No, I am very sure than a big part of the many millions is like I wrote. I don’t say all of them are like that, obviously not.
And it’s very well known that people depend on medicine instead of taking steps. Humans are often like that. Not all of us, obviously and thankfully. But too many. And it’s sad.
I didn’t talk about people who try but fail. I fail every day in various ways myself.
But too many people really don’t even try.
So we talk about two very different groups of people.
No, my mom didn’t eat sugar. Thanks for your information about your dad, it’s quite encouraging that people with diabetes can also live over 90!! I will tell my mom about the story of your dad to encourage her.
My mom doesn’t eat sugar, and she has had insulin injection almost every lunch and dinner every day for more than around 10 years!!! And now she has metformin every day together with insulin injection. I hate the doctor who suggested her to inject insulin at very early stage!!! Many of the doctors receive bribery from the medicine sellers here in China!! I believe that’s why the doctor suggested my mom to inject insulin at that very early stage!!!
My mom’s current situation is:
And I am hoping she can fully follow keto rather than just lower the carbs amount, because her situation is at a bad stage, and only full keto may help her. Because as we know that, only in ketosis, we can control the amount of carbs easily. If she is still in carbs mode, that will be very hard for her to control the amount of carbs.
My mom has just sent me her testing report made in hospital last August, could you please help take a look? Many thanks. I don’t know much about the C-peptide.
The testing is: in the morning, after fasting 12+ hours without water, then my mom was asked to eat 50g mantou (a food made of flour, I don’t know why the hospital didn’t use glucose liquid), then measure my mom’s blood after 1,2,3 hours, and the result is below.
And the doctor told my mom that, as a diabetes more than 20 years, her fasting blood sugar is not bad, is that true?
| Time | Blood Sugar | Blood C-Peptide | Blood C-Peptide Normal Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 hours fasting without water | 12.83 mmol/L (230.94 mg/dl) | ||
| 1 hour after meal (50 g food made of pure flour) | 14.43 mmol/L (259.74 mg/dl) | 526.9 pmol/L (0.527 nmol/L) | 367 pmol/L ~ 1767 pmol/L (0.367 nmol/L ~ 1.77 nmol/L) |
| 2 hours after meal (50 g food made of pure flour) | 17.94 mmol/L (322.92 mg/dl) | 688.6 pmol/L (0.689 nmol/L) | 400 pmol/L ~ 1267 pmol/L (0.4 nmol/L ~ 1.27 nmol/L) |
| 3 hours after meal (50 g food made of pure flour) | 23.16 mmol/L (416.88 mg/dl) | 894.99 pmol/L (0.895 nmol/L) | 113 pmol/L ~ 683 pmol/L (0.113 nmol/L ~ 0.683 nmol/L) |
No. Above ~6.1 mmol/L or 110 mg/dl, the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin are dying off faster than the body can replace them. Your mom is over twice that.
I didn’t experience that at all. It was very easy for me to eat about 80g net carbs a day. I didn’t want more, it was plenty… I did it through just cutting out the highest-carb items, food groups from my life. It was ridiculously easy and natural. I couldn’t do high-carb anymore and keto isn’t something I can do for long (it’s easier near carnivore but not just below my ketosis carb limit, the carbs interfere) but low-carb was easy. I think it’s too carby for me for longer term but it was several years ago I left it as my default woe for even lower carb.
Obviously our comfortable carb intake range is individual. Some people can do keto easily but if they stray, they end up eating high-carb for a while again. But many people finds low-carb, way above ketosis carb limit very pleasant and easy and even helpful. It was great for me for years but had to go lower eventually. Ketosis wasn’t enough but finally I ended up low enough and it changed me mentally regarding food. It was very needed.
Even if someone needs very low-carb but it’s a big jump, they can reach it gradually. Not everyone can go cold turkey, it may be super hard, physically and mentally as well. And taking some steps into the right direction is better than not taking any.
I didn’t realize you lived in China. You have an uphill battle then.
Not surprised she doesn’t eat sugar. Before COVID I travelled to China several times (Boxing and Zibo) and never saw sugar and hardly any dairy. I ate at the company cafeteria for lunch and my Chinese colleagues couldn’t believe I didn’t want rice or noodles or steamed buns with my lunch and I know they thought I was strange. But probably wrote it off to being a foreigner LOL.
The protein portions were small so I filled up on veggies.
If those are your mother’s glucose and C-peptide levels with medication, she is not in great shape. (C-peptide is an indicator of insulin-resistance, by the way.) I imagine she also has a great deal of systemic inflammation.
Not sure if I mentioned this already, but there are some researchers who believe that the industrial seed oils (soybean, cottonseed, canola, safflower, sunflower, corn, etc.) are at least partly to blame for insulin resistance, and there is even more evidence that they promote inflammation. So your mother uses a lot of oils, and if you could persuade her to switch from using oils to animal fats (butter/ghee, bacon grease, lard, tallow) to cook with, it might help, at least a little bit. Good luck!
Finally, on Saturday, my mum started to reduce rice and noodles significantly, that’s an important step, thanks everyone, you have saved a life. Mum told me that on Saturday dinner, she ate only about 50g rice with some greens, but on Sunday morning, her fasting blood sugar was too low at 4.4, and she experienced dizzy and vomiting, I told her that it’s because she didn’t eat enough fat to supplement energy.
She still couldn’t accept to increase the amount of fat, as worrying her cholesterol, I need more time to persuade her about this…
But whatever, she started to measure her blood sugar, and she knows her blood sugar is very bad, that’s a very important step forward!!! Thank you all!!
Boxing and Zibo are in the north of China, and I am in the south of China, next time if you come to China again, please let me know, I will take you to have a keto Chinese meal 
!!! I am at Zhuhai which is close to Hongkong and Macau.
If she injects insulin and/or takes certain oral medications for diabetes, a diet much lower in carbohydrates usually will mean less medication is required. “Too low blood sugar” can result from not reducing medication in this circumstance. Substituting fat for carbohydrates in her diet is perfect, but her medications, if any, should be altered accordingly.
Excellent! 
I hope she stays with this long enough to see and feel the benefits herself.
I’m not a doctor, and I don’t know all of your mother’s situation, but in general, 4.4 mmol/L or 80 mg/dl really is not “low.” That’s usually a really nice level.
(I am not a doctor) I don’t think is was not enough fat causing the dizziness and vomiting. It could be that her medication is titrated for her usual amount of carbs and because she ate less carbs, her medication level was too high? Is it possible to have a doctor on board to help her lower her medication as she lowers her carbs?
Thanks for your remind! Yes, I had told her if she decreased carbs intake, she should reduce medication and measure her blood sugar to see if the medication is enough.
I love traveling to China! A caucasian woman travelling by herself without speaking Mandarin is such an anomaly I get a LOT of stares! LOL.
But everyone is so helpful and polite. One of my hobbies is knitting and I always take a project along on these long flights to pass the time away. I have had so many Chinese women walk up to me, smile and point to my knitting with a questioning face.
If socks, I point to my feet and show them my project looks like a sock. If a scarf/shawl I motion surrounding my neck and show them my lace project. I gets lots of grins and smiles! I probably remind them of their grandmother LOL.
Boxing is so far out in the boonies I had a small child walk up to me, poke me in the arm to see if I was real. When I smiled at him he ran away scared. Didn’t mean to scare the poor kid!
At least money and numbers are universal so when I had to pay for something they could write down the number and I could count out my Chinese cash. There was actually a Burger King in one town so I went in and the menu was all in Chinese with no numbers. I saw a picture of a chicken sandwich with a pepper next to it - AH! Spicy chicken sandwich! They had other weird seafood items not seen in the US. I ordered the spicy chicken sandwich with a “coke” - they know that American word! Didn’t even try for a diet coke and wasn’t keto then so just glad to have something wet and cold. Most of the time I was offereed a soda at room temperature.
Yes, absolutely, knitting is my mom and grandmother’s hobbies in my memory, nowadays, we can merely see knitting. My mom made a sweater by knitting for my kids years ago!
Traditionally, Chinese believe cold water is not good to health, most Chinese prefer warm water or water at room temperature. Although there’s no evidence for this belief, actually I am a lover of drinks with ice.
I just want to give a feedback for this topic to let everyone knows the result and thanks for everyone’s suggestion, this feedback is an end of this topic.
The result is: I fail and give up to ask my mom to follow ketogenic diet to treat her severe type 2 diabetes. Never knew how stubborn a human being can be!
I’m not sure if anyone can be persuaded to try low carb by a family member.
Doctors easily tell people to do crazy things. Always have!
My partner has watched my very obvious health improvements but refuses to try for herself.
Well not beyond 3 days. I assume everyone here made the decision independently?
Smart. Sometimes the harder someone pushes us to do something, even though it’s for my own good, the harder we resist.
Life changing decisions usually come from within.
But your mom knows you love her, for sure.
For a collection of stories of older people on Keto, try this thread: Old fogies on Keto, Carnivore or Low Carb - Keto Chat - Ketogenic Forums
It’s just occurred to me, I don’t know who got me interested in Low Carb!
Good as you guys are, it wasn’t here that got me started. I came here for reassurance lol
So true. Even if something is sound and obviously worthwhile, the given person has to want it. Otherwise, it’s often like ‘pushing on a string.’
It was for me for carnivore 
Keto was just something I have read about online years before and as low-carb worked so well but wasn’t enough, it was logical to go lower, it took YEARS of stalling for me to dare (with lots of carbs and unlimited total, I am bad with restrictions). There was no person or specific thing and no outer force can influence me, probably. If very logical factlike things don’t count but I still rather listen to my body… And have my limits. It’s scary to think that the average people do way less than I with my non-existent self-control…
I doubt there are many people who can be persuaded. As Robin wrote, it must be from within. If the one in question isn’t open, it won’t work.
I am glad I am able to influence my SO a bit 
Just to the point where he feels comfortable but he is the slim one thriving on high-carb (and suffer on low-carb immediately) so why would he break what works? And his Mom with diabetes, well she is the sadly normal one who won’t make huge changes diet wise, health or not. She even eats sugar. Not very often I think and she did make some positive changes due to doctor’s orders but still, she eats way more added sugar than her son who could handle it way more (it’s still bad so I am glad he stopped when I did)…
It’s very hard to influence someone else’s diet to a great extent if they aren’t willing and it’s hard to make most people willing…