A1c Poll, how different from the standard population are we?

I would agree that for general meals, simple sugars are not useful and are more difficult to manage. But there are times when simple sugars provide useful fuel for exercise or post-exercise. It just depends on what you need. It’s another tool, but it should be used correctly.

This is just misinformation. Babies drink human milk, and there is more sugar than fat in breast milk, with 40% of the calories in breast milk coming from lactose sugar (carbohydrate) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250919536_Macronutrient_content_of_donor_human_breast_milk. Babies consuming breast milk are NOT in ketosis.

Well - as we all know there will be loads of documents on the web with either or arguments. Its correct that the high carb in milk would suggest that they shouldn’t be in ketosis but they are

Since I have access to 2 6wk old babies and at their mums’ approval i put a keto stick in their pee at the weekend - and both turned a mild pinkish color - I would say your wrong. She is not low carb by any stretch either or diabetic.

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Please be more skeptical of random internet bloggers. This guy doesn’t have a clue what he is talking about. Neonatal ketosis is relatively rare, and not normal. This study found it in only 47 of 21,342 neonates (0.2 percent) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378434701000433. Of those neonates that have it, it is transient, and lasts for weeks not months, until metabolism is more balanced and mature. It seems to be related to insufficient nutrition in the first week of life, so it sounds to me like a coping mechanism to handle inadequate nutrition by mobilizing alternative nutrition immediately after birth (thus sounds similar to me to an adult having starvation ketones, though this paper doesn’t say that).

Contrary to your bloggers uninformed opinion, eating a 40% sugar diet is NOT going to get you into ketosis. If it did, then the ketogenic diet would be a lot more popular than it is (who knows, I might be interested in eating ketogenic :slight_smile:

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So - I read the last couple posts and me not knowing up from down on the subject thought I would read a bit more 'cause it all sounds interesting. And I had 5 mins to kill.
lol
So - thanks for bringing it up and batting it back and forth and pulling me in.
:slight_smile:

The article is mostly about Alzheimer’s Disease but it also discusses brains in neonatal and infants. I found it interesting and full of stuff I didn’t know.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4937039/

Unlike in the human adult in whom the brain appears to use ketones only to compensate for periodic insufficiency in glucose supply, in the developing infant, ketones are essential both as a major fuel and also as the main substrate for brain lipid synthesis (Cunnane et al., 2003, 2016). Ketones are an essential fuel for the human neonatal brain because there is insufficient glucose available to meet its brain energy requirements (Settergren et al., 1976; Robinson and Williamson, 1980; Bougneres et al., 1986). This important role of ketones in infant brain development and energy metabolism starts to develop in the fetus (Adam et al., 1975). Postnatally, the brain’s dependence on ketones is made possible because infants are normally in a sustained state of mild ketosis (0.2–0.5 mM β-HBA). This neonatal ketosis is present regardless of whether the infant has just been fed or is in a post-prandial state, i.e., the ketosis is not a function of food restriction or hypoglycemia (Settergren et al., 1976). This contrasts with the adult human in whom 0.5 mM β-HBA in plasma is normally only achieved after 24–48 h fasting accompanied by hypoglycemia and hypoinsulinemia.

The constant state of ketosis in infants is due mostly to MCFAs supplied in breast milk; indeed, the milk of most (probably all) mammalian species contains 10–20% of all fatty acids as MCFA (Hilditch and Meara, 1944; Insull and Ahrens, 1959; Breckenridge and Kuksis, 1967). Some of the MCFA in breast milk end up in the adipose stores of the infant and can be used days or weeks later, thereby in effect extending lactation for some period of time with respect to the availability of ready-made ketone substrates (Sarda et al., 1987). However, unlike in humans, the offspring of other terrestrial mammals have virtually no adipose tissue so they have very limited ability to store MCFA and, hence, poor ability to generate ketones post-weaning (Robinson and Williamson, 1980). Human babies on the other hand have significant subcutaneous fat stores, i.e., 500–600 g if they are born at term, but markedly less if they are born pre-term. After lactation ends, the long chain fatty acids and the small amount of MCFA stored in adipose tissue provide the substrate to prolong mild ketonemia for many months. Incidentally, in addition to the liver, the infant gut can also synthesize ketones (Bekesi and Williamson, 1990).

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Thomas thanks - interesting article - definitely the genuine article and also contradicts Jag1s that says its only a small population. These sticks definitely turned pink and there are two of them who are perfectly healthy.
My friend in Brazil’s dad just had a stroke as well - and the doctors at his hospital suggested if they can do it, to think about a ketogenic diet, as there are studies that its beneficial for brain health and may help stroke victims and those with Parkinson - they said the difficulty is sticking with it without cheating for a long time - so they are putting him on it for a while I think.
Whatever, I am sticking to it, I feel better than I have done in 30 yrs

Thomas’s cited paper (thanks) doesn’t contradict the fact described in the paper I cited that there is a very small population of neonates (0.2%) that exhibit significant ketosis, to a similar level found in those eating a ketogenic diet. These are the ones where ketosis seems to be related to insufficient neonatal nutrition.

This is very different from what Thomas’ paper is referring to, which is mild ketosis, similar to the levels experienced by normal non-ketogenic adults after overnight fasting, which is probably what you saw with urine strips. As his paper describes, this mild ketosis is due to differences in neonatal diet and physiology and very different from ketosis in adults due to eating a ketogenic diet. It is not true, as your blogger stated, that these are the same things, because clearly they are not.

I’m not trying to suggest you shouldn’t eat any diet you want to eat. At the end of the day, all that matters is that you like your diet, and that it helps you manage your BG. I am just bothered when I see false claims about the ketogenic diet such as this being used as justification to promote the diet.

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I’m new to this site. I love the idea of this poll, but just wish it were a bit more specific. In the 6’s could be 6.9 or 6.1. Would be nice to have (for example) 5.0-5.4, 5.5-5.9, etc. I have been pretty happy with my 6.3 for quite a while. Of course what I am not happy about is the daily roller coaster ups and downs which yield that “6.3”! Still trying to reduce that, after 52 years of trying. But with the pump and CGM I am a lot closer than ever.

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@toddbeall That is awesome! You can be quite an inspiration to some of our more recently diagnosed members!

Be sure to put your years into our combined years thread here:

And Welcome to FUD!

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Welcome toddbeall.

I also have 52 years T1D.

You may be interested in checking out the T1D exchange website and Discovery tool. They have large database that you can search related to A1C, plus other criteria, such as using pump or CGMS, number years with D, etc.

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@toddbeall Thanks for the idea. We can probably do that at some point. My goal, was really to just to get a feeling of how “normal” our site population was. I suspected that by choosing to be here, the people who were self-selecting had a very good A1c as compared to the overall population of diabetics, and I haven’t been disappointed. Clearly, our community has a great number of people who have a good idea on how to manage this beast. 52 years! Wow, that is inspirational. Glad you joined us!

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Welcome @toddbeall! Looking forward to your wisdom in the weeks and months to come!

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