It was started by a hypoglycemic and his wife. The basics of it are:

Food ethic

• Elimination of most sugars (barley malt, black strap molasses, cane syrup, caramel, caramel coloring, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, dextrin, dextrose, disaccharide, fructose, galactose, glucose, glycerin, hexitol, honey, lactose, levulose, licorice, malt, maltose, mannitol, mannose, maple syrup, molasses, natural sweeteners, rice syrup, simple syrup, sorbitol, sorghum, sucrose, syrup, and xylitol), as well as artificial sweeteners, though this is occasionally bent (i.e. for milk)
• Elimination of vegetables, fruits, and beverages that contain more than 15% carbs; limitations on vegetables with 10-15% carbs, all fruits, and beverages with more than 4% carbs
• Elimination of white flower products
• Elimination of alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco
• Elimination of lunch meats, cold cuts, hot dogs, sausage, and bacon
• Start from a limited list of foods and eventually, within three months, work your way up to a less limited list of foods
• Start off low carb and eventually, within three months, work your way up to moderate/high carbs
• Drink plenty of water
• Eat at the same times every day. Snack every 90-120 minutes, with three big meals, which works out to 9 times a day. After dinner, eat just a nighttime snack at 11pm. This basically means that between 6:30pm-6am, eat nothing but that snack. (My metabolism is just too fast to deal with something like that.)
• Foods from the beginning include all fish, turkey, chicken, duck, beef, veal, pork, lamb, eggs (eggs, and more eggs), 1 serving of cereal or non-instant oatmeal, minimal milk, a decent range of vegetables, all cheeses, plain lowfat yogurt, water, and a few condiments (the only one of which I like is salt).
• Over time, limited nuts, some fruits, some more vegetables, minimal bread/crackers, some grains and seeds (limited), soups (preferably homemade), whole grain pastas, and 1/2 cup of milk, V8, tomato, orange, apple, or grapefruit juice are added.

The ones I have the biggest problem with are the times and the list of foods. I'm hoping that some things will help fill me more than others, though, so the list of foods wouldn't be a problem if I could find something that lasts a while.

Exercise

20-30 minutes 3-4 times per week. Any type of exercise is fine. This is considered by them to be as important as the food ethic.

I have no problem exercising and would love to do so every day (which I used to do). I have found that since I started eating this way, though, exercising is becoming more and more difficult. Again, we go back to the issue of stomach pains and lack of energy.

Fun and laughter

Self explanatory. Reasonable enough.

Sleep, rest, and relaxation

Enough sleep so that you're not tired, but not too much sleep. Wake up at the same time everyday. Rest might include short naps for those able to do so, or lying down for 15-30 minutes and reading or listening to music. Same times everyday. Relaxation being something that avoids outside interruptions. All reasonable ideas.



Based on what I've read, I don't really have a choice in the matter if I want to get better. By cutting out sugars and white flours (which any hypoglycemia author who knows anything will recommend), that's a significant cut in carbs right there. Then again, I'd rather be experiencing symptoms in a more enjoyable way than putting myself through stress and still experiencing the symptoms, which leads to more stress, which leads to more problems with symptoms.