"Bob Newman" wrote in message
...
After being a diabetic for 25+ years (currently diet/exercise controlled)
and a recent open-heart surgery patient, I have been following my diet
VERY
strictly. My question is this: All the recommendations I see are for
less
than 30% of calories from fat, a minimum is never mentioned. I know you
do
required some fat though. I have been running low to mid teens fat
percentage with some days in single digits. Is this okay? Where do we
draw
the line? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

First, it depends on how your are doing with your diabete and blood lipids.
Do you have high cholesterol? How is your HDL/LDL? Do you have high
triglycerides? How good is your control? Is your weight normal?
The idea behind cutting fats is to keep your cholesterol levels low. Some
diabetics have good blood lipids, it's pretty meaningless for them to cut
lipids. Actually, it can do more damage than good, since cutting the wrong
lipids will also lower HDL cholesterol. Another idea between this is to get
you to lose weight through the "traditionnal" low fat diet. But I'm really
not convinced you need to cut fat to control your blood lipids. You just
need to control what fat you eat and to get good control for your blood
sugar. I went from slightly high cholesterol and high triglycerids to normal
values (though HDL is still at 0.37, got to get this one to move up, but LDL
dropped to 1.2 and triglycerids to 1.13) in just a couple of months. I did
eat less and lost weight, so total amount of fats was reduced, but in
proportion it actually went up a bit. The only thing I cut dramatically was
trans fats. I tried to educate my mother the other day, and I was unable to
find any product with hydrogenated fats at home. I did add some omega-3
(fish, walnut oil). And that's all. I still eat butter, red meat...
Moreover, cutting fat has a disadvantage for diabete control. The only way
to slow down a given carb and lower its glycemic index is to eat it in a
meal, along with other food. Some nutriments will slow down carbs :
proteins, fibers, fats, acids (lemon juice, vinegar)... Among these, fats do
a *very* good job at slowing things down. For instance, I didn't manage to
find the glycemic index for traditionnal paella, but I'm willing to bet it's
much lower than plain water cooked rice because of the various factors
lowering the GI (rice coating in fat before water is added, proteins, lemon
juice and olive oil added before serving...).
So, it's a problem of balance between how well you control your BG and how
bad your blood lipids are. And also of what kind of fat you eat, and your
exact lipid profile. Adding the right fats can actually improve both the BG
and the lipids.

Most "reasonnable" nutritionnists don't think it's healthy to go under 20%.
Many actually think 30% is the lower limit - it's already low fat. If you
really go too low, you run the risk of lacking some essential fatty acids
(which *will* worsen the heart condition and can mess the balance between
HDL and LDL), some fat soluble vitamins (A, D, E mainly). You also have the
risk of over-eating, because fats provide good long term satiety.
If you try to reintroduce some fats, I don't think adding some olive oil and
walnut oil (ideal omega 3/omega 6 ratio) would hurt anything. If you prefer
canola oil, you should only buy the organic ones (cold extracted, not
deodorized) - the others get some trans fats and the omega-3 are partly
destroyed by the industrial process.
Maybe that's something you could try to consult a good nutritionist (if such
a thing exists) for advice.