Always consult with your practitioner
Please note that you always consult with your doctor when using a low-carbohydrate or ketogenic diet, because your blood sugar medication must be adjusted. If this does not happen, there is a chance of potentially dangerous ‘hypos’. In addition, low-carbohydrate diets cannot be used when using an SGLT2 inhibitor because of the life-threatening side effects that this can cause. Discuss with your doctor whether other medication can be used if you would like to try a ketogenic diet to control type 2 diabetes.
How do you switch to a ketogenic diet?
All beginnings are difficult and that certainly applies to the ketogenic diet. It takes time and energy to familiarize yourself with the new food. At the same time, the body has to get used to the switch to fat burning.
This can be accompanied by irritability, fatigue and headaches. As a rule, these physical effects last for several days. After about 72 hours, the body is well on its way with the production of ketones (produced from burning fat) and you will have more energy.
However, the mental switch takes longer. Some people experience the need to eat sweet for weeks. In this period it is important not to give in to temptation. After all, by breaking your ketosis, your body has to go through the transition period again. If you manage to resist the temptation, you will notice that the need for biscuits, sweets and other unhealthy foods will gradually disappear.
To maintain a certain diet, it is important that your environment supports you. The cultural background, gender and religion play a role in this. In some parts of the world, people are used to eating a lot of potatoes, rice, pasta, beans or corn. Men on average eat more carbohydrates than women and in various religions there are food restrictions, such as not eating beef or pork.
When switching to a ketogenic diet, you should therefore think carefully about how you can leave these foods out of your diet, while at the same time you can still eat with family and friends. In the beginning, this means that you plan ahead (view the menu in advance), bring your own food or organize a dinner yourself where you introduce your environment to ketogenic.
It can also help in daily life to look for low-carbohydrate substitutes in advance for foods that are eaten a lot within your family. Think turnips (keto-potato) as a replacement for potatoes, cauliflower rice as a replacement for regular rice and egg ‘noodles’ (sliced very thinly fried egg) as a replacement for the classic noodles.
This way you can provide a meal for the whole family with relatively small changes without having to cook for everyone separately or spend hours in the kitchen. Furthermore, some people feel that a diet rich in meat, fish, eggs, butter and fats is more expensive than a ‘normal’ healthy diet. This is usually not the case in practice. This may be because these foods contain many more nutrients than the average carbohydrate-rich products. As a result, you need less of it to feel full.12
Finally, it is important to be sufficiently motivated yourself. Here too, your environment can help you by not tempting you to eat carbohydrate-rich foods. A nutritionist can help you with more practical matters, such as customized meal inspiration. Don’t forget the online community either. There are many Facebook groups and Twitter channels with like-minded people who want to help you or where you can get some motivation.
Conclusion
In type 2 diabetes, it is important that hyperinsulinaemia is treated and not, as is currently the case, the resulting hyperglycaemia. For the timely diagnosis of diabetes, therefore, both the fasting blood glucose and the insulin concentration should be measured. By severely restricting carbohydrates in the diet (less than 50 grams per day), type 2 diabetes is often reversible. At first it can be tedious to count carbs and adjust meals. Your own motivation is the most important, but your environment can be an important support in the initial period. In the long run, however, your need for sweets disappears and you will no longer depend on carbohydrates to feel good and that can be very liberating.