Thank you for reply Jon. My plan is to cutout sugar and then see if I am any better. My blood sugar has always been low normal due to my hyperthyroid. But this at least I think needs monitoring to say the least.

You're welcome. If you are willing to change your lifestyle, I would not be surprised at all if you improved on a whole foods plant based diet. If sugar is a problem for you then you probably also want to avoid foods with a high glycemic load. Since most vegetables contain a substantial amount of starch, I would not recommend giving up starch. You might want to look into the following doctors' publications: Dean Ornish, Joel Fuhrman, T. Colin Campbell, Caldwell Esselstyn, Neal Barnard, John McDougall.

Also, for anyone who is being failed by the mainstream disease care system, I recently discovered a podcast called Extreme Health Radio that is very interesting. Their website: extremehealthradio.com
Justin and Kate record a show 4 days a week and bring in all sorts of guests in 'alternative' medicine. There is a lot of healing going on out there, about which you won't hear from your MD.

Ron

I asked a very similar question in the Diabetes / Insulin Resistance / Metabolic Syndrome forum:

Chocolate, Ice Cream, etc.?

Aside from the occasional little bag of chemicals known as "fat-free, sugar-free instant pudding" (Eat it quick before the chemicals die!), various diet sodas (they stopped selling my favorite root beer in 2 liter bottles in my area), and fresh fruit, not a whole lot.

Every sugar-free "ice cream"/frozen dessert I've tried so far has been pretty vile. :vomit: The sugar-free chocolate made with sugar alcohols that's sold in our area is actually pretty good, but since my PN still thinks it's sugar, I don't do that anymore. There's also an issue with the stuff being a cramp-inducing laxative.

I've been experimenting with various sweeteners—aspertame, sucralose, saccharin, and DW just picked up some stevia, which we haven't had a chance to try yet. I'm also curious about neotame, but I haven't actually seen or tried any yet.

If I can figure out a way to make a palatable fudge or decent chocolate candy, I'll be all set. :Ponder:

Doc

Hi Doc,

I bake a lot of breakfast cakes/loafs using wholemeal flour instead of white and Stevia instead of sugar. They turn out pretty good usually.

But today I downloaded a Paleo recepie for blueberry muffins that called for Almond flour and Stevia. I am going to try to make over weekend. So far I'm ok with carbs but this was the kick I needed to clean up my diet anyways so I am going to look at this in a positive light right now to get healthier and hopefully loose those 2 last kilos I haven't been able to loose.

The sugar substitute conundrum--
 

--has a very close echo in the gluten-free community.

A lot of the gluten-free stuff is made with "white flour" substitutes--corn starch, potato starch, etc. Besides the problem with taste and texture being, uh, disappointing, in terms of being overall healthy there really hasn't been much of an advance. Potato and corn and many other "flours" will spike blood sugar just as wheat flour will.

The one somewhat healthy "flour" I use regularly is buckwheat, which is, of course, not wheat and not a grass like many grains but a seed-producer more closely related to stalky herbs like rhubarb and celery. Unfortunately, the flour produced is very dry and inelastic and doesn't have much of a taste.

http://glutenfreecooking.about.com/o...kwheatisgf.htm

Oh, I like the buckwheat spiral pasta!

I have some with me here!;)

concentrate on adding foods rather than taking away
 

Something that has worked for me ....

Put all your focus and energy into adding things to your diet rather than taking away.

I have an incredible sweet tooth (I would happily eat pure sugar cubes).

I concentrated on adding to my diet loads of things that are healthy and ruthlessly hunt for healthy things that I like. My food intake would be so completely full of the good stuff that it would push out the sugary stuff. I would do all I can to get my environment supporting me and get all sugar out of my arms reach.

After not too long, my tastes changed and I no longer wanted the stuff that wasn't good for me anymore (which was a colossal change).

Trying to re-work conventional foods (i.e. baking with different ingredients) didn't work for me ... it was easier to just get completely away and build a whole new way of eating that I really liked.

Everyone around me laughs and thinks I am a freak (while they chomp on their potato chips).

It feels really good to be laughed at and be a freak because the current "normal" is headed for a very unpretty path.

A few years back I got a bad case of IBS—so bad it was mis-diagnosed as Crohn's Disease, and I almost lost ½ my bowel to an arrogant & overeager (to cut) gastroenterologist. I healed myself on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, which relies heavily on almond flour (we bought 25 lbs./11.34 kg. by mail) and I practically lived on that stuff for a year.

Anyhoo, the stuff is a challenge to cook and/or bake with, but websites devoted to that diet have lots of recipes using it—some good—some not so much. :Dunno:

Doc

We are having an obesity and diabetes epidemic amongst primary school age children. It's really sad. So yes I do agree what's normal isn't good.

Hi Doc,
A lot of Paleo recipes also rely on almond flour. I went to supermarket yesterday and they did not have it. So I made my muffins with gluten free white flour instead. But as Glen mentioned that's not much healthier!!