Introduction

Welcome to our collection of pages designed to help you undertake a lower carbohydrate diet.

Why undertake a lower carbohydrate diet?

Carbohydrates (bread, pasta, potato, cereals, biscuits, cakes etc.) are all broken down into sugar. At any time there is only around 5 grams of sugar in your blood stream and whenever this level rises your body works to store the sugar ultimately as fat. Fat builds up in the liver and then you get excess fat in the pancreas which it has now been shown is the cause of Type 2 Diabetes. By reducing the amount of carbohydrate in the diet you can reduce the amount of fat in the pancreas and liver which can potentially return sugar levels to normal without the need for medication.

The approach can be used in people with Pre-diabetes to return sugar levels to the normal range. It can be used in Type 2 Diabetes to put the condition potentially into remission (normal sugar levels with no medication) or also to help manage the condition with less medication. A lower carb diet can also be helpful in people without diabetes to help with weight loss, to treat fatty liver and can be helpful in other conditions like Polycystic Ovarian Disease and Hypertension.

How low is low?

Depending on your current weight and sugar levels you may not actually need to make that significant a change to make a significant difference. It might be as simple as just changing what you have for your regular breakfast. For others whose sugar levels are quite high and have more weight to lose a more significant change may be needed to bring sugar levels down.

It is really important that those on diabetes medication (apart from Metformin) do not make any significant changes to their diet without seeking medical advice. If you are on medication for high blood pressure a lower carbohydrate diet may reduce your blood pressure so this will also need to be kept an eye on. You might be able to reduce or come off some of your medication which would be great.

Getting started

To get started first answer the following question:

Do you already have a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes?