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Ingvildr
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PostMon Apr 16, 2012 1:51 pm 
Anybody else a diabetic hiker? I trying to figure out grams of carbs and types of carbs that work well without spiking blood sugar or crashing. I'm a type II not on insulin-so I don't have to worry about that tweak. In civilization I normally do about 75-100g of carbs and about 1500 calories for maintenance.

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JennieEl
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PostMon Apr 16, 2012 3:04 pm 
Ask your PCP for a nutritionist referal and you can probably get tailor-made advice. Having said that, my bet would be that your food should be much the same as anyone else's, since you are not insulin dependant. You should make sure you have complex carbs, proteins, and some (healthy) fats, all of which will digest fairly slowly and not spike your sugar levels. But I wouldn't be too afraid of spiking your sugar with quick carbs, as long as you have the other stuff on board. You will probably need a quick, short-term energy boost at times - everyone does, unless they are walking on the flat, with no need to be concerned about times or itineraries, and not carrying much weight. That's why Gu and similar products exist. If you do use those for specific things - that long slog up a hill where you are bonking, for example - you will probably burn it off pretty quickly. If you are taking oral medication, and you are exercising more than usual, what you really need to watch out for is very low blood sugar, which can be dangerous. Depending on what you do and how much of it, your need for the medication may diminish. And since Type II is usually at least partly a weight-and-lifestyle disease, increased exercise can reduce your insulin resistance, sometimes dramatically. This is one of the reasons why a nutritionist visit would be a good idea. That person can also help you figure out a good calorie goal for the activity as well - 1500 calories will hardly get you past the trail head on some hikes.

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Hoosierdaddy
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PostMon Apr 16, 2012 3:35 pm 
My very good friend Mike, is a type 1. Maybe not exactly what you're looking for, but he has lots of great diabetic information here in his website: http://www.rainforesttreks.com/diabetes.asp

God, I am going to regret this someday!
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Ingvildr
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PostTue Apr 17, 2012 10:28 am 
Thank you for your replies. I haven't had much useful information come from a nutritionist in the past. Usually I have had to figure out things by trial and error. I have a strong hereditary disposition toward diabetes and was showing early symptoms at puberty when I was five feet tall and 100lbs and biking two hours a day. What really got it going was getting pregnant with my son and some of the complications I got with his pregnancy. I just take metformin and I have permission from my endocrinologist to drop them if my sugars start running consistantly low. I have gained weight and lost fitness since my son was born, in large part due to lack of time for myself and lack of cooperation from the hubby to let me get out by myself to exercise. My son doesn't walk very fast and only does about a mile before he is ready to sit down. I did check out the rainforesttreks.com and he says about what I figured, which is good. I had planned on making my own food anyway to get the long acting carbs. It is useful to know that most commercial backpacking foods have too much fast carbs without having to find out the hard way. When blood sugar yoyos even when it isn't extreme it tends to make you feel like you've been hit by a Mack truck. I will probably pack too much food to start out with until I get it dialed in.

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sarbar
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PostThu Apr 19, 2012 8:20 am 
One easy way to work around the carb issue is to use good carbs - cook at home and dehydrate. That way you can have high fiber whole grain pasta, brown rice, quinoa, etc - and by doing the prep at home you get nearly instant food.

https://trailcooking.com/ Eat well on the trail.
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dicentra
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PostFri Apr 20, 2012 4:23 pm 
HD beat me to it! I was going to suggest the same thing. lol.gif

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alicevinci
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PostFri May 11, 2012 11:57 pm 
Just go for food in between every two hours, have some grain biscuits, oats. these all are low carbs and also maintain your diabetes.

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Eppo
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PostSat May 12, 2012 8:03 pm 
My advice is read Dr. Neal Barnard's Program for Reversing Diabetes. Type II diabetes is completely reversible and curable in most cases through simple diet change alone without the use of pharmaceuticals. When you consume a plant-based diet you get lots of "good" carbs and you don't experience blood sugar spikes. I am not diabetic but I have become a vegan backpacker over the last seven years. I consume no animal foods while backpacking. For short hikes (up to 5 days) I carry lots of fresh veggies and fruit. I pack an apple a day for breakfast. Lunch is usually carrots and celery sticks with peanut butter. In the evening I have ramen with fresh broccoli, onions, garlic, peppers, cabbage, you name it. Fresh veggies keep for several days, unrefrigerated, even in hot weather. When I am steaming my fresh broccoli and veggies at dinner other hikers watch and salivate with envy while they eat their mac & cheese or freeze dried goop. Sure my food bag is a little heavier than it used to be but now that I am an ultralight hiker I've got spare room and weight for fresh food. I will never eat freeze dried goop again. Yuck! Finally, fresh food is heavy for sure but your pack gets much lighter everyday as you eat all that wonderful fresh and alive food. For longer hikes I grow sprouts in an extra water bottle.

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Navy salad
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PostWed May 16, 2012 11:04 am 
Eppo wrote:
Type II diabetes is completely reversible and curable in most cases through simple diet change alone without the use of pharmaceuticals.
Evidence for this statement? This type of claim (generally hoaxes or come-ons) is all over the Internet, but if anyone truly had a dietary-based CURE for full-on diabetes (as opposed to pre-diabetes and in some cases early-onset diabetes, which can be reversed), that person could become a billionaire! There is hope on the horizon using techniques like stem cells and organ transplants -- but no dietary cures. Don't get me wrong -- diet (and exercise) are extremely helpful in controlling diabetes and eliminating the need for insulin, but these are not able to cure it.

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Eppo
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PostWed May 16, 2012 11:36 am 
I respectfully disagree. There is mounting evidence for claiming type II diabetes to be reversible. I did list one book as evidence from Neal Barnard MD and President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). In addition, I suggest any books from Dean Ornish MD, Joel Fuhrman MD, John McDougall MD, or author John Robbins. Dr Fuhrman has a new program on the PBS television network and will soon be featured on the Doctor Oz show. In fact, Joel Fuhrman and Dr Oz attended medical school together. If you don't have time to investigate the plethora of books published on this topic you can check out this 90-second video to get started. http://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-to-treat-diabetes/ Why no one is a billionaire, and why people are so skeptical, is a more complex issue and probably beyond the scope of this forum. For that, I recommend the book Healthy Eating Healthy World by J. Morris Hicks Zi Gesund

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Navy salad
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PostWed May 16, 2012 11:55 am 
I listened to your video and noted they talk about reducing the symptoms of diabetes, eliminating the need for insulin, etc, but made no claims about being able to cure it. I totally agree that a low-carb vegan diet kicks butt compared to the standard ADA diet. And I'll even agree that the large institutions, such as the ADA, tend to be extremely conservative to the point of lagging way behind other approaches. But it's a huge statement for anyone to say they can CURE full-on diabetes. I (as well as millions of others) would LOVE to see some hard evidence of a cure for diabetes.

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JennieEl
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PostWed May 16, 2012 2:30 pm 
I haven't seen anybody say "cure" for diabetes yet, but it is true that some people can become medication-free with good diet and exercise. I would be cautious about calling that a "cure." "Remission" might be a better term. A relapse in good habits would result in one's blood sugar going up again. So it can be reversible in the sense of getting off meds, etc., but it can also turn right around and reverse again into problems with control. Nor is a simple blood sugar level the only thing going on with diabetes. Its effects are widespread throughout the body in a variety of ways. My mother's HgbA1Cs (a measure of blood-sugar over a 3-month period) were almost always nearly normal, yet she died at a relatively early age of complications of diabetes, whereas some people with high numbers live longer. The disease is simply more complex than many people realize.

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Navy salad
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PostThu May 17, 2012 9:57 am 
JennieEl wrote:
My mother's HgbA1Cs (a measure of blood-sugar over a 3-month period) were almost always nearly normal, yet she died at a relatively early age of complications of diabetes, whereas some people with high numbers live longer. The disease is simply more complex than many people realize.
Wow, that's scary. My blood sugar was at pre-diabetic levels a few years ago (before I lost a bunch of weight and changed my diet around). I started feeling much less worried largely due to my A1C dropping to normal (which my doc said was the best overall measure of your average blood sugar over the past few months). A naturopath, however, had told me that if you have blood sugar swings ranging from high to low, that the highs and lows could average out to the middle. Maybe that's what was going on with your mother.

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JennieEl
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PostThu May 17, 2012 1:36 pm 
Don't let it scare you too much, Mom had other health problems that meant she didn't get much exercise, etc., and you are right, her blood sugars were almost certainly averaging around a very large range. My point was that while the blood sugar is an excellent way to monitor how diabetes is being managed, and keeping it normal is good for you (the elevated blood sugars certainly cause problems in themselves) it's not the sole issue in the disease. I was responding more to Eppo's statement that diabetes can be cured. So far as I know, it can't be cured, it can only be prevented or in remission. If you stop exercising and eating properly and gain weight, it returns. To me a cure means that once diabetes is treated and gone it will not return regardless. In addition, there are people who do everything right and hold their tongues just so, and they will never be completely disease free, and they are not to blame. For whatever the cause, they will always be borderline at best. (They will certainly do far better than if they just throw their hands up and say, "I can't fix it.") Because of my family history (with my mother an excellent horrible example, right in front of me for years, of what can go wrong in lifestyle-related illnesses) I pay a lot of attention to this.

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Navy salad
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PostThu May 17, 2012 5:25 pm 
JennieEl -- Well said. I've also learned a lot from some of the "excellent horrible examples" I saw growing up! And you are correct about some people doing everything right and still succumbing to the disease. A friend of mine, maybe 10 years younger than me, has a strong family history of diabetes and, even though he exercises regularly and watches his diet, is dependent on insulin and two diabetes drugs.

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