Hypo Survey Results
Section 1 - Diets
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A survey about all aspects of non-diabetic
types of hypoglycemia, also known as Low Blood Sugar
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[ Introduction
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Data ]
1.1
Diagnosis and formal diet
1.2 Sweeteners
1.3 What
foods do you eat/avoid?
1.4 Crash recovery/prevention
1.5 Cravings
1.6 Meals
and snacks
1.7 Conclusion
 1.1
Diagnosis and formal diet
Over 1200 people took Section I about Diets. Of those, 72% identified
themselves as reactive hypoglycemics, while 25% were fasting hypoglycemics.
The remaining respondents indicated they were not hypoglycemic. The greatest
percentage (52%) were diagnosed by someone in the medical community. This
may, at first blush, suggest that the medical community isn’t as ignorant
and unbelieving as sufferers suggest. What it doesn’t account for, however,
is how many doctors an individual had to see before finding one who accurately
diagnosed the condition (an issue that may be addressed with the results
of Section 4, Diagnosis. It also doesn’t show whether or not the diagnosing
medical practitioner knew how to help the patient. This point may be made
when we look at the question about who put the respondent on his/her current
diet. 55% were diagnosed by a physician, but only 22% were placed on their
diets by a physician, and only 25% received diet information from their
physicians. And, once again, we don’t know how many physicians were consulted
before finding one who could provide information and recommendations about
diet; the information did not necessarily come from the diagnosing physician.
Despite all the different diets available that specifically address
hypoglycemia or sugar imbalance problems, 39% of the respondents followed
a non-specific or standard diet. The ones who saw the most remarkable improvement
in their symptoms, however, were those who followed the Fit For Life and
Atkins (http://www.atkinscenter.com/diet101.html)
Diets with 100% of the 4% of respondents on the Fit For Life Diet reporting
"some" or "strong" improvement. Of the 10% of respondents who followed
the Atkins Diet, 94% reported "some" or "strong" improvement. Others who
showed significant improvement (over 80% reporting "some" or "strong" improvement
) were those following the
Protein
Power (http://www.bdd.com/newrl/bddnewrl.cgi/02-01-96/prot),
Zone
(http://www.enterthezone.com/home.nsf/framset?open),
Carbohydrate Addicts
(http://www.carbohydrateaddicts.com) and
Krimmel (http://www.dyanet.com/~bodychem/books.html)
Diets. Of the 1% who followed a diabetes diet, 69% saw "some" or "strong"
improvement. Of the 11% who followed the HAI
(Hypoglycemia Association) Diet (http://www.fred.net/slowup/hai.html),
only 44% saw "some" or "strong" improvement while 22% actually saw a worsening
of their condition while on this diet. Section 1-4 attempted to determine
what, specifically, was affected by diet changes. The front runners for
improvement were mood and "crashes", probably the two most discussed issues
among hypoglycemics. These were followed closely by improvements in mental
functioning/vitality and attitude to life. (It will be interesting to compare
these issues with those in the Quality of Life Section.)
Regardless of which diet was tried, changes were undertaken by most
respondents, and 66% noticed a change in their condition within 1 week
of following their particular diet, with 55% seeing "some" or "strong"
initial improvement. 41% actually considered their condition stabilized
within one week of starting a new diet with another 22% stabilizing in
two weeks! There is a lot of room for skepticism about whether or not someone
can be stabilized in that short period of time, but, in our opinion, there
is strong encouragement for any hypoglycemic to pay close attention to
diet, and to make changes if the current diet is not helping. Even if one
is not totally "stabilized", the dramatic improvement certainly indicates
that a change in diet is worth the effort. And, our recommendation is to
exercise patience and stick with it! Give your body time to adjust, and
give yourself time to recognize what changes are taking place.
1.2
Sweeteners
Like diabetics, most hypoglycemics rely on artificial sweeteners to some
extent. There is a bit of controversy about whether or not this is a good
idea, with some opponents saying that the body will react to artificial
sweeteners in much the same way it does to real sugar. So, we set out to
find out what our respondents had to say. 464, or 39%, said they never
use them. Of those that do, 63% use the most familiar types: 42% use aspartame,
21% use saccharine. Surprisingly, only 19% said they never use real sugar
in any form. Of those that do, 54% use plain, white table sugar. But later
we learned that 88% of those who use some form of real sugar (white, brown,
fructose, glucose, dextrose, etc.) experience hypoglycemic symptoms afterward.
10% of those who use artificial sweeteners said they, too, experienced
symptoms, with the greatest number of those using Equal or Nutrasweet,
which are both aspartame.
1.3
What foods do you eat/avoid?
The diet section addressed the foods that were avoided or not consumed
during the previous year, and what effect certain foods have on the person’s
health and well-being. No one food stood out as being overwhelmingly and
consistently avoided, but bananas, grapes, apples and oranges turned up
at the top of the list of avoided fruits, and orange, apple, and grape
were the most avoided juices. Some respondents said they avoided all fruit
or all juices. In another section (1-8) when asked what foods were not
consumed at all in the past year, 46% answered "fruit", 48% said they avoid
non-caffeine soda, 45% avoid colas, and 34% avoid even "diet" sodas. Referring
to section 1-9a, which asks from what foods the respondent experiences
hypoglycemia related symptoms, 56% said cola drinks and 55% said regular
soda, so the avoidance figures are no surprise.
As a final note on avoided substances, 70%, or 840 respondents, avoided
smoking tobacco. We have no way of knowing if this was because of their
hypoglycemia (for instance, sensitivity to smoke of which many hypoglycemics
complain), or just a healthy choice. Perhaps the results of subsequent
sections will shed some light on the question.
1.4
Crash recovery/prevention
What do hypoglycemics use to recover from a "crash", or severe drop in
blood sugar? 57% head for protein, 40% nuts, and over 30% chose hard cheese,
meat/poultry/fish, or dairy products. But, here’s a surprise: 31% indicated
they use water for crash recovery! And, another surprise followed. In the
next section reflecting what foods are used to prevent a crash, 39% said
water! That goes against every bit of information written about the management
of hypoglycemia. (Perhaps a follow-up question, "Does it work?" might tell
us whether or not the experts are right.) The majority, however, 69%, use
protein for recovery while 52% specified meat/poultry/fish as their choice.
These are, of course, protein choices. Others indicated the use of vegetables
(49%), complex carbohydrates (40%), nuts, dairy products and hard cheese
for prevention.
1.5
Cravings
Cravings are something everyone faces at one time or another -- hypoglycemic
or not. Our study was interested in what hypoglycemics crave, when the
cravings occur, and, if one "gives in" to the craving, does one pay for
it later?
The most frequently craved foods were no surprise. 68% said sweets/candy
bars, and 55% specified chocolate. But, sadly, most said they paid for
indulging their cravings. 91% said they paid for eating sweets and/or candy,
87% regretted their chocolate consumption, 88% suffered from alcohol consumption,
79% lamented drinking regular soda, and 75% said ice cream caused them
problems.
We wanted to know when cravings occur. Is it after a hypoglycemic has
been cheating or after having abstained from sweets? Do they occur when
blood sugar is low or falling, or when blood sugar is high, or perhaps
only during premenstrual times? One choice was "don’t know". This we can
interpret as meaning that the cravings are not tied to any one particular
physiological situation, or it could also mean they could be tied to falling
or high blood sugar, for instance, but the individual has no reliable way
of knowing. The results were varied, but the highest percentages appeared
in the "High BG" and "Premenstrual" columns. Salty foods (42%), potato
chips (42%), dairy products (46%) and alcohol (51%) were craved the most
during the premenstrual times. Carbohydrates (41%) and citrus fruits (44%)
were the standouts during periods of high blood sugar. There were very
few high percentages seen in the cheating, abstention or low/falling blood
sugar columns. One would expect cravings to occur – especially those for
sweets – at periods of low or falling blood sugar, but the figures contradicted
that assumption.
Our respondents were almost evenly divided on whether or not cravings
occurred at a particular time of the day. 46% said yes, 44% said no. Only
836 responded to the question "At which times of the day do cravings occur?"
And, their responses indicated that cravings can occur at any time of day,
but 3:00 p.m. (15:00) stood out from the pack, as did 10:00 a.m., but not
as significantly. What does this mean? Perhaps that each individual is,
indeed, different from others. We may even speculate that cravings are
dependent upon what the individual has eaten and how vigilant he has been
about staying away from the "forbiddens". As well as what we eat, "how
and when" are important to the management of hypoglycemia.
1.6
Meals and snacks
The majority of respondents (67%) said three common or main meals are eaten
daily with the majority allowing four to five hours between breakfast and
lunch, and five to six hours between lunch and dinner. Although the most
prevalent recommendation is to eat five to six small meals per day, only
3% of the respondents indicated that they do so. 60.8% have two to three
snacks per day, with 86% indicating they have one to two snacks between
meals. So, perhaps most are eating five to six times a day as recommended,
just balancing the "meals" differently. 72% said that the size of their
snacks is 30% or less that of their main meals, verifying that most would
describe these in-betweens as snacks and not meals. And the majority said
they allowed two hours between snacks.
66% said that a good breakfast is "very important", but the respondents
were almost evenly divided on the question "Is eating your first activity
of the morning?" 27% said never; 26% sometimes; 21% mostly; 26% always.
So, how long can a hypoglycemic go without food before symptoms appear?
The greatest number, 289 or 27%, said 2 hours, but 72% fall in the 2-4
hour range.
Looking toward the end of the day, our survey asked about the bedtime
snack. Many hypoglycemics must eat at night in order to get through the
night without waking in hunger. Only 13% of our survey respondents, however,
said that they "always eat right before bedtime," while 24% said that a
bedtime snack is "very important". Only 18% said they never eat right before
bedtime, and 31% said they never eat at night. Apparently, nighttime or
bedtime snacks are not universally consumed by the hypoglycemics in our
survey.
1.7
Conclusion
What have we learned from reviewing the results of the Diet Section? First
and foremost it appears that focusing on diet and making positive changes
is a major step toward feeling better. If one pays special attention to
schedule and eating quality meals and snacks, if not frequent mini-meals
throughout the day, should result in significant improvement. Sugar/sweets,
regular soda and alcohol apparently are the hypoglycemic’s nemeses, just
as the books tell us they are. But the less obvious offenders also came
to light: high sugar fruits and fruit juices. To avoid crashes, or pull
yourself out of one: head for proteins, nuts and dairy products. And, by
all means, try to fend off the cravings whenever and for whatever reason
they occur.
 HypoTeam@Yahoo.com
Copyright © 1999 Hypoglycemia Survey Team. All rights reserved.
This document may not be sold for profit or incorporated
in commercial documents
ithout the written permission of the copyright holder.
| Archive-name |
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Hypoglycemia Survey Results - 1. Diets |
| Archived-at |
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URL: http://huizen.dds.nl/~hypo/survey |
| Last-change |
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February 14, 1999 |
| Original-author |
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PK Placko <HypoTeam@Yahoo.com>. |
| Version |
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V 1.0 |
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Hypoglycemia Mailing List server |
| First-draft |
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October 17, 1998 |
Last update: 14-February-1999 by PK Placko
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