The Grand Forks Diabetic Diet

There is real hope if you're a type II diabetic. Changing your diet can end your disease and return you to normal blood sugar levels. My story backs up the claims made by the Atkins diet, of which the Grand Forks Diabetic Diet is a variation.

The Grand Forks Diabetic Diet

by Frank Hilliard

Thirteen years ago I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes during a routine physical. I was devastated. I was in my mid 50's and, although somewhat overweight, felt perfectly fine. Now after two blood glucose tests over 7.0 mmol/L, I was the victim of a chronic and incurable disease.

Normal fasting blood glucose is between
3.6 and 5.8 mmol/L

Naturally, I cut out sugar, stepped up my exercise regime and drove the numbers down below 6.0 into the mid 5's. As the years progressed, though, the numbers began to creep back up; first into the sixes, then the sevens and eights.

Finally, two months ago, I realized with a shock my blood sugar was out of control; it was 10.4 mmol/L. My doctor, who generally starts to worry if a patient goes over 7.6 mmol/L put me on Metformin. It had absolutely no effect. In addition I noticed by blood pressure was also high, peaking at 160/90. I was one sick puppy.

The operative word in that sentence is 'was'. Take a look at this chart; it's the result of the first two weeks of the GFDD (click to enlarge).

blood sugar & weight decline in two weeks

You can see it starts off just as I've said; the first reading is 10.4. The next day it's 9.1, then 7.7. In ten days, I'm down below the magic threshold of 7.0 and get a reading of 6.7. In two weeks, I've hit 5.3!

So, let's skip forward two months and see what the figures look like now. Here's a one month running chart ending today:

One month running (second month)

The straight line in both cases is the average. In the case of my weight, it continues to fall towards the target figure, 183, which will give me a Body Mass Index of 24.8. Normal weight is a BMI of from 18.5 to 24.9.

The blood glucose figure is also declining and is running at 5.2 for the month. For the last seven days, it's been 4.9. Given the reference range of 3.6 to 5.8,  this put's me just two tenths of a point above the Mean rate of 4.7 or two-and-a-half above the Median of 4.65. Or to put that another way; it's square in the middle of the range. Woopee! No diabetes!

Also no hypertension. My blood pressure is currently in the 126/75 - 128/78 range, inside the normal range for diastolic pressure (60 - 80), and close to the normal range for systolic pressure (90 -120). It's certainly a long way below the threshold for Stage one hypertension of 140/90.

To summarize; this diet works; it is not a fad or a con, it is a practical way to attack diabetes, hypertension and weight. It has lowered my blood sugar to the normal range, lowered my blood pressure out of the hypertension range and lowered my weight towards my target BMI.  It can do the same for you.

General Principle

The general principle, like the Atkins Nutritional Program, is to lower your intake of carbohydrates and increase the intake of proteins and fats. It is roughly a stage two Atkins, with some modification. One of these is that I believe you should restrict diet choices to reduce the variables you have to work with. Also, I feel you should use a blood glucose monitor and an electronic scale with half pound increments. Of course, check with your doctor about going on this diet, or any diet.

Mealplan
The diet is divided up into four meals and two snacks: two breakfasts, lunch, a mid-afternoon snack, dinner and an after-dinner snack. Here they are:

• First Breakfast. This should be a bowl of Fiber One cereal with cream, sprinkled with fresh (from frozen) berries and Sugar Twin. Plus two cups of President's Choice Decaffeinated Coffee with cream and Sugar Twin.
• Second Breakfast. This should follow your first 40 minute exercise of the day (brisk walking). It consists of two fried eggs, three fried cherry tomatoes and two strips of Maple Leaf Ready Crisp precooked bacon. Fry them all in olive oil. Plus two cups of President's Choice Decaffeinated Colombian Coffee with cream and Sugar Twin. 
• Lunch consists of a Greek Salad made up of half a field cucumber, a medium tomato, four olives and a tablespoon of Feta cheese, all drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper, plus a can of fish. This can be an 85 g can of flavoured tuna or tuna in olive oil, a 100 g Brunswick Seafood Snack, a 106 g Brunswick sardine can or three quarters of a 213 g can of Sockey Salmon. Make the salmon into a salad by adding olive oil mayonnaise and chopped up celery.To drink, make a cup of Celestial Seasonings Madagascar Vanilla Red Caffeine-free tea or Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice Herb Tea (cinnamon), Sweeten with Sugar Twin and try adding milk. You need to do another 25 minutes of brisk walking before drinks time.
• Afternoon snack. This can be one of three things: a round teaspoon of sugar-free peanut butter, a pickled egg or a slice of Swiss cheese wrapped around two thin slices of Hungarian salami.
• Drinks time. Have two 12 oz glasses of Canada Dry soda with a half fresh squeeze lime.  You can have a small handful of macadamia nuts with this.
• Dinner. You can have just about any meat, fish or poultry. Steak with Caesar works, as does roast beef with broccoli and cauliflower. Ham with mashed turnip. Barbecued chicken with snap peas and spaghetti squash. Pork chops and asparagus with a potato skin. Just remember to avoid any starchy vegetable, and any bread, rice, pasta or potatoes (except the skin). And of course, no sugar or sweets. You can have another cup of tea after dinner. Then go for a 25 minute brisk walk.
• Evening snack. Have another one of the snacks I mentioned earlier.

Supplments
I take a multi-vitamin and mineral pill, two garlic oil pills and one fish oil capsule.

Alcohol
You have to stop drinking most beer, but you can have a bottle (26 oz) of Cote du Rhone once a month if you're strict with the rest of your diet. Have a half bottle at a time for the least effect on your blood sugar. Other red wines may not work as well.

In the States, you can have the occasional bottle of Select 55 low carb beer from Budweiser. It has only 1.9 grams of carbohydrate per bottle, an astoundingly low number. I can't detect any blood sugar effect from this beer. In Canada, Molson-Coors Canadian 67 beer has the same carb count but a few more calories. It works just as well and tastes better.

If you've got any questions, feel free to email me.

Good luck.

Update (Oct. 14, 2010)
My A1c figure for the past three months was 5.6 percent, exactly the same as the previous three months. The normal range for A1c readings is from 4 to 5.9 percent. This means I've been in the normal range for half a year on the GFDD.

Note: Fasting blood sugar is measured in mml/L which is a quantity, while A1c measures glucose attached to hemoglobin from which is determined the percentage of blood glucose over a three-month period.


Update II (Jan. 10, 2011)
Here's a winter lunch recipe you may like to replace the usual three-season lunch I've described.