can follow? Thank you.
Hello, Siobhan. By most US lab standards that potassium of 5.3 mEq/L is a little elevated. I don’t put too much stock in a single elevated level. If it’s repetitively slightly to mildly elevated, I’d want to know why. Renal failure, adverse drug effect, using a salt substitute with potassium chloride? Keep working with his doctor for the cause. If it’s drug-related, find a substitute. Avoid or minimize the typical hight-potassium foods like potatoes, bananas, tomatoes, etc. Get a list from a reliable source.
-Steve
High Steve,
Isn’t putting your body into ketosis dangerous? I have type 1 diabetes and I know that ketones make your blood tremendously acidic. It sounds good in theory but I worry about safety of anyone doing this. Thoughts?
Hi, Lori. Great question.
Nearly everybody who eats dinner at 7 PM and doesn’t eat again until 7 AM will be in some degree of ketosis. It’s mild in degree and is normal. Mild ketosis is a physiologic mechanism to keep us alive for days, even for as long as two or three months, with nothing to eat.
The kind of ketosis you’re referring to is “diabetic ketoacidosis,” which can have blood ketone levels ten times (or more) higher than the overnight ketosis that everyone gets when the don’t eat for roughly 8 to 12 hours (it varies person to person). Diabetic ketoacidosis is indeed dangerous, even life-threatening. It’s caused by an absolute deficiency of insulin or insulin action. Keith Runyan, M.D., has type 1 diabetes and follows a ketogenic diet (or did at one time).
-Steve
Thank you for your reply. Now I am starting to wonder if all of my diabetes reading is accurate if what you say is true. I looked back in my books to see if they mention that overnight and in between meals the normal body goes into ketosis. My books make reference to the liver storing sugar and when it has been several hours or overnight the liver is signaled to start releasing glucose into the blood. I have settings on my pump to deal with dawn phenomenon so that overnight my basal rate is set higher to deal with the extra sugar being dumped into my blood due to hormones being manufactured as I sleep. It is my understanding this is what happens with everyone overnight. Hormones causing more sugar to be released into the blood stream. It is just that the human pancreas keeps the insulin in perfect balance to deal with this and I need a pump. That said, with all of this sugar stored in the liver I don’t see why a normal healthy body would start to break down fat as a fuel source. Maybe I need to have another visit with my CDE to clarify things. Sorry for so many questions. It just doesn’t sound like the body would in fact go into ketosis between dinner and breakfast.
Hey, Lori. Good to hear from you. Dr. Axel Sigurdsson has a good blog post about ketosis and ketoacidosis. He’s a cardiologist interested in nutrition. If you read it, keep in mind that it’s about normal metabolism, not T1 diabetes metabolism.
-Steve
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How many years have you had diabetes?