We don’t think Bernstein is a bad word. It is a somewhat extreme method for controlling your diabetes, but if it works for you, we are happy you bring it up and talk about it. The only problem we have had in the past with Bernstein adherents is a dogmatic approach that Bernstein is the only way to control Type 1. Which isn’t true. Other than avoiding that landmine, feel free to talk about it, the approach, the benefits etc. Just expect that others who are solving the problem differently may express their views. If anyone crosses the line and abuses you for your approach, well that is why us mods exist.
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Dogmatism can go both ways. I dislike rules whether it’s from another T1’er, an endo, big pharma, the FDA, or an insurance company. I think it’s important to do a lot of reading and hearing other patients’ stories rather than rely on a non T1 endo quizzing you on your carb ratio and/or expensive technology that makes you a slave to the insurance company. I guess I globbed onto Dr Bernstein since it made sense to me, gave me a good reason to avoid pumps for a while at least and keep life simple. I guess being dx’ed at age 40 gave me the perspective that food isn’t a big deal and I’ve consumed many a donut, fries, pizza, and beans and rice in my “prior life”. It’s just food so do what you want to do!
ETA: It just occurred to me you might be referring to the “gritters”. Don’t worry I was kicked out of that FB group long ago. Apparently I asked too many stupid questions being a new T1er and all. I also can’t stand the guy that leads that group.
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Yeah, that’s the type of Bernstein dogmatists we’re referring to. I agree with Chris, other than avoiding the landmine of their approach, feel free to discuss how Bernstein’s ideas work for you.
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What landmine are you referring to? Just being stuck up rude or something else?
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From my point of view, I’m with Chris that the landmine is an assertion that super low carb is the only valid and sensible way to deal with type 1, and anyone who eats carbs despite having been told about Bernstein’s way must be somewhere between stupidly obtuse and despicably ignorant moron. I’m guessing that’s what Boerenkool means too, although he would say it with European tact.
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@bkh described it perfectly, apologies for leaving too much to read between the lines in my messages. Any assertion (low carb, high carb, medium carb, dietary supplement xyz, cinnamon, etc) that there is only one way to control your diabetes is the landmine. It just isn’t true. We have one member who only eats once per day and eats a steak, and has fantastic weight control and great diabetic numbers. Is this way the only way to manage diabetes? Of course not, but it works for some and there should be no problem discussing it. In the same breath, Bernstein makes a case that his method works and that is awesome. If it works for you, talk about it. Just don’t tell everyone else that it is the only way.
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I am new here, so I apologize for reviving an older discussion. I was thinking that our experience in terms of coping with a “diet” might be useful to the OP.
My son was diagnosed 6 months ago but our current diet has been our family’s go to for the past 3 years. After diagnosis and after the first two weeks of following the protocol with the countless ups and downs that brought frustration and physical burden for my son we got back to it and it turned out to be what worked best for us. We were lucky not to have to add an additional trauma of changing the diet - my kid kept eating what he was used to and what he loved. He’s not eating this way to manage diabetes but to stay healthy. We all do.
The first time I heard “low-carb” was after DX and I hate this term, even though we do fall under the category. I have the feeling that mainstream “low-carb” is often connected to eating processed/ packaged food, alternatives to bread, pasta, bagels, muffins, etc. that are not what we would eat. I often get asked where I find low-carb “supplies” in Italy, which left me perplexed the first time.
We eat only real food, avoiding anything with a bar code. I don’t restrict carbohydrates, as long as they come from non-starchy vegetables (though we do occasionally eat beets and carrots, which are starchy). My son Loves vegetables. We prefer fruits that are rich in antioxidants, not in sugar (yes to berries!). We also eat meat in various types and forms, eggs, fish, nuts, and seeds. Before diagnosis I used to make dessert maybe once a week (grain-free but with sugar), now I make it with erythritol instead of sugar, that’s the only difference. We do eat chocolate (90% cacao) - a small piece with a few nuts is a great way to finish lunch with style 
We both work from home. I’m a web-programmer, very stressful and time-consuming at times, and I am also homeschooling two extremely active boys. I can’t afford to spend lots of time in the kitchen. All recipes are simple. Kids eat two raw eggs with yogurt and berries for breakfast, with cacao, linseed, and cinnamon (with occasional surprise variations), my husband and I skip breakfast as we love intermittent fasting. I make our yogurt because the one sold at stores is not authentic here in Italy. Our lunch is the biggest meal of the day - fresh vegetables and meat (protein). Dinner is lighter, usually cooked vegetables, some leftovers, eggs, cheese. There are lots of ways to prepare meat without spending much time (slow-cooking in the oven with a few herbs, fast high-heat, even raw - there’s a thing for raw meat in the region where we live). Fish requires more time, we alternate fresh with canned. It’s easier to eat smaller fish, which seem to be more beneficial, when it’s canned, instead of prepping it. Eggs, too, lots of ways to cook. We buy eggs from different type of birds - not only the size, but the consistency is different and adds to the variety.
My T1D kid is very active and outdoorsy, running around with his brother all day long, but I haven’t had problems with low BG for now. He’s converting glucose from the protein, I guess at a rate that works for him. Having followed such a diet for so long has gotten his body into getting used to protein/ fat burning. But I would be ready with glucose tabs or liquid glucose if I see a drop. He occasionally has a small spike during an intense physical activity but I tend to attribute it to adrenaline, so avoid treating as it comes back down soon after.
As a side note - he’s on the higher side of the growth chart and insulin is the only medication he’s ever needed, so I do feel it’s working out well for him.
Anyways, the point is, we keep it simple and everyone in the family is happy. I don’t think eating this way requires much time, unless you are baking alternatives to other food. If you do crave other foods while eating this way will create lots of frustration. I remember the first month we were on it - my husband felt bad physically but he kept at it (he had had an appointment with a nutritionist who told him to give it a try for a month, without budging, to address some health issues). He’s never looked back, and for reference, he used to eat lots of pasta, bread, and sugar. The first month is tough but if you keep at it you will know if it’s for you.
I thought I’d share our experience.
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Wow this sounds so excellent. Kudos to you for taking such great care of your T1D child (and modelling the good behavior yourselves)! My boyfriend and family eat absolute garbage it is always around me chips, pop, cake, ice cream and that’s just the junk food. Healthy food is carb heavy too. Lots of bread, baked stuff, rice, pasta. It’s SOOOO hard. AND they overeat. Now, I realize I’m an adult and have to make my own choices, but I do find this hard.
I’d love to WANT to eat the way you describe above. I do think I’m one of those all or nothing types and to curb my cravings I’m going to have to cut out the junk entirely.
Thanks so much, you’ve motivated me!!!
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@beans_betes, how are your workouts going?
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Hey thanks for asking. I actually rode my bike off the trail and banged myself up pretty good so I haven’t been doing much moving at all this week. I’ll be sure to check in and post my data once I get back to 100% though!
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@beans_betes I feel your struggle. I have a similar experience with my MIL.
There’s a podcast I listen to often that you might like. It’s dr Hyman’s, The Doctor’s Farmacy. It’s about functional medicine and the episodes are usually interviews with scientists and MDs. I love the level of medical detail in the discussions, it gets pretty specific in terms of what, why, and how. It has helped me a lot to better understand the human body.
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I second the Dr Bernstein advice. I also am MDI with NPH and Humalog. I also use the Dexcom G6 but with the famous Sony Standalone Smartwatch 3 for my long runs and other workouts. Sounds like your food selections are about the same.
Again, very good information. This is especially good to get the A1C down in the low 5 values.
I’ve been a T1D for the last 48 years with no complications. I developed T1D shortly after leaving the military.
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So I went for my first after work cycle the day before yesterday. It was kind of a spur of the moment decision, so I can’t recall all the details, but I turned control iq off, and ate a bowl of Fibre 1 cereal with unsweetened almond milk approx 20 carbs and didn’t bolus, went for about an hour and if I recal I started at 13 and ended about 7. I don’t count this as any firm data because I was out of commission pre for a week or so and that will have messed me up, but just keeping a record here. Things were normal till later like 12am I had a low. Not too bad, but wasn’t caught by control IQ so I had 2 glucose tabs and all good.
Yesterday I didn’t workout at all as I was quite sore and ate/dosed normally. Numbers were pretty steady except for after dinner I had a bit of a spike but it came down pretty quickly (I had dosed less than was suggested because I was worried about more lows a few hours post dinner) but my overnight looked like a lot of suspending and I had to eat 2 glucose tabs around 2am.
I really wanted to repeat the ride today, but it’s scheduled to rain. Still thought I’d show my overnight screen as it seems to me too much overnight basal. I may get to the gym, so that would be about an hour, but not exactly the same.
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Do you change your basal settings for exercise days versus non-exercise days?
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I do not. At present, I have the following settings:
Basal: 0.9
Correction: 1:3
Carb: 1:11
Target BG: 6.1
Duration: 5HRS
I think an issue I was encountering previously is that I was eating something to up my BG before my workout, but then Control IQ would be working behind the scenes to prevent the rise. I would arrive at the park to ride, and essentially have bolus on hand, because it’d been upping in the background. So, the ride the other day I turned CIQ off before I ate my cereal, then drove to the park, arrived at I think 13 and ended up at 7 post ride.
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Yeah, I think setting up an entirely different profile that is based on exercise is a prudent plan.
I think you need to adjust your basal anyways. Not many people get away with having ONE basal rate for 24 hours straight. For example, I have 4 different rates per day. I had more before I switched to Control IQ, but no longer need them.
Having an profile setup with lower basals and lower correction (this is a big one that control IQ uses to bring you down.)
Also, maybe having it run in sleep mode with a very low correction ratio might do good for you as well.
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Follow-up:
I went for my second after work cycle (since bailing) yesterday. After work I was 4.2 and felt low. I was not about to head out like that. I ate a bowl of Fibre 1 cereal with unsweetened almond milk approx 20 carbs and didn’t bolus. Watched some TV and took a look at my numbers (maybe 1/2 hr later) and I was 16.4!!! I was so shocked at that, and so I didn’t turn off Control IQ and headed out for my cycle. I went for about 45 mins, and at the end I was in the 7 range. I had dinner and bolused as per regular. Remained in the 7s until about midnight was 4.2, but no lows. Unfortunately, I can’t see the data any more re if there was many suspending periods throughout the night, but like I said, no lows. Also no highs.
It looks like it will be a nice day today, so I do plan on going for an evening ride tonight. Stay tuned ha ha
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There is a phone app, T:Connect, that can save data, and upload to web for seeing trends or review with medical team. You would see the suspend periods, bolus, basals, cgm, etc. You can check it out in Tandem website.
There is also an exercise mode on pump you may want to check out.
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@beans_betes, have you considered switching off Control IQ altogether? Maybe use only basal IQ and do any corrections manually, when necessary. Also, basal testing is so important, it will help find the perfect basal rates for you, without mixing basal/ bolus. I use my son’s pump in manual mode, taking advantage only of its functionality to turn off insulin to avoid a low. I think you’ll be able to better understand insulin and glucose needs this way.
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I have not considered that. I’m not sure I even knew I could do only Basal IQ…that sounds somewhat familiar maybe it was discussed in training. I’ll look into it! Thanks!
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