Diabetes and Bipolar – How often do these go together?

Prior to all those medications (psychiatric drugs), how much was excess carbohydrate consumption badly influencing my mood?

I am not saying it was my number one stressor/trigger. I’ll share about that another time, however…

What was I eating and drinking prior to being assessed by psychiatry?

• I ate bread and either potatoes, pasta or rice every day
• I would eat a few biscuits and pieces of cake every day
• I worked for a multi-national food manufacturer with access to unlimited half-price confectionery and with chocolate/candy dispensing machines positioned throughout the offices.
• I drank lots of orange juice = 10% sugar every day
• I was consuming semi-skimmed milk (fat reduced but still 5% lactose = sugar!)

Was I balancing all this carbohydrate with healthy dietary fat?

• I considered avocados, olives (and organic foods) to be too expensive
• I was minimizing use of butter, cheese and reluctantly ate lean meats rather than the tastier fatty meats
• As a family we regularly fried foods in cheap non-organic toxic vegetable oils from plastic bottles
• We ate ready-meals and fast-foods that arrived in plastic containers

I believed I had a good diet!

As a food scientist I knew what happens to animals such as dogs kept on a High-Carb/Low-Fat (HCLF) diet – they get sick!

I did not believe I was sick. I was a very busy person burning off all that carbohydrate my body did not need. I was not dying but I was not sleeping well-enough or thinking clearly enough.

My diet was depriving me of just about every key nutrient!

I was most likely short of vitamins C, B vitamins including niacin and B12, D, E, K1, K2. So much of the carbs I was consuming were so processed that they were nutritionally of almost no use at all to my brain.

Although slim, I was not healthy and am sure I was already heading towards diabetes by the time I was prescribed Olanzapine. Olanzapine being a drug known for its ability to increase body weight and make diabetes more likely. It even says this in the leaflet that comes with it.

I had to change diet to get physically and mentally healthier/fitter.