I received a great question about the problematic diagnosis of gestational diabetes due to a failed oral glucose tolerance test. Give this a read so we can dismantle pregnancy related nutrition.
Hey Robb,
My wife and I have been Paleo ever since I was “certified” in Portland last year:)
My wife is 8 months pregnant and has been dx with gestational diabetes (I truly believe its total bs and that the OGTT is inaccurate in so many ways that it is ridiculous, but I digress) We are using a birthing center with a midwife so it was a sad requirement that we consult with an “expert” in nutrition, which had to be the most frustrating 2 hour visit of my life (the RN who we visited with was diabetic herself and came in drinking a large diet coke…I threw an apple core in her waste basket and found multiple fast food containers…Im not judging…she then began to tell us how we were eating to “low carb” and how bad it was).
ANYWAY, my wife left with a glucometer (awesome) and she was told to check her sugars 4x a day for 2 weeks 1 hour after every meal and then send the results back in (BTW my wife does CFmoms and is 5?10 170…138 with out the baby, very lean and athletic).
So for 2 weeks we BOTH checked sugars, to compete, and all of our sugars were great, below 88 after 1 hour and fasting in the am high 60′s low 70’s, she faxed her sugars in and was immediately called by above referenced nutritionist and told that her sugars were “to low” and asked to eat MORE carbs (complex of course) and check for another week, so we made up sugars that were slightly higher and faxed them in and have not received a call since. We eat fairly strict, always unlimited quantity and to satiety, we have never felt better. I’m a Fire/Medic and will occasionally check my sugars at work for random reasons and several times have found my sugars in the low 60’s (no symptoms, feeling great)….and I’m aware this flies in the face of western medicine (we practice under our protocols that we cant leave a diabetic at home with bgc less then 80).
SO, my question is, based on your genius….what is to low (not according to current medical standards which seem to be on the high side)?
Thanks, Silky
If you are unfamiliar, the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is a diagnostic test used to establish gestational diabetes. The thinking goes like this:
If you consume a large bolus (75-100g) of glucose and fail to clear it in a timely manner, you are insulin resistant and thus have “gestational diabetes” (GD). I’ve written on this topic before and the whole thing makes me want to lobotomize myself with a blunt instrument. It’s a tough and incendiary topic. On the one hand our medical professionals deal with a huge population of women who eat very poorly, never exercise and somehow still manage to get pregnant. Miracle that this situation is, biology makes things worse. During pregnancy the mom becomes even more insulin resistant due to an evolutionary adaption in mammalian-mom’s in which they become slightly insulin resistant to allow a positive flow of nutrients to the developing fetus via the placenta. If the mom was more insulin sensitive than the fetus we could end up in a nutrient scarcity situation due to nutrition flowing to the more ubiquitous tissues of the mom. Biology fixes this problem by making mom a little insulin resistant, effectively “pushing” nutrients to the fetus. Score one for biology! Problems arise however when our modern diet and lifestyle make this otherwise favorable adaptation dangerous. Too many carbs (particularly chronic fructose intake), autoimmune complications with lectins, loss of insulin sensitivity due to sleep deprivation and stress can drive expecting moms into gestational diabetes. From the paper linked above we have an interesting observation that severity of GD is likely determined in part by estrogen and progesterone levels. One of the key features of hyperinsulinism is a decrease in sex hormone binding protein (SHBP) which then makes estrogen more available to the tissues. Interestingly, this problem with estrogen is actually at the heart of most female infertility, but that is a topic for another day (or a book…)
Now’s My Chance to Party!
As if the above was not bad enough, many moms-to-be decide “this is my chance to eat anything…I’m going to get fat anyway!” We now have a really terrible situation for the moms, unborn kids and the medical professionals who deal with this everyday. These mom’s are laying down the genetics for their kids in such a way that kiddo will be prone to poor insulin control, diabetes and a host of related problems throughout life. In geek-speak our phenotype (the physical manifestation of our genetics) begins in uttero and that sets the tone for the rest of our lives.
So far so good? Great, now let’s go to Bizzaro world (ours) and see how a lack of evolutionary understanding on the part of our medical professionals can derail an otherwise good situation. In the example above “paleo mom” has been eating great and if we ran an A1c (a measure of blood glucose over time, much more valuable than the OGTT or blood glucose measure) we’d likely find she has low, BUT HEALTHY blood glucose levels. She is fat adapted, not insulin resistant and can thus run many of her tissues on fat. That folks, is good. But what happens when she is given a bolus of raw sugar, much larger than anything she, or her developing fetus have ever seen? Well, she has trouble clearing all that sugar. This may give people a headache, but some of this mom’s tissues are “insulin resistant” but healthy because they run on fat.
Smoke’em if You’ve Got’em
A “sugar burner” will see decreased physical and cognitive performance quite quickly compared to a fat burner. Why? Because that fuel (glucose) is comparatively limited and if most of the tissues are running on glucose one must rely on constant feedings or face a blood sugar crash. Folks with this problem must re-feed every 2-3 hrs to avoid “hypoglycemia”. In extreme situations this hypoglycemia could result in coma or death and this is part of what the medical folks are worried about in this gestational diabetes situation. But just like standard insulin resistant type 2 diabetes, they botch the solution. What they are missing in this situation is this paleo-mom is buffered against the vagaries of blood sugar changes because her main fuel source is fat. In chemistry a buffer is the salt of a weak acid or base that prevents changes (up to a point) in the pH of a system. This is pretty handy in biological systems that operate within very tight acid/base ranges. In economics and statistics a similar phenomena is called an attractor. Biological systems, economies and other dynamic processes function well with “buffers” as it prevents high’s and low’s that could destroy that system.
Where things are falling down is this mom is not having a blood sugar management issue typical of most people coming through the door of hospitals. Her metabolism is running on a comparatively “infinite” fuel source (fat) and she and her developing baby are doing just fine, thanks. At least until they were exposed to a 100g bolus of raw glucose (which they do not clear quickly, but this is a normal adapation to a lower carb intake) and are then told to increase her carb intake until she becomes….a SUGAR BURNER!!! The recommended diet change would drive average blood glucose up, increasing inflammation and advanced glycation end products typical of elevated blood glucose. Mom can now suffer legitimate blood sugar crashes due to an inability to access body fat for the preponderance of energy needs in her body. Thanks Doc!
Take a look at this study for some specific numbers. You will notice that glucose utilization for fuel went from .71g/kg/min in the baseline period to .50g/kg/min in the 4th week of adaptation to a ketogenic diet. Folks were burning 30% less glucose for their energy by the 4th week and this is just getting going. Those numbers improve with time and drop glucose consumption by upwards of 50% vs baseline. This means it actually gets damn hard to face a hypoglycemic event. Here is a nice closing paragraph from that paper:
“These findings indicate that the ketotic state induced by the EKD (EKD is a ketogenic diet with a maintenance level of calories) was well tolerated in lean subjects; nitrogen balance was regained after brief adaptation, serum lipids were not pathologically elevated, and blood glucose oxidation at rest was measurably reduced while the subjects remained euglycemic.”
This is a great paragraph. The ketogenic diet was not muscle wasting, did not unfavorably alter blood lipids, and stable blood sugar was maintained while decreasing total glucose consumption. If ketosis also fought cancer and reversed neurological disease ranging from Parkinson’s to Huntington’s it would be just amazing. Oh, wait…that’s exactly what ketosis does. HMMM.
May I have a slice of confusion, with a side of Ignorance?
So, the medical professional dealing with these folks is both confused and ignorant on a number of topics. Confusion grows from the fact that she is simply not used to seeing a healthy, fat burning mom walk through the door. Confusion and ignorance surround the use of the OGTT. And hopefully it’s obvious that the preferred management strategies for diabetes, be it gestational or otherwise, are ridiculous when we really think through the metabolic mechanisms. The two blood values that get doctors and dieticians in a fizz in situations like this are blood glucose and ketones. If they see ketones they assume a state of ketoacidosis but the two states cannot be any more different other than they both have ketone bodies in circulation. Ketoacidosis is not just ketone bodies but also decreased blood pH and typically very high blood glucose. This is a nasty situation but simply seeing ketones on blood work should not be all that is involved in making a determination of “ketoacidosiss.” The other piece, blood glucose levels finally brings us back to the original question: “How low is too low?” Well, we see numbers in hunter gatherers in the 60-70 range. In certain clinical situations of advanced ketosis individuals have functioned as low as 40ng/dl. From anthropological data and research on ketogenic diets I’d put a safe operating low end at 55-60ng/dl. Possibly lower, but the real take home here is simply how do you feel and perform? If you are having a blood sugar crash, it’s too low! But compared to what our medical establishment would like to see the fat adapted paleo-mom is likely fine at levels lower than commonly accepted so long as mom shows good A1C’s and simply feels good.
I’ll likely get a bunch of hate mail on this but there was a time when childbirth did not require OGTT’s and a host of other management schemes. Can childbirth be dangerous? Absolutely, but it would be nice if medicine adopted the position of using our best understanding of biology combined with the amazing advances in emergency care to offer the healthiest, safest experience imaginable for our moms and next generation of kids.
It’s time for the medical community to recognize the difference between health and pathology…and to actually advocate for health. We need a physician network that understands evolutionary biology and how a deviation away from our ancestral diet and life-way can create havoc for our health before we are even born. We, or at least our kids, deserve better than this.
Below is a photo of my nephew, Kayden. He is the cutest kid who ever lived. Or perhaps I’m biased as his uncle. He was conceived while his mom was eating paleo, and mom has mainly stuck with that both for him and her. All the way through pregnancy, breast feeding etc. Kayden is “off the charts” in every developmental category and although his parents are exceptional people, this is simply a phenotypic expression: Kayden is being compared against kids and moms who do not eat as well as they do. He will have a remarkable advantage throughout his whole life.
Kayden: World Thai Boxing Champ- 2030
About the author
Robb-I guess I was right when I posted on your facebook comment regarding the insulin resistance in mothers to partition nutrients to the baby. I can’t remember if I read that is some of T.S Wiley’s work…Sex,Lies and Menopause maybe??
Is Kayden the little guy who became sugar addicted after his first sitting of gluten-free pancakes!!??
Ben-
Yep. It was quite an eye opening experiment for the parents. He is seldom fussy and very good natured. One shot of GF pancakes and that was ALL he could talk about for a day and he refused to eat, dinner, breakfast the following day and finally caved and had chicken and blueberries for lunch.
Just wondered if you might, for us non-Americans, do a tiny favour? (no this is not a spelling mistake, it’s correct kiwi spelling!)
As myself and a bunch of other readers don’t live in USA and our blood tests do not come back in ng/dl, would you please give the alternative measurements that the rest of the world understands? That would be much appreciated!
And thanks for a great article.
Julianne-
It is an ongoing embarrassment for me that the US uses these archaic measures. But in the mean time, here is a handy converter:
http://www.onlineconversion.com/blood_sugar.htm
Great post, Robb. It basically answers the questions I had a couple of weeks ago, but it raises a few others. I’ll ask the questions first, then give some background info.
1. What do you consider to be normal daily bloodsugar levels for a non-diabetic?
2. How long does it take to establish normal levels coming off a SAD diet, assuming fairly strict compliance with paleo (95%-ish)?
3. Is there a good insulin sensitizing regimen you’d recommend for someone who suspects they have some stubborn insulin issues?
Background info: Since my wife has been testing herself regularly (her numbers have been good, and the doctors decided she was a false positive from the oral glucose tests) I’ve also done a few tests on myself.
My fasting levels so far have been 85 and 93, and my one post-meal test was 114. I’ve been eating pretty well for the last seven weeks, but these numbers seem high based on the question in the post above.
I have been trying to lean out a bit (5’9″ and 156 lbs with an estimated 15-17% body fat, mostly around the middle). I’d like to get down to around 10% body fat. Since going primal I haven’t seen much appreciable fat loss, which has been frustrating. I don’t expect it to come off in a week, but some slow progress seems achievable.
My glucose numbers make me think I might have some insulin resistance issues, despite my dietary changes.
Two things I still need to incorporate are fish oil and better sleep. I have always had trouble sleeping, and used to average 4-5 hours per night. I’m doing better now with 6-7 hours. I got some Natural Calm to see if that would help.
Aside from that stuff, do you have a general protocol for enhancing insulin sensitivity for people looking to lean out?
Thanks for all the great info you share.
Awesome! I’m planning on getting started on a family with my husband very soon and I love anything that gives me good information about being paleo and pregnant! Thanks Robb!
Robb,
I appreciate this post very much as a physician. I am an avid crossfitter and Paleo dieter. I try to pass on the wisdom I have learned to my fellow docs and I will say it is tough. Either they cannot see passed the “whole grain” dogma, don’t care at all, or see the benefit but can’t put forth the effort themselves let alone try to convince their patients during a 15 minute visit. As I’m sure you know convincing others of obvious truths is a real challenge. I try to implement Paleo diet and vigorous exercise prescription to all who come to me ailing. I am committed to delivering true health but no one is buying it. They want a quick fix in a pill or a needle (both of which we didn’t evolve relying upon). I look forward to reading your book (need to find one, Amazon?) and will be attempting to create a treatment plan around many of the principle you outline. Unfortunately, insurance programs don’t pay for preventative health care like educational programs, good books, or gym memberships.
Have you successfully worked with any physicians who are using Paleo to treat patients? I’d be interested to learn all I can about programming for a clinical setting.
Thank you for your time,
Jacob Egbert D.O.
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Dr. Egbert-
We’ve worked with a few doc’s but they are diffuse and we lack organization as of yet. The plan is to have a physician network steeped in these ideas. Sounds like you are another one! Shoot me an email via the contact page and I’ll get you in touch with Prof. Cordain and the other docs we have worked with.
Awesome Post Robb! Great info and good job laying the smackdown on cookie cutter responses!
[...] Gestational Diabetes [...]
Hey Robb,
I went to your Paleo seminar at Crossfit South Brooklyn. Definitely learned a lot of eye-opening information. And thanks again for the book!
Anyway, I just “tinfoil-ed” by door (I have no windows in my room but I door with a big chunk of glass in the middle of it. Go figure.). My roommate looked at me like I was crazy but I took one of the best naps of my life! And then slept a blissful 8 hours straight. Thanks so much for that advice.
Whitney-
It’s almost like it works!!
Hasn’t Cordain written that pregnant women should increase carb load?
Andrew-
The point of this post was to make folks aware that some mom’s may be presenting with “low” blood glucose levels and that is in fact healthy and fine. The point that Prof Cordain has made is a potential of protein aversion in pregnant women:
http://thepaleodiet.blogspot.com/2010/07/protein-intake-for-pregnant-women.html
and a subsequent recommendation to “increase carbs and fat”. I tend to recommend more fat as a baseline then Loren, so I’ve not seen the pregnant mom’s we work with present much if any kind of aversion to protein. Keep in mind that the basic Rx ala The Paleo diet is over 200g of protein for an average size female:
http://www.thepaleodiet.com/articles/JANA%20final.pdf
So this is a completely different issue. One of liver metabolic changes limiting protein processing during pregnancy.
Fantastic write up Robb. People seem to forget sometimes that low heart rate, low blood pressure, and low blood sugar require numbers AND symptoms in order to diagnose a problem. If you feel good and those numbers are low, then awesome! You only have a problem if the low numbers are making you feel lousy. Last time my fasting blood sugar was checked it was 65. I felt great at the time and was thrilled with the result.
Dr Egbert: There are a few of us around. I’m still trying to figure out how to get into a practice setting where I can really put this stuff to work. IMHO paleo is far stronger medicine than most of the pills on the market. Plus it’s cheaper and has basically no unpleasant side effects.
Jules Marsh, MD
Jules-
We will do it!
We chat more when Nicki and I are there for a gig in Woodenville.
Everyone-Jules is an MD who trains with Dave Werner in Seattle. Another great doc who fully grasps the power of paleo.
Robb- Just was thinking. If you were a fat burning machine and couldn’t handle a large dose of sugar, would the pwo carb up be a bad idea?? Or does the non-insulin mediated glucose transport take care of this somehow? Obviously an easy way to find out would be to try it! But was just curious to hear your take on that. Also, I know is OPT’s nutrition 301 dvd he talks about the older your “training” age is, the less able you are to handle a large carb load pwo. Any reasoning for this that you would see?
THanks amigo…book is almost here!!!!!
Ben-
Yea, this is part of what makes that PWO feeding both smart and doable.
Hi Rob, you are totally right also touching the autoimmune complications of lectins in your post. This factor is much underestimated. Pregnant women oftentimes consume too much of the lectin containing foods (i.e. grains, legumes and nightshades). Furthermore diary and eggs can play an important role in the autoimmune problem. I wrote an (I hope) easy to read post on the subject http://bit.ly/a9Gvjk. VBR Hans
Thanks for posting this, Rob. I asked a question about pregnancy on podcast 43 and this is REALLY helpful information. It’s nice to know that all of the effort of eating paleo during pregnancy and post-pregnancy (while breast feeding) is completely worth it and will help my kid develop correct.
Thank you for this post Rob, I honestly found it while I was sitting in the office waiting for my OGTT test today…50g of sugar in the plus. I’m eagerly anticipating my results. I did a light met-con, ate a handful of almonds and some turkey prior to downing my 50g sugar ladened OJ…so I hope it offset the results a bit. I don’t want to have to sit through the 4 hour test. It’s so hard to find info out there on Pregnancy and proper nutrition I just wanted to say thank you for the posts and info!
Aimee Lyons/26 weeks pregnant
Great post Robb, I was especially interested to see the ‘how low is too low’ for non-diabetics. I’m a type 1 diabetic and I can say that switching to a ketogenic diet was the smartest thing I’ve ever done! While I’ve never put it to the test intentionally.. I have driven home from the gym many times to find blood glucose in the 20-30 mg/dl range, even as low as 18 once. This would mean certain death on the ADA-suicide diet, but I feel perfectly normal with these low numbers, so I’m not sure where the low limit is on blood glucose in the ketogenic dieter, could it be there isn’t one?
Yet another jeff-
That is remarkable. I really do not know the absolute low limit. I suspect this reflects the total conversion of tissues to ketosis. It would be great to get some numbers from you and do a write up on this.
Thank you soooo much for posting this! I went for my first appointment today with the OB-GYN and when they told me that I would eventually be getting this test, I knew then that there was no way I would pass. I’m pretty strict paleo and have cut out cheating entirely since discovering I was pregnant. I’m determined to give my baby the best chance for a great life while in the womb. When the nurse said I would have to drink a bunch of glucose later on, I told her then that there’s no way I’d pass. My body isn’t used to getting sugar. And frankly, I don’t want to take this test solely on the fact that I don’t want to feed a huge amount of glucose to my unborn baby. I will be urging the doctor to get the Hba1c to test for this which I know I won’t have. I put my full faith in the Paleo Diet, CrossFit, and Chiropractic care for wellness. I have great faith that our child is destined for health and success.
Victoria-
This is awesome and we don’t need to have “faith” in it. We have proof.
Congrats on the pending motherhood and keep me posted on your progress.
Just wanted to mention that you have the legal right to refuse any tests and/or procedures you don’t want or feel are necessary. It is your right. I have found that educating yourself on pregnancy and all the tests, procedures, and interventions is the best way to know what you as the mother feel is necessary. I highly recommend “The Thinking Woman’s Guide to a Better Birth” by Henci Goer to any pregnant mom I know. A little known fact, our maternity care system in the US is in crisis, just like the rest of our healthcare system. The US has one of the worst maternal and infant mortality rates of industrilized nations. So many pregnancy issues can be prevented with proper nutrition. Mothers and Fathers-to-be need to ask questions and educate themselves, just like the couple that wrote Robb, they didn’t want TP accept what modern medicine was telling them. Ok, off my soapbox now! Childbirth and pregnancy are one of those things I am passionate about, especially educating others!
Hey Robb,
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. It was one of the most frustrating experiences of our lives. We legitimately felt that western medicine had set us up to fail. Even after my wife got her a1c (4.9) tested (at our expense and request, in a vain attempt to refute the Ogtt..) we still had to comply with the special gestation diabetes guidelines in order to deliver at our birthing inn.
On the plus side…my wife has been in labor for 36 hours (hes being a stubborn bastard) and I mentioned that you referred to her as “paleo mom” on your website and she cracked her first smile in a couple hours.
Thanks again for all that you do. Looking forward to the book.
Silkey
You guys hang in there. Much love to you guys. Shot us a picture of mom and kid when you get one.
RE pregnancy:
2 supplements I stress that women take are Vitamin D and Omega 3, (which most women following following paleo are be aware of):
Vitamin D is so important for gene transcription, as well as insulin sensitivity, and Omega 3 for brain and nerve cell development, and decreasing risk of pre-eclampsia. Both also decrease the risk of miscarriage and early delivery.
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/05/03/vitamin-d-pregnancy.html
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/pregnancy-and-gestational-vitamin-d-deficiency.shtml
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19781131
http://www.pregnancy-info.net/omega3.html
And even add probiotics to the mix
http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20090507/probiotics-cut-belly-fat-after-pregnancy
[...] Some insulin sensitivity is an evolutionary adaptation to help create a positive nutrient flow to the fetus. People didn’t have to have glucose tolerance tests before we had all these “food products” (that shouldn’t be eaten in the first place). For more in-depth information regarding this read Robb Wolf’s recent blog post – Gestational Diabetes: What constitutes low blood sugar? [...]
My wife is a type 2 diabetic, who has had three kids, according to her reading, the only reason they do the OGT is because they think women cannot be trusted to take a fasting glucose reading for a week. That would be easier, cheaper, and more reliable.
Oh, and if you are diabetic, the OGT can be dangerous for the baby.
A bit late in “responding”, but I’m 10 week pregnant and 3 weeks ago, on my first visit to the doctor, she tried to force me to have the glucose test AFTER I told her I was diabetic, type 2. AND told her I took care of myself eating a zero-carb diet. I refused the test, and she basically became hysterical, shouting how she’d been to school for so long (yeah, same as me, and???) and I was not to teach her anything and what I was doing was dangerous for my baby, blah blah blah. She refused to listen to my reasons for refusing the test… Yes, I’m changing doctor
And printing this article to show the new ones and the specialist I’m seeing next week.. hoping they’ll understand English 
)
Keep me posted on that. As an FYI- folks eating low carb CAN show elevated A1c’s because the red blood cells live longer than in high carb folks, so this can skew things and make it look like blood sugar has been too high. Fructoseamine is a good indicator and might be better for you.
One question, my wife wondered why the doc ordered the test, usually it is only ordered if there is a reason (such as a high hemoglobin A1c). Though in the madness of the American way of birth, anything could be true).
Ron-
It’s a standard screening method that i’ve argued is unnecessary compared to using the A1c.
Hey Robb,
Great post but just playing devils advocate here, non-Paleo people would look at this inability to handle a large bolus of carbs as a negative of being low-carb. I know you’ve said before that Paleo is largely carb-agnostic as long as you aren’t eating carbs that are from grains or other refined stuff. Personally I know that I tend to look, feel, and perform better when eating more carbs (some more fruit and more yams/peeled potatoes) than doing just veggies and a very little fruit. Maybe I haven’t given it enough time to adapt in the past but the drop in performance is so severe that it is hard to stay on that path. If it matters, I’m fine not eating for long periods of time (a whole day if need be), so I don’t think I’m a pure sugar burner. Anyways, I just wanted to see if you still hold the position that Paleo is carb-agnostic as long as you stick to no dairy, grains or legumes?
On other sites, some non-Paleo, I always position and defend Paleo as a way of eating that avoids bad foods and not certain macro-nutrient categories. Sometimes my association with Paleo draws attacks but when I say that I’m just trying to avoid autoimmune diseases by eating real food, most have little ground to stand on.
Thanks,
Mark
Mark-
Yea, it’s still in my mind carb agnostic.
Cool, thanks Robb.
Robb,
Thanks so much for the post. I discovered Paleo eating during my pregnancy and stuck with it fairly well. When I went in to have my OGTT I felt light headed afterward and my results came in right on the borderline of having Gestational Diabetes. I was a bit nervous, but I suspected something about it wasn’t right and I stuck with a mostly paleo lifestyle. My daughter was born naturally and neither of us needed any meds. She is now a beautiful thriving 6 month old. I’m so glad I stuck with it.
Thanks for backing up my gut instinct with the real science.
Megan
[...] Gestational diabetes: What constitutes low blood sugar? Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)A subtle hintAnother MonthCalculate Due Date Leave a Comment LikeBe the first to like this post. [...]
[...] surge that is sure to follow. For an explanation of some of the shortfalls of the OGTT, check out this article by Robb Wolf. He is the biochemist, and provides a much clearer argument than I [...]
Hi Robb,
Thank you for the post. It gave me some strength to carry on with my quest to continue the rest of my pregnancy on a LC diet. I’m eating according to LCHF so not too far from paleo. I’m about 28 weeks pregnant and run into some issues because of the OGTT test.
Before my pregnancy I was eating LC. Then found out I was pregnant and wanted to follow all the instructions and started eating more carbs. This resulted in a quick and large weight gain within just weeks. Not to mention the swollen feet etc. During these weeks I was reading more about paleo and got acquainted with LCHF and decided that the carb-rich food wasn’t doing it for me and started eating LCHF. After that my weight gain has been much much more subtle and even my doc was happy with the new pace. Also my feet don’t get that swollen anymore.
Then came the OGTT. Phh… if only I’d known..
I asked my doctor and the nurse who did the test if there was a chance that my very low carb diet could influence the results. I got a hesitant “no, I don’t think it should..” as an answer. I then took the test. My fasting value was good, so was the value after 2 hrs BUT the value after 1 hr was higher than the reference value. Thus, I am now labeled gestational diabetic. Before the test I also gave a urine sample in which they’d found a high level of ketones. When I heard about the ketones, I just said that it’s ok, it’s probably because of my diet.
Then it started. I had to take a second urine test and a blood test. They wanted to check if my blood pH was normal, which it was. But I still had a lot of ketones in my urine. Now my doc has been convincing me to at least switch the fatty foods to light-products, butter to margarine etc. I’m not doing it. She then wanted me to read a study she’d found that said that children whose mother had had high levels of ketones in her blood during pregnancy had lower IQ. The study has been published 1991 in the New England Journal of Medicine: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199109263251303#t=articleTop
Any thoughts on this?
From all I’ve gathered, except for this study, is that paleo babies are born healthy and strong with good intellectual skills, not the other way around.
Sorry for the extra long comment
Would really appreciate if you had time to give your thoughts on the article…
I just could not depart your site prior to suggesting that I actually enjoyed the usual info a person provide on your guests? Is going to be back frequently to inspect new posts
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