Type 2 Diabetes - Does a Low Carb Diet Really Raise Cholesterol and Lower Blood Sugar Levels?

Type 2 diabetics are always looking for diets to help them lose weight and lower their blood sugar levels. There has always been a big following of high-protein, high-fat diets for controlling blood sugar levels... especially since they have been popularized by Dr. Richard Bernstein. High-protein, high-fat, meat-based diets have been used by millions of diabetics, both type 1 and type 2, to help keep their blood glucose concentrations under tight control.

The objection to these diets has always been that if you eat all that meat, fish, butter, and eggs, you would have to suffer with high cholesterol. And modern research confirms that particular objection is just plain wrong.

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Most of the cholesterol in the human bloodstream does not come from food. The body makes most of it's cholesterol from triglycerides, which can be provided by fatty foods or assembled from glucose. Great big blobs of triglyceride become smaller LDL (bad) cholesterol, and the bulky LDL eventually gets absorbed and turned into HDL (good) cholesterol. So the reality is, eating too many carbs can raise your cholesterol, too.


How Do High Protein, High Fat Diets Work?

These work in such a way that you get so sick and tired of hamburgers, frankfurters, and cold cuts, you just can't eat any more... so you don't give your body the raw materials it could use to make cholesterol. If you keep your blood sugar levels under control, your cholesterol levels will gradually be easier to control, too. The effect takes about six months.

Are Plant Based Diets Better?

There is a better approach than a meat-based diet for controlling both cholesterol and blood sugar levels. A plant-based diet emphasizing fresh foods first, does several things for your body that a meat-based diet cannot.

If the only change you make to your diet is to eat some fresh raw veggies, such as leafy greens and carrots, at the beginning of every meal (including breakfast), you provide a steady flow of fiber to your lower intestines. When the colon detects undigested food, it sends a signal to the pancreas to release a number of hormones.

The pancreas will release a tiny amount of glucagon just to make sure your blood sugars don't go too high. And it will release a larger amount of insulin to make sure the sugars you get from the food are stored.

But because your pancreas is doing this in response to a low-calorie, low-carb food, the net effect is better blood sugar control. If you don't then gobble down a big beefsteak as a chaser to your salad, that insulin is used to transport sugar, not fat.

Eating raw or lightly cooked plant foods offers many of the same benefits as taking the drugs Byetta or Victoza... without the risk of side effects or the quite considerable cost. Avoiding even the slightest hint of carbohydrate on a diet like Dr. Bernstein's keeps blood sugars under control too, but without the variety, flavor, and added nutritional value of fresh vegetables and a small amount of fruit.




(c) 2010 Beverleigh Piepers is a registered nurse who would like to help you understand how to live easily and happily with your type 2 diabetes.