Hello everyone. Type two diabetes is not a piece of cake :(

jp3

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Family member
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Hey. Hope everyone is having a good day.

My mother has had type 2 diabetes and ignored it for 2 years now.
I recently found out the horrible things that happen when you ignore diabetes in the long run
Her blood sugars are above 15 each morning and she is getting headaches, burning sensations in the leg and foot pain now.
The diabetic doctors she sees are not very helpful. They only tell her she needs to change her lifestyle but she doesn't know how to start so
I'm going to try to help her.

Q Is the diet I made up for her a good one? I tried to eliminate all carbs and keep it to proteins and fats (low carbs high fat or like an atkins diet).

Breakfast: Wholegrain cereal or yoghurt or eggs,
Brunch: Omelette + Cheese block, celery / carrot / cucumber sticks, avocado, coffee, yoghurt
Lunch: Salad or homemade soup (vegetable or mixed), chickpeas,
Dinner: Meat / fish / chicken, cauliflower

Q How to keep cookign time down? I'm plannign to cook for her as she doesn't want to do it herself.
Q What to put in salads or homemade soups?
Q She says she can't live without fruit or bread or white rice each day even though it makes her sick? Will cravings go with a high fat / protein and low carb diet?
Q When she gets weak (happens every day), does that mean she needs to eat sugar or will eating a high fat / high protein or leafy green (like cucumber) get her back to normal?

Appreciate everything so much!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 2 people

sally and james

Well-Known Member
Messages
1,093
Type of diabetes
Family member
Treatment type
Diet only
Firstly, well done for trying to help her and for making such a good start. Let's hope she appreciates it.

A few thoughts:
  • The reason (probably) why she gets very weak is that she is used to very high blood sugar levels and when they drop to a mere "high", her body feels low. As her sugar levels begin to drop (with your excellent diet), this should cease to happen.
  • She says she can't live without fruit, bread etc. I'm very sorry to say, she won't live with it either, not in the long run. BUT, she doesn't need or want to cut out everything at once. If such things are tapered out slowly, she will adjust.
  • What to put in home made salads: As well as the usuals (lettuce, other leaves, spinach, cucumber, tomatoes, celery etc), I tend to reserve a few vegetables whenever I cook them, e.g. broccoli, green beans, chunks of butternut squash. I also top salads with crumbled up nuts and seeds such as sunflower and pumpkin. In soups, anything except potato goes as far as I'm concerned. I substitute celeriac for spuds, when I want a thicker soup.
  • How to keep cooking time down: Prepare soups, casseroles, bakes in bulk and freeze your own "ready meals". Keep a collection of chopped things in the fridge, so that you can throw together an interesting salad quickly.

Now something really important. If blood sugars are brought down very quickly from high to normal levels, there can be some eye damage. Sight will blur, because of changes in the sugars in eye fluids, this will right itself, but some damage can be permanent. For this reason, reduce carbs slowly. She will find this easier to cope with anyway.

The diet sounds pretty good to me. In the longer term, perhaps forget wholegrain cereal and make sure the yoghurt is sugar free.

Keep up the good work and keep asking all the questions you need to.

Sally
 
  • Like
Reactions: 6 people

pavlosn

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,705
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi jp3

Well done on taking responsibility to help your mother.

Diabetes treatment usually involve a combination of the following:
- medication if necessary; is your mother taking something for her diabetes.
- increased physical exercise; does not have to be anything too strenuous. Walking for 30 - 45 minutes daily is excellent for instance. She can start with shorter walks and build up if she is able to.
- losing any excess weight. This not only has general health benefits but also makes us less diabetic by making us less insulin resistant - we can utilize insulin better to shift glucose out of the blood stream and into our cells were it is needed.
- dietary improvements. You seem to be on the right paths in going for a low carb higher fat approach. Carbs turn to glucose in our body so are not very good for us diabetics.

Why do you list brunch and lunch is that either or or would she be taking both in a day?

Cereals are usually a cause for glucose spikes for us diabetics as they are mostly carbs in a highly soluble form. They enter the bloodstream quickly,

In order to know how much to limit carbs I suggest that you monitor glucose levels, before and two hours after each meal. If the after count is more than two mmol higher than the before then you need to restrict carbs further. It's trial and error.

You need to get your mother to buy in to any lifestyle changes as I expect you will not be able to police her all the time.

You also need to set realistic and achievable targets and expect progress to be gradual.

What she needs is better habits that she can maintain in the long run, not quick fixes.

Regards and best wishes

Pavlos

P.s. Almost forgot since she likes fruit, the best fruit for diabetics is anything with the word "berry" in its name. All delicious with some Greek yoghurt.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 5 people

Bluetit1802

Legend
Messages
25,216
Type of diabetes
Type 2 (in remission!)
Treatment type
Diet only
Hello and welcome.

Well done for taking your mum in hand. She will thank you for it before long.

I agree with everything @sally and james (Sally) has said.

I'm a very traditional and fussy eater, don't like this and don't like that, but I have managed and am enjoying my healthier diet and feeling better in myself. I have also lost a lot of weight, so look much better too!

She can eat as much meat and fish as she likes, so tinned salmon goes well with a salad, plus lots of eggs and a few cherry toms. Don't forget a nice olive oil dressing, or plenty of real mayonnaise.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people

Daibell

Master
Messages
12,642
Type of diabetes
LADA
Treatment type
Insulin
Hi I agree with the other posters and, yes, watch any sugar in the yogurt and cereal. At your mother's blood sugar levels the GP should be offering more help. If your mother is overweight then try to keep the diet going and weight and blood sugar should reduce. Has the GP prescribed any meds and taken an HBa1C test? At least Metformin would be prescribed at that sugar level. I would keep a diary of readings particularly 2 hours after typical meals and show these to the GP. If your mother is not overweight there is always the possibility of Late onset T1 so let us know.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people
A

AnnieC

Guest
If she really has to have some bread then try Burgen linseed and soya bread a lot of diabetics find they can manage a couple of slices of this.Make sure you do not over do the protein though to much is not good for the kidneys and liver so have just normal amounts but give her some good fats cook with olive oil or coconut oil and nuts and avocados are all a good sources to and I would suggest adding some green leafy vegetables. You will have to find what suits her best everyone is different as to what they can eat so it is really trial and error It is good that she has you to help her have a better understanding of her diabetes
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 3 people

jp3

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Family member
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Thanks everyone for the support!

Her medications are insulin and metformin tablets (don't know how much).

And pavlosn, she has both brunch and lunch. If she misses any of the 4 meals (breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner) then she gets very weak. She used to have 2 bread slices for brunch to prevent weakness, but I'm going to get her to try cheese, yoghurt and cucumber sticks instead.
 

jack412

Expert
Messages
5,618
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
you may need to balance her insulin with the carbs in her meal, if she has fast action and slow action insulin

what are the name/s of the insulin and what dose/s and time/s
metformin will probably be 2000
 

pavlosn

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,705
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hi again

I wonder whether the weakness if she misses brunch has something to do that she is on insulin. Insulin will make her go too low if she has insufficient carbs.

As mentioned by the previous poster you will need to balance insulin doses with carb intake.

Not being on insulin myself I can not advise much but I am sure there are plenty of others here that can do so if you provide us with some more info.

What kind of insulin regime is she on ie what kind of insulin does she take, what doses and at what times?

Can you post a typical day's actual
- food taken at each meal
- timing and doses of insulin taken
- blood glucose levels, on waking up, before each meal, two hours after each meal, before going to bed.

In fact it is probably a good idea to keep a diary of the above information for a number of days to try to identify any patterns in glucose levels.

Again well done on taking things at hand

Best of luck

Pavlos
 

jp3

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Family member
Treatment type
I do not have diabetes
Just wanted to thank everyone for their help :)

I used your advice and now her blood sugars are around 6 in the afternoon now and 10 in the morning. There's a little burning in toes now but before the nerve burning used to go up her legs so it has improved alot. I was surprised how fast the better diet changed her glucose levels.

After seeing the results, she stopped taking rice and bread (by herself!) and monitors her own diet so she has got some motivation now!

She hasn't complained of weakness like she used to. I'm really not sure how it went. Presumed it was because she now eats high fat food and vegetable soup / salad at regular time intervals?

The low carb, high veg and medium fat diet seems to be working. Wish I had intervened sooner :(

By the way, this may be important for others to know. I gave her the supplement chromium, as I read online it was good for diabetics, but it caused her blood sugar to skyrocket up around 15 again. After she stopped taking chromium it has stabilised back down to around 6 to 10 ish.

I'm not experimenting with any more supplements for now.

Thanks again :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • Like
Reactions: 5 people