After following a very low-carb diet for two years, I am beginning to feel constricted myself in my self-imposed dietary choices. Perhaps I've gone to extremes. This week I am eating some grass-fed beef and bison meat as well as some cottage cheese and hard cheese. I'm even considering eating some whole eggs, even though some people say that they are inflammatory. All this is still low-carb; my questions about it were otherwise.

Our diet is no exception to my fundamental advice about controlling our diabetes that, "Diabetes is a disease that, perhaps more that any other, depend much more on the patient than on the doctor." No way can we rely on any of the so-called experts -- myself included -- to tell us what we should and shouldn't eat.

No one knows which diet is best for you or indeed for the world. Nutrition is an emerging science, one that even now is coming out of the dark ages of unenlightenment. Each of us has to decide for herself or himself what foods will help us to control our diabetes and indeed our health in general. The best approach and the one I follow myself is to read and digest the recommendations of the experts. But take it with a grain of salt.

But please consider the advice that I offer here. Just remember that it's not Gospel and that like any other open-minded person my recommendations keep changing as I discover and learn more.

Each of us has five guiding principles available for us to follow:

1. Does what we eat help us to control our blood glucose level?

2. Does it help us to control our weight?

3. Does our diet help us control our blood pressure?

4. Do our lipid, vitamin D, and other blood tests look good?

5. How do we feel when we eat the foods we do?

All of us are different. If any one of these tests fail, we have to stay alert to the need to make a course correction.

Every time you shop for food or eat out, remember this: If you believe everything the experts tell us, you may not be thirsty. But you will starve.