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Speaking of "butting heads with Nutritionists" (similar to Lanie's experience)

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Posted 9/20/2008 1:58 PM (GMT 0)
I had an appointment yesterday with the nurse at my Diabetes Education Centre. I thought she'd be pleased with my numbers & my weight loss (20 lbs. in 3 months) and she was .... BUT ...

... she was concerned that I wasn't eating enough! Wanted me to have sandwiches with 2 slices of bread instead of the 1 slice I've gotten used to ... eat hamburgers like I used to ... in general, more carbs?!?

She also didn't like my doctor's decision to delay my first A1C test (he was happy with my last fasting blood test numbers ... 10 in July, 6.2 at the end of August). What she was saying was that "Oh yes, you are controlling your numbers very well but I'm worried about nutrition." I think I'm doing well in that regard. I don't like the number counting and the little food charts and so I haven't been using them. My eating plan is based on common sense (advice from around here) and seems to be making me healthier.

She also went on to remind me about how serious diabetes is and seemed to be saying that no matter what I did, I will eventually feel the effects of the disease.

I found the whole experience very depressing. My doctor's advice is encouraging but the nutrition people aren't happy ... probably because I'm not using their little charts tongue

Lanie: I'm kinda on a weight loss plateau too but from what I read, this is normal.

Chris
Posted 9/22/2008 2:27 PM (GMT 0)
It's been my experience that "concerned about nutrition" usually means not eating enough of their food pyramid's biggest portions: grains.

I also learned very quickly that my Dietician/Nutritionist and I were never going to see eye-to-eye. She had a formula to follow and I would never meet it so, I educated myself and don't need her anymore. She was not a "team player" with my Diabetes management team.

My immaculate logs and discussions with my Endo have us both satisfied that I know my stuff and that's what matters most.

Congrats on how far you've come in such a short time, too! You seem to be actively interested in improving your lifestyle and educating yourself and that's the best attitude to have. You will manage this just fine (even without a Nutritionist :-)

Cheers,
Kris
Posted 9/22/2008 6:54 PM (GMT 0)

Thanks for the support Kris :-)

Chris

Posted 9/24/2008 4:29 PM (GMT 0)
Nutritionists seem to never be able to see outside the box... EVER! When I was part of the psyllium study at Michigan State University I learned that this specific grain fiber can strongly impact blood glucose control and affect postprandial spikes. I was working with people with PhD's in nutrition science, for heaven's sake, and my instructor in class just "poo-poo'd" the info and said to just follow her little booklet. That's when I realized that they can't understand that each human's metabolism is unique and we need to test and then follow our own individual path. If everyone did that, well...

THEY'D BE OUT OF A JOB! smhair LOL! I think they teach what they teach partly from ignorance and partly from job security. turn
Posted 9/24/2008 6:32 PM (GMT 0)
I think they have their place but it is rare to find one that will actually work WITH the patient instead of following a book.

They're great for letting that newly-diagnosed Type 2 know that eating ice cream every night or drinking 5 Cokes a day has to change and how to start to change it but... they don't know how to help manage the individual patient. That's when the patient needs to own their situation (hey, it needs to managed 24/7 & there ain't no doc that'll do that for ya), and find out what works best for them and their lifestyle. Unfortunately, many diabetics don't want to do this and prefer just being told what to think and do.

Dieticians/Nutritionists are a knowledge base to explore just like books, the internet, etc. Take what you can learn from any source and apply it to your own specific situation. I haven't come across any other person who's body/metabolism is exactly like mine so, I'll never fit into a cookie cutter diet, chart, pyramid, etc. They learned and work with general terms. I learn & work with my specific body day-to-day :-)

Cheers,
Kris
Posted 9/27/2008 3:23 PM (GMT 0)
Kris,
Of course you are correct... and I shouldn't badmouth nutritionists... It's just that it is so very frustrating to try to manage something as important as the food that we consume every day when the knowledge base we are taught from comes from the ADA. I did some research on the ADA, (and I'm not trying to sound the "conspiracy alarm" here) but over 80% of their funding comes from drug companies. I'm beginning to feel like that is putting the fox in charge of guarding the hen house!

Other than this forum and a few authors I don't see a lot of doctors, nutritionists or diabetics following the controlled carbohydrate food plan. It seems like everyone just wants to keep throwing new drugs at the disease instead of helping us change our eating patterns to accommodate our metabolism.

I have lost some people I love to this disease because they were totally misinformed and just kept taking more and different drugs. It's just sort of depressing and makes me a bit mad mad . I'll get off my soap box now and be quiet.
Posted 9/27/2008 10:20 PM (GMT 0)
I think nutritionists studied, learned and tested for their jobs and for many of them, that might be the end of it.  It's probably not popular to go against the AMA, ADA and AHA (here in the States) as far as the food pyramid, the role of carbohydrates and use of fats in the diet.  They have all the sources online and the books in print to read just as we civilians do but when their profession still touts the grain-based pyramid, then they're between a rock and a hard place, so they probably choose to follow the norm.  I never did talk at length with my own GP about the diet during my physical because of the lack of time and also because I needed to discuss my BP.  I'd been on 2 pills for years but this summer I was feeling dizzy, uneasy, everyday around noon.  I thought it was the heat because I was working in the yard everyday, then I started testing the blood sugar (ok) and then the BP dawned on me, so I had to buy a new BP monitor (mine was getting error messages) - long story short:  BP too low because of the 2 pills, so I stopped one of them and recorded the BP about 6 or 7 times a day everyday.  I showed 3 pages of readings to her and she agreed that it was smart to eliminate the one pill and keep the quinipril (Accupril) because it's an ACE inhibitor and helps protect the kidneys.  Still waiting for the lab results.  The following day, we left for NYC - hey, I'm nobody's fool, this way I could eat what I wanted with the lab out of the way.  OMG I ate from the bottom of the pyramid; the nutritionist would be proud!  tongue No, actually, what I did was I had a croissant at breakfast (with butter) and the homemade rolls at dinner in some restaurants - like the Russian Tea Room.  And dessert there and the Four Seasons.  mmm.  turn  Didn't gain weight but didn't lose either.  We walked everywhere so I'm sure that helped.  Waiting for the lab results is driving me crazy!  smhair  

Posted 9/28/2008 2:01 AM (GMT 0)
Lanie,
Good for you! You had some fun and lived it up a bit!
I wish I could show you some of the stories in my Baking magazines that discuss how to get the American consumer back to the grain based, high calorie foods. Many of the grain producers are worried about the low carb "craze", as they call it. They have ideas on how to push the "home for the holidays" cookies, pies and dinner rolls sales, artisan breads with oatmeal on them to appear more healthy... Grrrr! Not to mention the entire snack food and cereal industry. Agribusiness is BIG business and they have a lot of clout in congress...

And let's face it, Americans don't eat their vegetables. I'll bet if you asked the people on the street, 9 out of 10 would tell you that corn is a vegetable! Everything from broccoli to brussel sprouts gets a bad rap, so bad in fact that they have created new juices to fool kids into eating their veggies! No wonder we have an entire generation of people who have no clue how to feed their bodies! The more I learn about real nutrition the crazier the American grocery store appears to me. (sigh!)
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