Perspectives on Diabetes Care

AADE14 Virtual Meeting: Nutrition Edition

Aug 12, 2014, 01:00 AM

I love the virtual meeting!!  AADE did a great job providing access to the general and selected breakout sessions.  This morning, I spent some time listening to Thursday’s sessions and catching up on the electronic newsletter.  I have thoroughly enjoyed all the breakout sessions, but wanted to mention a few highlights from “Nutrition Adequacy of Various Popular Diets”.  I listened to this presentation since I do not have a background in nutrition, but I am constantly reading articles or peer-reviewed publications on the topic.  I think it is important to be able to teach and answer questions for patients about nutritional information.

Here are the selected highlights from this session: 

• Diabetes has increased by 69% over the past 20 years. 
• Only 10% of patients with diabetes have seen a dietitian.
• Since 1950, people have been consuming more calories, meat, and sugar sweetened beverages.  The shocking statistic was an increase of 356% in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. 
• An individual will have 4 to 5 attempts of “dieting” per year.
• The common diets include:
   o Low carbohydrate (also includes high protein)
   o Paleo (no universal definition)
   o Gluten-free (6-7% of individuals are sensitive to gluten; 1% of individuals have celiac disease, with a 10% prevalence among individuals with type 1 diabetes)
   o Mediterranean (some good evidence)
   o Vegan (very limited evidence – only 1 study)

It was interesting to learn about the various religious fasting days, which can be up to 180 days in a year.  There was great information about potassium, calcium, vitamin K, zinc, and fiber intake. 

Listening to the selected sessions reminded me about how exciting the AADE meeting can be and I hope to attend the meeting again in the future.