“Read all about it! Low Carb Diets Help Reduce High Blood Sugar Levels in Diabetics!”That is what newspaper boys should be shouting. So, when your doctors says, “You have type 2 diabetes” he will also say you need to control your high blood sugar and weight.  This means you will need to adopt healthy food choices and exercise that will include a low carb diet.

There are other diets to choose from like low fat diets. Not choosing one means developing diabetes complications such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, obesity, loss of vision, etc.  Suddenly, you realize that diabetes is a whole body disease and you will need to follow your doctor’s recommendations to live a healthy life.

Problems That Face Type 2 Diabetes Sufferers   
Three of the biggest problems facing type 2 diabetes patients are high blood sugar levels, obesity, and high blood pressure. These problems are not curable only treatable and the best way to treat both is to lose weight. You can start doing this by understanding how carbohydrates and protein affect your body and the value of low carb diets.

What Is A Carb?
The majority of people today don’t understand what a carbohydrate is, only that many of these foods are bad for them. So what is a carb? Carbs are compounds that are broken down by the body to produce different amounts of glucose (sugar). Glucose is used as fuel by all cells of the body. There are three types of carbs including fibers, starches and sugars. When the carbs turn into glucose, it is taken into the cells to be used immediately or stored for later use should there be too much in the body.

Fiber has the least available glucose. Starch has more available glucose than fiber. Sugar, as in sugar added during manufacturing or cooking has the most because sugar is sugar.  Sugar is a combination of glucose and fructose. Fructose is a simple sugar found in fruits. Sugar can be table sugar (sucrose), high fructose corn syrup a very popular modified sweetener found in processed foods. Sugar alcohols contain from 0.2 to 3 calories per gram compared to the 4 calories per gram. And, although they are not called sugars, some sugar alcohols like maltitol can raise blood sugar levels.  So, let’s discus low carb diets.

Healthy Diets That Follow A Low-Carb Standard
If you don’t like the idea of medication or using insulin, then your best way to deal with diabetes is to follow a healthy diet and exercise more. This is where following a low carb diet comes in handy. A low carb diet is as its name suggests: it means eating foods that are low in carbs…either by lowering the total amount of carbs in the diet or lowering the amount of carbs in certain foods. Note: Low carbs does not mean no carbs.

Many of the more popular low carb diets include the Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet and Sugar Busters. These diets will help you lose weight by avoiding certain foods such as pasta, bread, rice and starchy vegetables. Note: Mentioning these brands is not a recommendation for using any of these diets.  We just mentioned them as examples of commercial low carb diets. Please, work with your health care professional.
   
Swedish Study About The Link Between Low Carb Diets and Type 2 Diabetes
Recently, Sweden researchers conducted a clinical trail to study how low carb diets affect type 2 diabetes. It found that those who followed the diet were able to improve their blood sugar levels. Researchers had 16 obese type 2 patients who had a 20 percent carb diet for six months; they also had 15 people in a “control group” who followed a 60 percent carb diet. The data showed that the 16 following the 20 percent carb diet were able to gain better control over their blood sugar levels and weight. After six months, the majority of people who were in the control group turned to other diets to gain control over their diabetes and weight.

What The Study Shows   
Although the number of people in the clinical was very small, and the length of the trail was short, it moves us in the right direction. This meant they could lower their blood sugar levels and weight with a strictly controlled low carb diet for 6 months. A longer trial with more people would answer questions about side effects and how long can people stay on a low carb diet before stopping or cheating.

What The Study Means
It means that what you heard about changing your diet is true. By following a low carb diet, under the guidance of your health care professional, you can get your blood sugar under control and lose body fat weight without having to use medication. But, if you issues with your kidneys, your doctor may tell you that a high-protein (low-carb) diet may put too much pressure on your kidneys in having to pass larger amounts of spent protein/amino acids in your urine.

But, if you have no kidney problemss..Go for it. You will have to stick with the program for best results. And, as some TV commercials say, “results may vary.”