Diet decisions NOT based on diabetes

[Brunneria]

I just read a thread where several people commented on how budget is a major factor in what they eat.
Goodness, I so understand. There was a period of about 15 years in my life when every food decision was made after I counted the coins in my purse.

So it got me thinking. What factors other than blood glucose control affect your diet choices?

Vegetarian/vegan eating is an obvious factor. So is Kosher (apologies if I have phrased that wrongly). Avoiding pork. Food intolerances, allergies, gallstones, IBS... It's a minefield!

What are your food choices, and why?

 

[Brunneria]

Just remembered I was going to mention Happy Eggs.

One of my diet decisions is that I would prefer not to buy eggs if they don't come from chickens that have comfortable conditions, a good diet, space and playtime.

Of course it costs more.

Luckily, I now live in a 2 income household, and I can act on my preference. But I think that if I couldn't afford Happy Eggs, I wouldn't be buying eggs.

Please note: I am NOT preaching, we all make choices, and that is one of mine. Your choices will be different. No judgement intended!

 

[Jill the tt]

i wont buy meat from supermarkets, use a local butcher, he knows where the meat comes from pigs live in an orchard etc, on the plus side if i call in mid week and pick up some thing i can pay when i pick up my order and no he doesn't know where i live

 

[donnellysdogs]

My worry is salmon.

I buy it reduced price all the time, as it appears our local co-op always buys too much for the demand!!

However, although fish is recommended to eat, salmon is now only once a week!! It's taken me 50 years to learn that I can eat salmon, now I'm so confused whether it should be farmed or wild and whether eating 2 portions is going to kill me earlier from poisoning!! I also eat fishcakes (cod) regularly...

Just can't win on choices of food.. Think we have worms that would taste good fried in coconut oil.. No meecury!!

 

[noblehead]

Blood glucose aside it has to be which foods you enjoy the most, there's no point in eating food you dislike or find a chore just to get through the meal, however with some family history of CVD I do have to be a little careful in my food choices.

 

[Lamont D]

As you know I have a very limited diet @Brunneria. But mine is dairy! Oily fish is another.
Also cost, I can't pick and choose where my eggs are hatched!

 

[Avocado Sevenfold]

I don't drink caffeine due to anxiety disorder.

Before I got D, I would never eat other people's home baking :***: (except my mum's) due to hygiene concerns.

So free-range, caffeine-free, cootie-dodging, low carb, vegetarian who doesn't like okra. I'm easily pleased

 

[forge]

I agree everyone should choose what they eat for whatever reasons.

But it is amusing how people develop some will and will not eat logic.

The simple fact about food is we only eat LIVING THINGS and recently dead frozen or preserved living things.

Some people find that "disgusting or unpalatable or cruel" so they decide not to eat .............................

It reminds of the old joke about the woman and the waiter.

"What is the specialty of the day?"
"The tongue is very nice."
"I will not eat anything that came out of an animals mouth."
"Bring the lady an egg!"

I prefer no to discriminate against vegies, so I eat most things but I am not big on offal or oysters (I can live without them)

As for the long term effects of traces of nasties that end up in food: it is easy enough to change suppliers occasionally but we get lazy and keep using the same ones.

My food choices are dictated by prescribed lo carb, and advice from my cardiologist and low total purines for gout.

We are on a full pension but we do have some other income so money is important but not critical. Basically we have to eat and the expensive eating options are the literal killers anyway. Restaurant and take away foods are always suss,and too much protein and processed meats and cheese and deli stuff is on the cardiologist not too much list.

If we got desperate we can grow veg in a hydroponic set up the one from Hawaii is good with no pumps just a plastic file box (set and forget then harvest in 6 or 7 weeks.)

Dumpster diving would be fun tho, I could sneak out at night and check out the dumpsters around the food outlets.

 

[noblehead]

I don't drink caffeine due to anxiety disorder.

Same here, for totally different reasons (it irritates my bladder) I keep caffiene to a minimum and drink mostly decaff tea/coffee with a couple of mugs of green tea a day.

 

[Avocado Sevenfold]

Same here, for totally different reasons (it irritates my bladder) I keep caffiene to a minimum and drink mostly decaff tea/coffee with a couple of mugs of green tea a day.

Is green tea caffeine-free?

 

[noblehead]

Is green tea caffeine-free?

Not quite, but I believe it contains less than standard tea, for what I drink of it it doesn't seem to have much effect put it that way.

 

[Lamont D]

I forgot coffee cos it tastes horrible. Love tea though!

 

[modesty007]

I managed to escape D2 and went low carb. My food choice a base on eating as natural as possible avoiding additives in food and cook as much as I can. But also the knowledge that grass-fed beef ans butter have a healthier fat profile then conventional grain-fed. Similar I prefer pasture pigs and eggs from proper free range hens, where they had the possibility to catch a worm or a bug.
I also avoid grains and gluten after learned that no human can completely digest gluten and so much new research into non-celiac gluten sensitivity shows that we would benefit from avoiding it. Also I'm trying eat nutritionally dense food and also after learning the importance of the microbiota in the gut I've also included fermented food in my diet. But of course I wouldn't eat my food if didn't like it, remember however that preferences and taste changes, now I can look at desserts and sweets and no longer long for them.

 

[douglas99]

My food choices are mainly taste.
But I've re-educated my taste, so it's mainly chilli. Hot chilli.
But I'll eat anything if I have to, to stay alive when I need to.

I also like to eat as cheaply as possible, without buying rubbish, as a challenge.
So the fresh veg, and cooked meats counter on a Sunday night at Asda,
The two for ones, the home made yoghurts, so long as it's decent food, and I can make it taste good, I'll eat it.
I've even followed in the footsteps of River Cottage and gone back for my roadkill.

 

[cold ethyl]

I avoid caffeine because of panic disorder. ( and you can buy decaff green tea). I bought skimmed UHT milk all the years we had a dairy herd as that was what I was brought up on!! Now it's semi skimmed Lactofree as I only have two cups of coffee with milk in a day after diagnosis. I don't eat chicken when I am out and when I died eat rice, it always worried me - once had salmonella from Indian take away!
Always buy free range eggs and free range chicken when I can afford it, meat I tend to get from Booths as it is better than Asda ( though our Asda has started a butcher counter and they meat is nicer than the prepacked stuff.)
Go through spells of boycotting various products/countries. Prior to diagnosis I used to avoid the imported green beans etc on account of water exporting from poor countries. Now as they form bulk of my meals I buy them again reluctantly. Need to grow own. Currently not buying Lindt chocolate as they support an Autism charity that refused to allow autistic people on the board.

 

[Lesleywo]

I try to eat as much organic food as possible .... every Monday I have a delivery of fresh organic veggies from a local farm, supplementing with other veggies from Aldi. I buy as much organic meat as possible but only when it's reduced in Woolies, which is quite often. Now it's just me and Mr T at home I don't have to stretch the budget so far. However, we never eat out at expensive restaurants .. generally the pub, Indian or an Italian up the road. There is a Japanese just up the road that we've been to twice ... fantastic food, hugely inflated prices ... we went with our neighbours and it was $180 a couple (about 100 pounds) and it was BYO! Came out hungry and came home and had something to eat! Prefer to eat out at cheaper places which enables me to spend more on the food we eat during the week.

 

[phoenix]

Go through spells of boycotting various products/countries.

As a late teen than caused so many heated arguments with my father. I refused to eat/drink anything from S Africa, including the S African 'champagne' he tried to force me to drink at a Christmas lunch. (horrid memory)

. Many years later, my conscience and my pocket are sometimes now at odds. I wish they weren't but I've become pragmatic and when I think about it very inconsistent.

. I buy free range local eggs . On the other hand I eat a lot of chicken but will not pay 10+€ for a 'red label' one compared to 4€ for one with no real provenance. Even worse, I love duck but conveniently forget that most of the delicious duck breasts around here are a by product of ducks raised in industrial units for foie gras. I don't buy free range pork either so that probably comes from an industrial unit.
Most French supermarket beef is not good so I'm more careful with beef, and lamb which tends to come from named local farms but that means I don't eat those meats very often. (lamb is so expensive it's about once a year) I occasionally buy local veal/baby beef which has got a red label and is farmed ethically.(and it's quite unlike that dry white meat I remember from foreign holidays in my youth)

Of course, if I ate more offal and the less glamorous bits of animals I would be able to be more careful about where it came from.

I do try to buy fruit/veg that hasn't travelled too far, so we grow some of our own but we aren't brilliantly successful . I buy veg/.fruit from France, Spain and perhaps Morocco but not further afield. The local market makes that easier though if I just stuck to immediately local produce there would be little choice in the depths of February.

 

[CarbsRok]

Gluten free for me.
No meat products are ever bought from a supermarket as disgusting flavour and tuff as old boots. I used to grow my own lambs so very spoilt. Local meat now bought from farm shops eggs bought from neighbours, veggies from the garden planters or landlord when he has spare. Fruit local greengrocer. Raspberries pick my own off of the canes in my garden at the moment Having to go gluten free the only thing I really mis is proper shortbread as loved the occasional bit. GF shortbread is beyond disgusting

 

[catherinecherub]

Lest we forget, there are people who cannot pick and choose what they eat but have to rely on food banks.

Rickets returns as poor families find healthy diets unaffordable.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/30/child-poverty-link-malnutrition-rickets

The UK has 3.8 million children in extreme poverty. Charities such as theTrussell Trust report growing need for food banks but say that some of the items donated can be of poor quality.Dr Middleton said: "If the nutritional diseases are markers of a poor diet, the food banks are markers of extreme poverty - the evidence from Trussell Trust suggests the biggest group of users are hard working poor families who have lost benefits, live on low and declining wages and or they have fallen foul of draconian benefits sanctions which propel them into acute poverty and hunger. This is a disastrous and damning indictment on current welfare policy and a shame on the nation. The food banks are providing a real and valued service staving off actual hunger – they are actually keeping people alive."

I don't think any diabetic relying on food bank supplies would be bothered about where their supplies come from.

 

[Spiker]

Is green tea caffeine-free?

I drink Rooibos tea all the time. It keeps me hydrated and it's caffeine free.