Hey Tish, welcome to the most helpful place a low carber can ever find. I haven't been around here a long time, but I want you to know you'll always find help, advice and support when you log on. I've been a type two diabetic (or as I prefer, a person with diabetes) for a couple of years now. Tons of fun isn't it? Anyway, I think you've made the right decision. I'm not a doctor, but my doctor supports me in this choice I've made. Her father has diabetes and she's kept him low carb for years. Like you, I would never mention this to my diabetes clinic. They'd hit the roof but the eating plan they laid out for me was leading me toward sugars I couldn't control and metformin every day for the rest of my life. The "new" way of thinking about diabetes is going to lead a lot of people into the horror of complications. The old way made a lot more sense. Watch the carbs and don't eat sugar. That's what your doctor would have said twenty years ago. Anyway, sorry about the rant. I'll just tell you that following Atkins I'm losing weight for the first time in years. Also I'm not as ravenous all day and I don't have to take my diabetes meds anymore. As to the ketosis, when your book arrives you'll find that ketosis (the process of lipolysis which instigates the burning of fat for fuel in the body) is completely different from ketoacidosis (a condition which can affect type one diabetics and is very serious). Of course, if you have kidney damage you shouldn't low carb in the first place, but if you're healthy (mostly) benign ketosis won't harm you. Remember to drink, drink, drink, water to flush the ketones out of your system and watch the inches melt away. Good luck and welcome again. Talk to you later, Hope1

Hi Tish!

Hope is absolutely correct. The type of ketosis (benign dietary ketosis) that your body goes into with low carbing is completely different from that which occurs in uncontrolled diabetics (diabetic ketoacidosis). Even many health professionals confuse the two.
Benign dietary ketosis is completely harmless and is the result of your body burning body fat due to the lack of a glucose source (carbohydrates). ALL diets that result in fat metabolism produce ketones, which are really just the byproduct of the body burning fat, so I often wonder why everyone gets so excited about it. Granted, you do produce more ketones when you low carb, but your body needs them because they have then become your main source of fuel instead of glucose. Diabetic ketoacidosis results when you have no or very little insulin and your blood sugars are uncontrolled. Although type 2 diabetics can develop ketoacidosis if their blood sugars become very uncontrolled, typically this is a condition that type 1 diabetics are most at risk to develop. Because there is no insulin, the body cannot get the glucose from the bloodstream into the cells and the body begins breaking down both muscle and fat to get the energy that it needs. Normally the kidneys help in getting rid of the excess glucose when blood sugars are high and they also help get rid of the excess ketones when levels of ketones are high in the blood stream (one of the reasons to drink plenty of water when low carbing). When both ketones AND blood sugars are high, the kidneys can't keep up with getting rid of both of them and so the levels of ketones in the blood start to rise. Combined with other chemical processes that are going on due to the uncontrolled blood sugars and the breakdown of fat and muscle tissue you eventually get ketoacidosis.
When you are low carbing and your blood sugars are well controlled, you cannot develop ketoacidosis even if you are a diabetic. I've been low carbing for over 2 years at a carb level of 30 grams per day or less and I'm also a diabetic. I have no doubt that I've been in benign dietary ketosis nearly the whole time and have yet to have a problem with it and my bloodwork indicates that I've never been healthier. The diabetes clinic my get very excited if you are spilling ketones in your urine, but as long as your blood sugar is within normal limits, it's not a problem.

We recently had a very lively discussion about this very topic in the War Zone forum that you may find interesting and informative. Here's the link: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=117720