Recently diagnosed with type 2. Seeking advice as to the daily amount of sugar
in grams I should aim for.
in grams I should aim for.
How many grams of sugar to aim for per day?
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azure
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britishpub
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Hi @homepark73
Forget counting sugar, and start counting Carbohydrate.
Sugar is a Carbohydrate, but ALL Carbohydrate will eventually turn to sugar in your bloodstream.
To gain control of, and lower your blood glucose focus on reducing your entire Carb intake, not just obvious sugars.
Good luck, hopefully after reading the welcome post you will want to stick around and use the fabulous resource that these forums can be.
Forget counting sugar, and start counting Carbohydrate.
Sugar is a Carbohydrate, but ALL Carbohydrate will eventually turn to sugar in your bloodstream.
To gain control of, and lower your blood glucose focus on reducing your entire Carb intake, not just obvious sugars.
Good luck, hopefully after reading the welcome post you will want to stick around and use the fabulous resource that these forums can be.
Bluetit1802
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Hi and welcome,
Personally, I aim for none, but as that is impossible, so as little as is possible. However, sugar is only one food item you need to be thinking about. You also need to think about carbohydrates as all these convert to sugar once inside the system. If you are looking at food labels then ignore the amount of sugar and look at the total carb content. (sugar is included in this). Best to keep it under 10g per 100g. and preferably under 5g although it depends on the portion size you would be eating. If you only have a teaspoonful then little harm will be done no matter how many grams, but if it is a bowl or plateful, then it becomes very important.
Do read round these forums, look for answers to your questions (there is a search facility) and if you can't find the answers, just ask. Read Daisy's post when it arrives, and take note of the role of carbs.
zacthedog
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Go zero on sugar, its the safest way, you can still have it but only now and again, i now when shopping read all the ingredients and as soon as i see sugar i put it down? If no or very low sugar, i then look at the carbohydrate content per 100grams, will then probably put it down also, then swear at the food labelers, manufacterers and the supermarkets for making my life so hard, but serriously you will find the right foods and some will surprise you, forget so called health foods, they are basically bordering on poison for us, if you need something sweet check out some of recopes on this site, and you can find some nice sugar free sweets that are great, but check the carbs first.
pleinster
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Hi...really good advice from all above. Zero sugar...cut the carbs. My own intake is less than 40g carbs total per day, often less than 20g. You have three options - 1] consider it too radical a change and watch your BS level climb over time; 2] Be brutally extreme and cut all sugar and all carbs (or as many as possible); or 3] Gradually adapt - cut as much sugar as you can immediately, then start looking at the labels and recognising how many carbs are in a product while you benefit from the sugar reduction and get used to it and while you inform yourself about what are high and low carbs, and finally cut out all "simple" carbs (starting with bread, cereal, spuds and pasta) and limit yourself to low carbs (mostly veggies that grow above ground) -leaving you with beef, pork, meat, fish, chicken etc and a range of veg. BUT it's only be recording progress via meter testing and notes on what you eat that you will see for yourself that this works..and that it's not as difficult as it sounds. Good luck.
Hi Azure. No I am not on any medication at present. My trouble was too much chocolate and chocolate biscuits. At diagnosis I was 14st and to correct this I am trying to come down to 12st by the 1st August. This entails a diet of about 1660 calories a day. So far I have lost just over 7 lbs in 4 weeks. Most days I am well within that allowance. I use "net diary.com" to record my food intake. It gives recommended levels for most things except sugar.
Many thanks to others of you for your replies.
Many thanks to others of you for your replies.
daisy1
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@homepark73
Hello and welcome to the forum Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to help.
BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS
Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.
A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 150,000 people who are demonstrating this.
On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.
The role of carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.
If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.
The bad news
Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.
The good news
People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.
Controlling your carbs
The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
Reduce your carbohydrates
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.
The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.
Choosing better carbohydrates
Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html
The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.
Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes
LOW CARB PROGRAM:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/low carb program
Eating what works for you
Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.
To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.
The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:
Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.
You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic
Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Hello and welcome to the forum
Here is the information we give to new members and I hope you will find it useful. Ask as many questions as you want and someone will be able to help.BASIC INFORMATION FOR NEWLY DIAGNOSED DIABETICS
Diabetes is the general term to describe people who have blood that is sweeter than normal. A number of different types of diabetes exist.
A diagnosis of diabetes tends to be a big shock for most of us. It’s far from the end of the world though and on this forum you’ll find over 150,000 people who are demonstrating this.
On the forum we have found that with the number of new people being diagnosed with diabetes each day, sometimes the NHS is not being able to give all the advice it would perhaps like to deliver - particularly with regards to people with type 2 diabetes.
The role of carbohydrate
Carbohydrates are a factor in diabetes because they ultimately break down into sugar (glucose) within our blood. We then need enough insulin to either convert the blood sugar into energy for our body, or to store the blood sugar as body fat.
If the amount of carbohydrate we take in is more than our body’s own (or injected) insulin can cope with, then our blood sugar will rise.
The bad news
Research indicates that raised blood sugar levels over a period of years can lead to organ damage, commonly referred to as diabetic complications.
The good news
People on the forum here have shown that there is plenty of opportunity to keep blood sugar levels from going too high. It’s a daily task but it’s within our reach and it’s well worth the effort.
Controlling your carbs
The info below is primarily aimed at people with type 2 diabetes, however, it may also be of benefit for other types of diabetes as well.
There are two approaches to controlling your carbs:
- Reduce your carbohydrate intake
- Choose ‘better’ carbohydrates
Reduce your carbohydrates
A large number of people on this forum have chosen to reduce the amount of carbohydrates they eat as they have found this to be an effective way of improving (lowering) their blood sugar levels.
The carbohydrates which tend to have the most pronounced effect on blood sugar levels tend to be starchy carbohydrates such as rice, pasta, bread, potatoes and similar root vegetables, flour based products (pastry, cakes, biscuits, battered food etc) and certain fruits.
Choosing better carbohydrates
Another option is to replace ‘white carbohydrates’ (such as white bread, white rice, white flour etc) with whole grain varieties. The idea behind having whole grain varieties is that the carbohydrates get broken down slower than the white varieties –and these are said to have a lower glycaemic index.
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/food/diabetes-and-whole-grains.html
The low glycaemic index diet is often favoured by healthcare professionals but some people with diabetes find that low GI does not help their blood sugar enough and may wish to cut out these foods altogether.
Read more on carbohydrates and diabetes
LOW CARB PROGRAM:
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/low carb program
Eating what works for you
Different people respond differently to different types of food. What works for one person may not work so well for another. The best way to see which foods are working for you is to test your blood sugar with a glucose meter.
To be able to see what effect a particular type of food or meal has on your blood sugar is to do a test before the meal and then test after the meal. A test 2 hours after the meal gives a good idea of how your body has reacted to the meal.
The blood sugar ranges recommended by NICE are as follows:
Blood glucose ranges for type 2 diabetes
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 8.5 mmol/l
- Before meals: 4 to 7 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 9 mmol/l
- Before meals: 4 to 8 mmol/l
- 2 hours after meals: under 10 mmol/l
Access to blood glucose test strips
The NICE guidelines suggest that people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes should be offered:
- structured education to every person and/or their carer at and around the time of diagnosis, with annual reinforcement and review
- self-monitoring of plasma glucose to a person newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes only as an integral part of his or her self-management education
Therefore both structured education and self-monitoring of blood glucose should be offered to people with type 2 diabetes. Read more on getting access to bloodglucose testing supplies.
You may also be interested to read questions to ask at a diabetic clinic
Note: This post has been edited from Sue/Ken's post to include up to date information.
Hi. Yes, aim for zero added sugar which as others have said is impossible but it's a good target. Yes, sugar is just another carb. Your body doesn't need any added sugar and even not many carbs as it can derive most of the glucose it needs from proteins and fat. Low GI carbs can provide some of the fibre and other nutrients you need.
